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Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
121–130 of 175 posts
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#122Papyrus. I KNOW WHAT YOU DID.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Their stated purpose was to make it more accessible. The reasoned that the neoclassical architecture and old-style font made the space intimidating to people who didn’t hold those things to be part of their culture and that it was out of tune with the increasing diversity of their collection and programs. Can put this under the dictionary definition of insanity. Or someone needed justification to get paid without d…
I want to say it makes complete sense to me. It's well known that museums are seen as unappealing to many demographics and the image of association with elitism and colonialism plays a huge role in that. Changing the style choices of museum communications towards ones which are further dissociated from those issues seems like ab obvious first step towrads increasing the perception of inclusivity. I would ask anyone w…
I don’t question the motivation to be welcoming, but a good motivation doesn’t make a good design.
The result is denuded and unmoored. It’s as soulless here in Boston as it would be if the aesthetic infected cultural institutions in Tokyo or Addis Ababa.
I bet the people in charge meant well, they just did a bad job.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to say it makes complete sense to me. It's well known that museums are seen as unappealing to many demographics and the image of association with elitism and colonialism plays a huge role in that. Changing the style choices of museum communications towards ones which are further dissociated from those issues seems like ab obvious first step towrads increasing the perception of inclusivity. I would ask anyone w…
My background is non white child of poor immigrants to the US from a country that used to be ruled by the UK. I just found it unbelievable that anyone would associate a font with “elitism” and “colonialism”. And my family prioritizes going to museums, even in London, where many of my family live even though that is in the country that oppressed them. I have heard elders complain about the proliferation of the English…
> I can almost guarantee no one has ever thought about the influences of a font.
Maybe not but we know that they do affect people's perceptions whether they're conscious of it or not.
I think it's fantastic that your family was engaged with museums while you were growing up but we also know that there's a demographic divide in engagement across the wider population. In the UK more than half of white families visit museums annually but for black families that's closer to one in three.[0]
> I mean there are actual fish to fry here, starting with legislation, monetary consequences, property rights
100% but those issues are beyond the operational scope of an individual museum trying to improve its engagement.
0: https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/culture-a...
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#125Q: Why do everyone’s logo fonts look the same? A: Because they need to be legible on a mobile device. It’s no coincidence this trend started in the 2010s with the arrival of the smartphone. Brands need a consistent look that work across mediums. With over 50% of e-commerce sales happening on mobile, and the dominance of social media in the marketing of, for example, high fashion, a brand mark must excel in these kind…
It started before then. My school switched from a rather elegant 19th century (I think) design to something more streamlined that I never really liked around 2000. But I don't really disagree in general. I know when my company did a rebrand, one of the drivers was that the old logo had a lot of fine detail. (It also had some aspects that you couldn't unsee once someone mentioned them and it basically got the company's name wrong--which still gets people confused to this day.)
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#126Earlier quoted context omitted.
I want to say it makes complete sense to me. It's well known that museums are seen as unappealing to many demographics and the image of association with elitism and colonialism plays a huge role in that. Changing the style choices of museum communications towards ones which are further dissociated from those issues seems like ab obvious first step towrads increasing the perception of inclusivity. I would ask anyone w…
It is insane because this alienates the demographics that appreciate everything you are denouncing here: European history, art, culture, colonialism, civilizational accomplishment etc. Everything that created the very art housed withing the museums. Even if one is not apart of this heritage, this should be respected as the foundation of the art itself.
> European history, art, culture, colonialism, civilizational accomplishment etc. Everything that created the very art housed withing the museums.
I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic here? Many museums are stuffed with objects taken from around the world, often forecfully. There was such pressure on other cultures to provide objects for Europe that there's even a display in Rotterdam's Wereldmuseum of fascinating objects from the Congo that were made with an intentionally brutal "primitive" aesthetic because that's what the Europeans wanted from them. They even went to the trouble of inventing rotuals associated with these objects.
I guess you could argue that those pieces were somehow created through European colonialism, but even then the designs and implementation were all Congolese.
I think the people who appreciate colonialism are indeed being denounced very intentionally by more and more of the world's cultural insitutions. It's very much intentional.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#127The one that bums me out the most is the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They went from an elegant serif font to a bland sans with a few funky tails. Before: https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/6a356... After: https://creativereview.imgix.net/content/uploads/2022/09/MFA... Their stated purpose was to make it more accessible. The reasoned that the neoclassical architecture and old-style font made the…
That’s just some bunk the agency makes up when selling the pre-made brand kit.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#128The one that bums me out the most is the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They went from an elegant serif font to a bland sans with a few funky tails. Before: https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/disp/6a356... After: https://creativereview.imgix.net/content/uploads/2022/09/MFA... Their stated purpose was to make it more accessible. The reasoned that the neoclassical architecture and old-style font made the…
That’s just some bunk the agency makes up when selling the pre-made brand kit.
That’s for sure a part of the story.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#129They write "Logo fonts are indeed beginning to converge" but I think the minimal sans-serif has been the style for some time. I wonder if you could get ahead of the curve and use fonts like Garamond in the old Apple ads. Maybe that would be considered avantgarde soon?
You could. But the theory is that you'd be communicating that you're old but reliable. The style for decades is also that you use serifs mostly for blocks of body copy and the old text heavy David Ogilvy ads would mostly not fly today.
I'm not sure 20th century typographic practice ever especially favored serifs for display (e.g. headline) use.
Re: Why do everyone's logo fonts look the same? (2020)
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The reasoned that the neoclassical architecture and old-style font made the space intimidating to people who didn’t hold those things to be part of their culture and that it was out of tune with the increasing diversity of their collection and programs. The whole purpose of an actually inclusive "Museum of Fine Arts" should have been the opposite: to make people appreciate, understand, and enjoy things that they do…
>...expand their cultural horizons and lift their tastes. Their tastes prior, being (considered) lower?
Yes. To conceive of a museum of fine arts, you also need to have a culture that has a sense of different relative worths of both artistic styles and art artifacts. What belongs to a museum vs what doesn't, what is fine art vs what is commercial crap or kitch, and so on. One that believes in informed curation - curation being the very core of what a museum does.
Of course this requires an era where the opinion of people devoted to studying, discussing, and creating fine art isn't supposed to be equally respected to that of Joe Sixpack, Jaqueline Middlebrow, Joy Belieber, Arthur Incel, or Random J. Person, where everything is up to personal taste.