August 6, 2008
The award for most boring cover design on a fiction title goes to… America, America: A Novel by Ethan Canin. Snoozefest.
The cliche art, the clunky transparent white area behind the title, the uninspired choice of De Vinne for the type, the flat black and white text colors, the blah placement of the text. This looks like a completely uninteresting book.
Surprisingly, though, that doesn’t seem to be the case. The reviews I’ve seen about this book are all raves. There are no less than 29 enthusiastic blurbs on the Amazon page. And my local Barnes & Noble hung a giant version of the cover in its front windows (which is why I noticed it in the first place).
Usually a book by an acclaimed author that gets the full PR push from the publisher tries a little harder in the cover department. I wonder what went on here?
March 24, 2008
Um, dude in the middle? What are you looking at?
From the truly wonderful istockphoto collection. I use istockphoto all the time. I just don’t use this picture.
March 17, 2008
I was checking my blog stats the other day, and I noticed that I get a lot of hits on the category Avert Your Eyes! Knowing that you’re interested, I’ve been on the lookout for bad designs to post. Well, look no further.
Subject matter aside, the typography on this poster is horrific. Bodoni (Friday March 21st) is a very traditional serif face and it does not match with that modern sans-serif (Kevin Federline’s set in Helvetica Neue Extended Light?) And that apostrophe in Federline’s? That’s a foot mark, damn it. Apostrophes are curly or slanted, a foot mark is straight up and down. For shame!
Moving down the page, ack, ack, ack. The odd blackletter-ish “BIG 30″ is trying to be street and failing (perhaps an ironic wink from the designer? Somehow I doubt it.) It also evokes a horror movie vibe. At least I’m horrified. It’s completely mismatched with the type above and below. And where did that grunge script (”Birthday Bash”) come from? Does that say “fun party” or “desperate to be hip”?
When you use a company logo, you have to use their fonts, so I can’t argue with the introduction of four more typefaces in Pure, Caesar’s Palace, and Company. Sadly, I can hardly see those logos since my eyes are burning from the rest of the poser (typo, but I’m keeping it). Make it stop!
November 27, 2007
Huge poster size ad seen in a nearby mall. The headline reads “Closer than you think.”
What’s closer? Infirmity in a hospital bed? Old age? The cold hand of death?
Read on to discover that there are career opportunities in Springfield, a nearby city.
Oh.
Do you think they were being deliberately misleading, matching the ambiguous headline with that picture? Or is it just bad design and copyrighting?
October 30, 2007
I’m now in my PCB phase (post computer breakdown. For anyone who’s wondering, it was a total loss. Insert heartbroken sigh here.) This means that I’m getting all new software (silver lining), including Adobe Creative Suite 3. In the process of installing my new toys, I saw a folder in my Illustrator folder called “Cool Extras”. Could you resist? Inside were “Sample Files” and “Templates” and inside Templates were “Basic” and “Inspiration”. I’m always open for a little inspiration. I double clicked on Poster.ait in the “Band” folder, waiting for design inspiration to strike.
You’re joking, Adobe. Right?
Design-wise, I’m not blown away, but why did they stretch the type??? “Andre Molobore Sectet” is Myriad at 53% of actual width. Are they freaking kidding? I did a whole blog entry about this (The 5 Deadly Design Sins: Sin #1). Hey, Adobe, DON’T STRETCH YOUR TYPE. It looks terrible.
Perhaps someone at Adobe needs to read my blog…
