Friday, November 25, 2011

Material text

Loving this notice in our local fabric shop, rich in narrative force.

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Really?


Come to think of it, what is the right word? 'Turn' doesn't quite do it for me...

Green and black




Hey, Shell, what are you thinking of? Green is the colour code for petrol, black for diesel. So it's not surprising that I nearly put diesel into my car instead of petrol.

It doesn't help that the green brand name is positive (dark on light) and the qualifying word 'diesel' is negative. It's hard to see both at once, as this older blog post demonstrates.

Compare and contrast

No prizes for guessing which of these notices is from Pizza Hut, which from an engineering company, and which from a university. Branded language is real!

'These toilets should be spotless (we check them all the time). If they're not, just let us know and we'll sort it.'

'All bathroom incidents should be reported to Facilities Management.'

'Would you kindly refrain from putting chewing gum in the urinals.'

    Monday, November 07, 2011

    Novelties, eh?

    Forgeries are now sold as 'novelties' it seems. You can get a utility bill, driving licence, student card, or degree certificate tricked up with your name and address, and off you go. Of course they could be so bad, or obvious, that no one'll be fooled... but who'd pay £40 for that?



    But would the designers of the newest BT bill please let them have up to date artwork with the right font: using the old one with a new date might just raise suspicions.




























    Are Western Union really sponsoring this?

    I should add that this company do have commendably clear terms and conditions, that disclaim anything but 'novelty' uses. I do like their final statement and wish every firm did the same: "Custom-cards.me.uk have kept the T&C's simple and straight forward. This way we hope that everybody will understand them and abide by them."

    Wednesday, November 02, 2011

    Vs and Us

    I don't know about you, but I read this bus shelter poster as 'Help glue a child'. Note to font designers: please make your Vs v-shaped.

    That apart, it's an interesting use of type size and underlining to score our reading aloud.