Bad Typography
written April 18th, 2009 · 0 comments
I don’t know about you, but I go crazy when I see bad typography, especially in established magazines and ones that I greatly admire! Most of the mistakes I see are so obvious to me and seem so careless, that it is just plain aggravating! How could a good designer miss some of these mistakes? (At least I assume there are educated or knowledgeable designers working at such magazines — but I could be wrong.) I don’t think these mistakes are done on purpose as a deliberate design choice either. When the leading is so tight that the text becomes a blob of letters that no one wants to read or it looks messy, it doesn’t look creative or trendy, it looks amateurish!
I was taught that when you want to push the boundaries of traditional design (such as using unconventional leading or other forms of spacing) you have to do it so that it looks deliberate, not like it is a mistake. And this is what I feel I find quite often . . . mistakes, or poor design judgment (I can’t say, I don’t know the designers). I do not want to insult any of the magazines that I have scanned for this entry, because many exhibit incredible design sometimes or have since changed their design(er). I am just pointing out what bugs me as a designer when I read magazines and how easily these mistakes can be avoided to look 100 times more professional!
Take a look… read more…
Posted in Graphic Design, Typography
