When respondents were shown packaging for a fictional pharmaceutical product, Bahaus 93, a geometric sans-serif typeface that’s some 30 years old, tested better when it came to perceptions of product safety than the control font, Arial bold. And the increase in safety perceptions that came from using Art Deco typefaces in an ad for a fictional cosmetic brand compared to a control font was significant.

In a six-step decision tree for marketers, the authors laid out their process for figuring out whether a brand should use vintage typography in their marketing. Situations when it isn’t recommended include when a brand’s year of establishment is part of its marketing (when testing packaging for a fictional laundry detergent, the study found the effect of vintage typography was only significant when no information about the year was also included compared with packaging that said the brand was established in either 1920 or 2020). Vintage type also isn’t recommended in the futuristic product category after researchers tested examples of ads for fictional self-driving and non-self-driving cars.

“Incorporating vintage design elements in products and marketing efforts can help mitigate consumer concerns about safety issues such as malfunctions, privacy breaches, recalls, contamination, harmful ingredients, defects, and durability, ultimately improving perceptions of product safety,” authors wrote. But, they add, this visual trick isn’t magic—safe-looking typography won’t make an unsafe product actually safe.