I think it depends upon the product thanks to the culture today, luxury can be so many things. What is your product?

I agree with Tiffany. I would also say that to create a real luxury brand ( which must by definition be unique in some way) requires vision & innovation. To steal the style of existing luxury brands past or present is as easy as recognizing their formula & using it or using it with a twist. There is of course some room inbetween & no pure state per se. However I think it's best to stick to what Tiffany is talking about - creating a new idea of luxury that is aware of & builds on history instead of wallowing in it.

The thin 'sexy' lines of Neue Helvetica Ultra Light is often used to convey luxury. And generally speaking the whole entire family of Helvetica is a good choice.

Bickham Script is definitely opulent. Optima connotes clean classic chiseled lines.
I see Didot used at Saks all the time (Bodoni too).

ITC Blair, Petras Script, and Mrs. Eves are also really excellent choices.

There are about 5 billion other fonts that can convey a sense of luxury too, the key is the how will you use the fonts.

Appropriate color harmony, granular adherence to the rules of typography, print material, and numerous other factors have play in the success of your project.

What is your application?

Mikey

There's also typography, the careful, artful and stylish USE of a carefully chosen typeface in conjunction with the specific imagery to convey an overall luxurious feeling. Even the most pedestrian typefaces, depending on the context, can be used in this way. You might be surprised to find Avant Garde, Helvetica and Times in use by extremely high-end merchants.

Take a look at some of the current magazines hawking jewelry, perfume, shoes and fashions. Tiffany is right; it could be almost anything. There are a lot of esthetic codes to play off of and it would probably be misleading to suggest specific typefaces unless the other elements are present.

Do you have a product? Does it contribute anything to the mystique and perceived value of the advertisement?

Luxury, the typeface, does exist. It happens to be very exclusive, that's all. If you have to ask the price, well....

;D

Thanks for the very helpful responses.

Before posting I did look a some car brands but there wasn't really any consistency in the type of typography that would be usually associated with luxury.

The product is photography services; something that isn't always considered as a luxury.

As with color combinations; I was thinking any saturated vibrant colors wouldn't convey that feeling. But sticking to a monochromatic scale of colors would probably best.

I'll agree that luxury has to be a brand identity that is built with sucessful marketing positioning and strategy; but in my humble opinion, creating beautiful typography to give that perception is a good foundation with branding every piece of literature with consistant typography and design.

personally if i think about luxury brand logos (normally fashion brands), it's usually an all text logo, black text on white, usuall all caps, usually with loose tracking between the letters and fairly often high contrast serif typefaces (think Bodoni), or thin/light typeface at least.

just look at the logos of these brands: Armani, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Ferragamo, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Versace, Yves St. Laurent, etc. etc.

of course, going that direction isn't exactly new and fresh, but i'd say that's how you emulate the luxury brand look.. and if it's a logo for a single photographer then it might work as the name of the person becomes the brand name, much like it usually is for fashion brands.

Is this the typeface you mentioned?

http://orangeitalic.com/luxury.shtml

If so they should become available from House Industries, soon hopefully.

antiphrasis:
Is this the typeface you mentioned?
http://orangeitalic.com/luxury.shtml
If so they should become available from House Industries, soon hopefully.

I just mentioned that typeface only because it was a thread that i found when i searched. It is a very elegant and beautiful typeface though. Thanks for the news.

Since it is for the photography industry, I was thinking something art deco inspired yet accompanied by a flexible font family that can meet any challenge you could throw at it. Logos, signage, web, and print.

My choice is Neutraface from House Industries. I can totally see this typeface being used to convey luxury for the photography industry.

And then again, my second choice is Neue Helvetica matched with some other gothic/grot.

Is this a high end processing lab, a studio, what??? Who are the clientele? Are they young or old? Where are you located? The point... there are different kinds of luxury. Classic, Sexy, Young/Trendy, Minimal, Rococo etc. Provide more info so I can help you better (if I'm helping at all ;O)

As far as trying to develop new ideas on luxury or some other 'revolutionary' kinda thing... forget all that! If you do look at all (and I do mean all) the top luxury brands. They all follow a similar formula for conveying luxury. Trying to reinvent the wheel is not necessary. The general public expects things to look a certain way in terms of luxury. Cliche- maybe- but it works.

Thin, sparse, sexy are mantras for luxury. And like you said consistent typography is the key.

Hope I'm Helping,

Mikey

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/atdelphian-open/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/nicksfonts/londonderry-air-nf/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/serlio-lh/

http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/positype/kari/

Tim

Mikey:

Those are some sexy choices. It's for a high end studio.

Tim:

Thanks. Atdelphian open seems like the engraved style i'm looking for.
Is there any font that looks like that but isn't all caps?

I'm really liking Nuetraface. It's definately a beautiful font. That and in combination with an engraved font for large headers would go beautifully. I'm looking for something like Zaragoza that shows some personality. I don't know

Hi Chris... Neutraface is sexy yet its not so cold that you might put off some customers. ATdelphnia is a nice one... I have to look at it more closely. As far as Zaragosa- NO!!! I don't like that at all. It looks dated for what your going for. On its own... very nice but what you are going for- survey says "X" :(

FF Acanthus Open is the one you want... classic, clean, and very upscale. Or perhaps Scala Jewel. I'm gonna look into open faced type... I'll get back to you on that.

Look at these web sites: http://www.viceroysantamonica.com/

http://www.straf.it/

Check out the color usage, type and photography.

Chat with you soon,

Mikey

I don't think there is a Delphian clone with lower case (isn't always the way)
You could look at this
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/emigre/matrix-script/inline-script/

or this
http://www.stormtype.com/typefaces-fonts-shop/index.php?id=67

Tim

hmm i really like matrix inline. I'm not sure if it would go well with neutraface

I think trojan pro font is luxury for typo and design.

http://www.dafont.com/font-comment.php?file=optimusprinceps

Hu

NO!

That DaFont comments thread is fun. Some commentators seem to condom the font for being a Trajan clone. In my opinion that makes it close to USCless. ;-)

Oh, boy.

Have you been hanging out with Chris?

:-)

Mikey

@Sii Well, if you condom, cloning remainins the only mean of reproduction… ;-)