Bad Examples Week Three

I found my bad example while looking through my bookshelf at home. My book collection issmall but has a variety of covers and titles. This specific book, Winter Garden, has a cover that is not as appealing as others on the shelf. There are a few reasons as to why this book looks unattractive to me. The author is of course a big part of a book, the author writes the book and wills it into existence. I do not think, however, that it should be a main focal point of a cover. The author’s name is so large that is is the first thing you look at, even before the title, which is quite distracting. Not to mention, the title is in such a thin font and in all small caps, removing a lot of its meaning and importance. The front of the book also includes a small quote towards the bottom left corner. This is a bit off-putting to be, although many books may include quotes of praise or a hook to catch someone’s attention, this quote is so long and takes up so much space of the composition. The title and the quote feel smushed into the bottom left corner and are very crowded because of the way they are spaced and placed. I also feel like the typefaces of this book do not flow very well together. Overall this cover’s typography does not get its point across in an efficient matter and feels very lazy.

The bad example I chose for this week was found in my apartment, specifically my roommate’s bathroom. When I first saw this product I had no idea what it was. I didn’t even realize there was text on the packaging, I just thought it was a piece of design. Under further inspection I realized there was words on the sticker. The size of the typeface is small and at first unrecognizable. Not only is it small, but vertical, and only easily read if your head or the bottle is rotated. The typeface chosen looks as though it could have been handwritten, which is why I believe I mistook it for a design, because the other design on the sticker also look hand-done, in some sort of crayon or flaky material. I do not mind the typeface or its variants along the packaging, but I believe a different typeface, as well as orientation, could have been used. After reading the text I realized the product was a hairspray, designed for creating shiny hair looks. If I had seen this bottle lined up on a shelf along with other hairsprays, I would not have easily known its purpose or benefits. Overall this typography was designed and executed very poorly, there is not a clear understanding of what the product is.