menus, branding, advertisments, etc.

This is a box of tea lights that was found in a closet at home and a bad example of typography.

My first reaction to this was a rather compulsive “Ew,” so I imagine there was something to be analyzed here. These are Christmas-themed tea lights, one indication being the word “Snowman.” Due to this Christmas theme, this informs the rest of the color choices found in the rest of the letterforms and the backgrounds they lay upon.

To start at the top, there doesn’t seem to be any concern for any leading, the four words of “The Sugar Plum Collection” are colliding with each other a bit. While we can say it’s still legible, it does end up being a bit visually distracting. The other thing of note to come back to is the color choice. We have red and green choice of colors in these letterforms resembling Christmas, but “Sugar Plum” is green with a gradient. This gradient creates a visually inconsistent viewing experience but also introduces black and white as colors. Black and white aren’t usually the main colors of Christmas (probably more auxiliary at most), so adding this in combination to green specifically adds a sickly feel to the product. Also since it’s on the words “Sugar Plum,” a combination of green, white, and black on a food item gives the sense that it’s moldy, which doesn’t help convey the message of Christmas or Sugar Plums well either.

The last thing to note is the phrase under “The Sugar Plum Collection.” While the phrase is contrasted, the choice of black letters on a red background is two dominant colors next to each other, which combined with this particular typeface, could end up a harsh reading experience on the eyes.

This magazine was found around the house amongst another array of magazines. Throughout all the magazines it was actually a bit difficult to definitively find something that struck me as bad, however after looking at this for a moment, I realized that it committed a classic readability mistake of splitting and combining two different phrases together. Though I think some credit can be attributed to keeping the two different phrases of “How Should I Vote?” and “The Catholic Dilemma” distinct with different typefaces, sizes, and colors. Anecdotally, I asked my mom how she read this and she read each phrase separately as “How Should I Vote - The Catholic Dilemma,” which would probably be the intended way to read it. However, like any similar example, it’s also just as easy to read it as it is from top to bottom as “How The Should Catholic I Vote? Dilemma.” They attempt to keep the text center aligned in respect to the buildings beside it, which is a good consideration. However, the issue lies in their decision to split the phrases in the first place. If there’s enough space to have them separated, then there should also be enough space to keep them together. They’d be able to save the readability that way. The only reason I can see to have them separated is to add visual interest as alternating the text that way can create a visual rhythm, but I think it’s too risky to be attempting that over readability.