menus, branding, advertisments, etc.

I found this sticker on a chest that my brother had. It’s a little ripped unfortunately, but a large majority of the typography is there to make it out.

For one, it definitely has a lot of creative liberties being taken. The words “Lance Mountain” can be made out which with how the typeface is designed, it fits the theme. Irregular strokes and shapes with a spotted aesthetic imitates the look of mountains and rocks, which for branding this would probably work out well, but the legibility of this typography suffers as a result. There’s almost no regard for tracking or letter spacing, the letters are touching and colliding and the choice was even made to have some letters “fuse” into one another as seen with the L and A of Lance.

This would be very difficult to read at a glance but more likely recognizable, so it can be said this typography is going more for recognition than legibility but it would be bad typography nonetheless.

Another thing to note is that this product of a sticker hasn’t fully considered where this might be placed. Under Lance Mountain, there’s a line of black text that indicates the brand’s copyright, but because the sticker is clear and the text is black, if placed on a black object like this one, it becomes very difficult to read. A yellow outline most likely wouldn’t look good for this part, so the next best thing to make it more readable would have the sticker be opaque with some color and not clear.

This sign was also found at the same local bar place and it would be a good example.

The main thing that stood out to me was how the text is positioned and oriented. They both follow a baseline that goes in a semicircle and despite it not being horizontally aligned, it can read fine from left to right as if it was horizontal. I think a lot of it can also be contributed to where the words start. Both phrases of White Claw and Hard Seltzer start halfway on the left side of the circle and end on the right side, so that they can both be read from left to right instead of having Hard Seltzer abide by the circular conventions and end up reading upside down from right to left.

Other things to note is that this is both legible and readable. Since not much information or thought is being conveyed aside from a brand, or rather all the information is conveyed concisely, there’s a bit more work put into how the typography looks visually. Despite there being a bright background, there’s a white outline/stroke being used surrounding another gray outline to give a sense of depth and bulk, making the text stand out more and perhaps more emphasized than if it was plain black.