Thursday, September 3, 2009

The Elusive Promise of Appropriate Font Selection

So yesterday, I got this magazine in the mail. Let‘s take a step back—just for a moment—and look at the cover. What’s the name of the cover story?


Yeah. That’s what I thought, too.


I don’t doubt for a moment that this cover was developed by a professional graphics designer—the color composition and muted design tell me that—but seriously, dude (or dudette, as the case may be)… how many fonts do you have on your system? And you couldn’t find a single one that actually managed to convey what the heck it is you’re talking about? (I eventually had to look at the table of contents, to be sure.)


So as a nickel’s worth of free advice, here’s a tip from one magazine designer to another: have someone check your workIf your company can’t afford multiple designers, go to another department. In fact, that’s probably a good idea, anyway. They might (okay, they will) have some pretty ridiculous feedback, but among all that, somebody might possibly mention that it sounds like your cover story deals with… um… yeah.


Good luck with your next cover! :-)

3 comments:

  1. LOL -- Great post, but you left one thing out. We all know what it looks like the cover story is about, but you never told us what you actually discovered it was about in the Table of Contents. C'mon now, don't leave us hanging like that.

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  2. Well, it does win points for attention-getting. ;-)

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  3. “Self-Service B.I.”, which apparently stands for “Business Intelligence”—something the designer could probably use. ;-)

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