There's no such thing as a Republican font

"Last week, two fonts became the unlikely stars of a political messaging firestorm, after the Trump administration replaced Calibri as its official diplomatic font in favor of Times New Roman, claiming that an initial shift to Calibri in 2023 was part of former President Biden's "DEIA" agenda. The implication was clear: Calibri was framed as a liberal, Democratic font; while Times New Roman took its place as the Trump administration's more conservative choice."

"The study, titled "You're Just Not My Type: How Attitudes Towards Fonts Explain Affective Polarization," examines how affective polarization-or the tendency to associate positive feelings with one's political ingroup, and negative feelings with outgroups-impacts people's reception of different fonts. The study showed that, across multiple kinds of fonts, respondents were more likely to respond favorably to a font if they were told that it was associated with their own partisan and ideological beliefs."

"As the study's conclusion explains, "People will 'like' or 'dislike' the typeface in a political logo based on their political views of the candidate it represents." According to the researchers behind the study, Katherine Haenschen, Shannon Zenner, and Jessica R. Collier, this finding demonstrates that campaign designers shouldn't feel constrained to only using certain kinds of fonts in their work-because, at the end of the day, constituents vote for candidates, not fonts."

People are more likely to prefer a font when told it aligns with their partisan or ideological group. Partisan labeling causes ingroup favoritism across serif, sans-serif, and other type styles, meaning fonts are perceived through political lenses rather than possessing intrinsic partisan qualities. Historical perceptions associate serifs with tradition and conservatism and sans-serifs with modernity, but emotional attachment to partisan cues produces inconsistent analytical judgments about typefaces. Designers need not limit font choices by presumed ideological associations, because voters respond to candidates and partisan cues more than typographic style.

Read at Fast Company