What’s the font of all knowledge?
Easy, Hoefler Text – that’s what Wikipedia is written in.
Well, technically that’s the typeface of all knowledge, but that rather kills the joke.
I was recently doing a boring-but-necessary home-admin task and the film Alien came on. In the title sequence, the camera pans across the stars, a lovely space scene, over which the title ‘Alien’ slowly reveals. For the whole 2 minute intro I was captivated, and spotted by my wife – “Would you stop enjoying the font and get on with it!”
As you can tell, I’m a typography nerd. I have more books on typography than most people do on hot dinners; or whatever it is that normal people read about. It wasn’t the beautiful starry visuals that caught my attention; it was the building text.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub3RHzWY2c8&w=560&h=315]
It’s not just simple aesthetics that makes type so intriguing – it’s the fact that a good piece of design can be made or broken by an appropriate choice of typeface. Typography and its layout can alter the impact of a piece, change the meaning, the subtext and whether it’s taken seriously or not. Importantly it can also have a huge effect on the clarity and the reader’s understanding of the piece.
A recent example of this is one of the biggest twist endings in Hollywood – the 2017 Oscars. I’m sure you’ll have heard that the film La La Land was erroneously awarded Best Picture, only to have it taken away on stage and given to the rightful winner, Moonlight. Here’s the moment, if your toes can stand that much curling:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KeOxeuiZjs&w=560&h=315]
It has been widely covered that the PwC representative backstage was to blame for the monumental muck up. PwC have even issued an apology for the incident.
But, as far as I’ve seen, we’ve not heard from the designer who put the envelope together.
Here’s the deal; this is what the two cards that were mixed up look like:
Just from a layout perspective, why is the logo so prominent? One would hope they knew they were at The Oscars; meaning the huge, central logo at the top is redundant.
Most importantly, on the typographical side, you can see why Warren Beatty didn’t notice the mix up. The category of the award is whispering quietly in tiny, italicised font hidden away at the bottom. It’s also in title-case whereas the rest of the envelope is yelling at the reader in uppercase.
There are only 2 pieces of information and they chose the wrong one!
Sure, the winner has to be large and legible; the readers (the distinguished actors presenting the awards)… how to phrase this?… are ‘in the demographic for whom larger type might be helpful’. Plastic surgery doesn’t help the eyesight, darling. This is even more reason for the category not to be hidden away.
The PwC representative, who admittedly only had one sentence to read, can be exonerated from a certain amount of blame. The newly designed envelopes dropped the traditional gold with a clear white box for the category in favour of gold type on a red background. A pleasant aesthetic, but it’s a big drop on the legibility scale.
But it was still only one sentence.
This just goes to show the power that design and typography can have, particularly in a pressurised situation. It’s essential that when conveying messages, we give consideration to how the messages look and are laid out, as they could land us in hot water. Or worse, be ignored.
Oh and Just:: in case the Academy is reading – here’s how I would have suggested the card looked. You’re welcome – I’ll accept a ticket to 2018’s ceremony, and one of those goodie-bags
Check back soon for another typography blog.