Font Choice Or Emotional Damage: Design Choices That Kill Your Site

_{Day 52/100}

Hey - It's Tim.

I'm sitting at my desk at 11:37pm, watching the cursor blink. Thinking about how we judge content before we read a single word.

A handwritten thank-you note hits different than a typed one. My grandma knows this. The luxury brands know this. But most content creators? They're still caught in the trap of "content is king" while design sits in the corner wearing a jester's hat.

But design isn't just decoration. It's credibility currency.

The Secret Credibility Boosters

1/ Hand-drawn illustrations are your credibility superpower

Every Penfriend blog has hand-drawn featured images. No one else has these. Literally no one.

Not stock photos with a filter. Not AI generated. Actual pen on actual paper. I use my tablet, but it’s the same, trust.

Why? Because when someone sees I spent 90 minutes drawing that flowchart instead of 9 seconds grabbing a template, they know I care about the details. And if I care about the details in the visuals, maybe I care about the details in the research too.

It's a trust shortcut. And it works.

Some of my favourite illustrations are in these blogs.

• This one has the most by far. Build your 2025 content strategy

• This one has my favorites. Also a massive flow chart at the bottom I made explaining the whole thing. How to scale your content production.

2/ White space isn't empty space — it's breathing room for your ideas

Open any academic paper. Wall of text. Tiny margins. Visual suffocation.

Now open any Apple webpage. Air. Space. Room to think.

Which feels more modern? More thoughtful? More confident?

Confidence doesn't need to fill every inch. Insecurity does.

Here's what the luxury brands understand: white space doesn't rush you. It tells you "take your time, important person." When Chanel shows you one perfume bottle centered on an otherwise empty page, they're saying "you have the luxury of contemplation."

The most credible content gives your eyes somewhere to rest. Like a well-designed museum where each painting has its own wall, not a garage sale where everything's piled on top of each other.

3/ Consistency builds invisible trust

The New York Times has used the same font since 1851.

Not because it's the world's greatest font. But because when you see it, something in your brain whispers "this is real journalism."

Consistency is the design equivalent of showing up on time. Do it enough, and people start to trust you before you've said a word.

The Credibility Killers

1/ Font pairings that quietly murder your credibility

Everyone knows Comic Sans is professional suicide. That's the obvious mistake.

But the subtle killer? Font pairings that feel "just a bit off."

Like when a website uses a sleek sans-serif for headlines and then some slightly-too-ornate serif for body text. You can't immediately name what's wrong, but your brain keeps whispering: "Something's not right here."

It's the design equivalent of wearing a tuxedo with flip-flops. Each piece might be fine on its own, but together they create cognitive dissonance. And cognitive dissonance kills trust.

Your reader doesn't think "these fonts clash." They think "I'm not confident in this information" and they don't know why.

2/ Cluttered design = cluttered thinking

When your website looks like a digital hoarder's paradise — pop-ups, banners, sidebars, blinking things — people assume your thoughts are equally disorganized.

Clean design signals clear thinking.

It's like walking into someone's home. If there's a clear path to walk and everything has its place, you assume they've got their life together. If you're tripping over stuff just to get to the couch, you wonder what else is a mess.

A fav example here. (I know this is done on purpose)

3/ Tiny, unreadable text = I don't actually want you to read this

Legal disclaimers. Privacy policies. Terms of service. Or Berkshire Hathaway’s website.

Yes. That Berkshire Hathaway.

All in 8pt gray text on a light gray background.

The design is literally saying: "We don't want you to read this. We hope you don't read this. Please just scroll past this."

We're visual creatures first, critical thinkers second.

Design isn't what you say. It's the tone of voice you use to say it.

Say something brilliant in a mumble, and it's lost. Say something obvious with conviction, and people listen.

Your design is your voice. Make sure it's not undermining everything you're trying to say.

Chat tomorrow (in a perfectly respectable font),

✌️ Tim "Comic Sans Has Entered The Chat" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

P.S. If you're still reading, you just proved my point about white space. It kept you going to the end. Design matters.

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