Justin Smith Posted June 11, 2011 Author Share Posted June 11, 2011 Classic ! We`ve just come back from a canal boat holiday (very relaxing, not cheap though....) and moored up in Banbury for a night, lovely place. We thought we`d go to the museum. Now when I last looked museums were educational establishments, so imagine my surprise, nay, shock, when the sign above the aforementioned establishment read : banburyMUSEUM Banbury, spelt banbury, museum, spelt MUSEUM, and no gap between two separate words. What`s that all about ? ! ? It really is no wonder that many of the applicants for our job were only semi literate....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VideoPro Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 Classic ! banburyMUSEUM Lowercase bold and narrow caps with no space is a very common device in typographic design. The punctuation is implied by combining different font styles. In this case, the intention is to make a logo that is "recognised" rather than read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxydebs Posted June 11, 2011 Share Posted June 11, 2011 "Are" being used as "our" is far worse imo. Others that really get me are people getting their and there mixed up, recently we recived an e mail at work from a school teacher and he had got their and there mixed up, so what hope is there for his pupils/students. Also people confusing has and as really annoys me too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Smith Posted June 14, 2011 Author Share Posted June 14, 2011 Lowercase bold and narrow caps with no space is a very common device in typographic design. The punctuation is implied by combining different font styles. In this case, the intention is to make a logo that is "recognised" rather than read. Personally I think it`s a s**t way of doing things (lazy "creativity" in my book), but if they must do that why don`t they at least use the (more) grammatically correct version, which would be BANBURYmuseum. Or is that too "normal", and therfore regarded, by those with no creative talent themselves, as being more creative..... Worse, is it designers trying to be "trendy" ? If so, how far is it all going to go (the whole point of this thread in fact) ? By the way, I`m talking generally here, not personally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plekhanov Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 I was in Ponds Forge today and saw a "banner display" for a forthcoming swimming gala, which, to be disarmingly frank, I found shocking, absolutely shocking. Why ? Well, on an "official" publication there wasn`t a single capital letter. Everything was lower case including the word 'derbyshire' (sic). I find the whole thing very sad, not just because any organisation, or person, trying to be trendy or cool looks absolutely pathetic, but also that illiteracy is actually being encouraged. I tell you many of the E mails we get sent via our website are almost impossible to understand. Some have no capital letters, no apostrophes, no commas, and some even miss out most of the full stops ! I actually have to go through the worst of them adding all the missing punctuation just to decipher what the person is asking. Where will it all end ? And surely organisations, and people generally, who do actually know how to write correctly, should do so...... When it comes to graphic design sometimes all caps or all lowercase just looks better. The niceties of grammar like everything else have their place and often that place isn't on a well designed poster/flyer/banner when slavish adherence to all the rules of grammar can really mess up a design. So long as the intended message is easily intelligible I simply don't see why it's a problem to relax the rules of grammar for a medium that's as much visual as textual. As for email it's generally seen as a less formal medium than letters so people sometimes dash them off with little thought. So long as you can 'write proper' when need be what's it matter if you get a bit slap dash when having a quick back and forth via email? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Shark Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 "Are" being used as "our" is far worse imo. OMG! our work place has done this - on a sign advertising "be a good employee" winds me up everytime I see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plekhanov Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 Personally I think it`s a s**t way of doing things (lazy "creativity" in my book), but if they must do that why don`t they at least use the (more) grammatically correct version, which would be BANBURYmuseum. Or is that too "normal", and therfore regarded, by those with no creative talent themselves, as being more creative..... Worse, is it designers trying to be "trendy" ? If so, how far is it all going to go (the whole point of this thread in fact) ? By the way, I`m talking generally here, not personally. Because BANBURYmuseum wouldn't have looked as good. How hard is it to understand that when it comes to things like logos getting them to stand out so people actually notice it is really rather important. One way to do this is by breaking the formalised "trends" of grammar so something looks slightly off, whilst still being intelligible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted June 15, 2011 Share Posted June 15, 2011 BANburymuseum might attract a bit of attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Smith Posted June 17, 2011 Author Share Posted June 17, 2011 On the subject of E Mail being "wrong" case, I was under the impression that acronyms are supposed to be capitals....... I hate E Mail anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Smith Posted August 18, 2011 Author Share Posted August 18, 2011 My wife and I went to Normanby Hall last Sunday, and I have to say we were impressed. I can`t believe there are many people who wouldn`t find something of interest there, from Normanby Hall itself, to the farming museum, to the walled garden, to the miniature railway. However ! I was dismayed to see the sign for the Museum Explorers backbacks. The ending comment was : "i like museums" What`s going on there ? A museum, an educational establishment, encouraging their young patrons (and also, possibly, their not so young patrons) to be illiterate. Actually, it may not be such a stupid move, stay with me on this one, if they encourage more of their patrons to stay on the dole, they`ll have more time to visit their museum ! It`s obvious when you think about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.