How do you select and pair fonts to convey trust and innovation in branding?

[David.H]

I'm a junior graphic designer working on a branding project for a modern financial consultancy, and I'm stuck on the typography. The client wants to appear both trustworthy and innovative, but my initial font pairings feel either too sterile or too trendy. For more experienced designers, how do you approach selecting and pairing typefaces to convey specific brand attributes? What are your go-to resources for discovering high-quality, versatile fonts beyond the usual free sites, and how do you systematically test legibility and hierarchy across different applications like web, print, and presentations? I'm also unsure about how many fonts are too many for a cohesive brand system.