Characters With Charisma: How Text Spells Identity in 2025 Web Design
Text is everywhere, carrying both aesthetic and functional significance. As a versatile medium, it remains a powerful tool for self-expression, shaping how ideas and identities are communicated in design. Graphic and type designer Jazlyn Fung Hei Man knows this sentiment well. The Melbourne and Hong Kong-based designer defined the significance of brand storytelling through typography with the “Just My Type” trend as part of Squarespace’s partnership with It’s Nice That. Squarespace also collaborated with Jazlyn on a website template inspired by Just My Type.
Just My Type in web design
Just My Type celebrates a shift away from the purely functional use of typography. It embraces a more expressive, character-driven approach without totally losing the timelessness of minimalism. Over the years, we’ve seen visitors express nostalgia for bygone internet aesthetics as sleek sans serifs, subdued hues, and hyper-reality and artificial intelligence become the norm. Those aesthetics maintain their appeal, but their starkness has also created a collective yearning for nostalgic elements that feel more tactile and personal, like the expressive styles of 90s design. Just My Type balances the past and future, combining simplicity with sentimentality to create designs that resonate on multiple levels.
The Just My Type template, available in the template store
Implementing Just My Type
Just My Type emphasizes big, bold, decorative, and unique type. By using fonts with exaggerated curves, playful serifs, and ornate flourishes, you can breathe mood, attitude, and personality into your designs. In fact, distinct and unique typography is a major feature of almost all of this year’s emerging aesthetics.
Choose a font
Creating websites that embody Just My Type is a thoughtful (and fun) process. It’s about more than choosing a stylish font—it’s about selecting something that truly reflects and enhances your client’s unique brand identity. Achieving this requires a deep understanding of the brand’s personality and values, ensuring the typography becomes an integral part of the design.
The following are the basic typography principles associated with Just My Type:
It should be minimalist in nature while carrying a unique charm
It should visually stand out on the page
It should provide the website with much-needed personality
It should help cement the client’s visual and brand identity
Refer to our guide on web design typography for more advice on brand alignment, and check out the official Just My Type template for inspiration on storytelling through type.
Play with size and layout
Have fun with your designs, playing with text size and orientation. Place text blocks with large type over images to call attention to specific messages. Consider removing imagery entirely, making type the star of the show. Or lean into the whimsical by shrinking text down to a tastefully minuscule size, while still maintaining legibility. Experiment with styling text—leading, tracking, kerning, and justifying—to give visitors a unique moment-to-moment reading experience.
Animate
Try text fade-ins and outs and animations to draw visitors’ attention. Use the text highlight tool to emphasize specific messages with underlines, waves, or circles. And use scrolling blocks to add moving text that really attracts the eye.
Embracing text that trends
As today’s consumers yearn for more personality in digital experiences, it’s even more important to embrace typography as part of your web design process. Transform typefaces and fonts from simply conveying information into a means of personal expression. Use typography to share a more vivid snapshot of who your clients are and what they do. And have fun with it! Experiment with different styles to create the spark that gets visitors hanging on every word.
Check out additional web design trends for more inspiration:
Which design trend best matches your personality?
Want more?
Check out Squarespace Circle, Squarespace’s program for professional designers. Along with exclusive content, discounts, and other perks, Circle brings professionals together from all across the globe to exchange advice while connecting with new clients and collaborators.
