Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font • Hacker News Board

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#21

Post by rbanffy » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:22 PM UTC

mootothemax wrote: post #20

rbanffy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you're inevitably going to have an enormous marketing budget If your products are actually good and/or desirable, you may discover that the marketing budget can be reduced and the surplus money be used to develop the next generation good and desirable products.

If your products are actually good and/or desirable... What, so, e.g. Apple don't have large marketing budgets... or that they're wrong to invest in marketing?

Just look how much free publicity Apple gets by having a legion of dedicated fans. Imagine how much money they'd need to get that kind of media/social media coverage if nobody liked their products.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#22

Post by dotcoma » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:28 PM UTC

Now I finally know what they've been doing for the last 4 years...

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#23

Post by marcamillion » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:28 PM UTC

I thought this was a joke at first, but am pleasantly surprised.

I actually checked my calendar, but realized it is still 2 days away.

T minus 2 days for the most ridiculous headlines of the year.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#24

Post by jluxenberg » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:42 PM UTC

LoonyPandora wrote: post #14

Erik Spiekermann isn't very happy about the new typeface. He did the original, and says this one is bland [1]. Though it is, the old face was shockingly dated and needed replacing [2]. Nokia Pure is a nice readable typeface, very appropriate for use on mobile devices, elegant in it's own way - but too bland. They should've saved some money and just said "Frutiger". At least they aren't setting their logo in it. [1] h…

the old face was shockingly dated and needed replacing

How was the older typeface dated, other than being from 2002?

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#25

Post by marckremers » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:44 PM UTC

I can't believe what I'm reading here. That font is awful. The x-height is too short in terms of ratio, the counters are squashed, the stroke width is far too fat. It looks totally clunky on my screen. And that page design?! Show some love Nokia!

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#26

Post by tptacek » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:44 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #16

tptacek wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many companies have house typefaces, and, if you're going to do that, you might as well have the page that says you got Bruno Maag to do it. Really, when you get to the size of a company like Nokia, you're inevitably going to have an enormous marketing budget just for the boring stuff, like printing costs and designing the N+100th version of your N+100th product's N+5th slick. These are marketing dollars that are get…

> you're inevitably going to have an enormous marketing budget If your products are actually good and/or desirable, you may discover that the marketing budget can be reduced and the surplus money be used to develop the next generation good and desirable products.

You missed my point, which is frustrating, because I lawyered up my (simple) point with a whole lot of extra words exactly to avoid this unproductive branch of the discussion.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#27

Post by raquo » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:46 PM UTC

They probably spent a lot of resources to develop this font and didn't even bother to move the "Our new typeface" headline a pixel or two to the left so that it looks like it's actually left-aligned with all the other text.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#28

Post by tptacek » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:47 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #15

This is awesome. With this new beautiful, strong font acting as a multiplier of the huge competitive advantage they got by opting for Windows Phone 7, both iPhone and Android are doomed.

Nokia is a global company that does many tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue. Believe it or not, they did not commission a new typeface to impress Reddit and HN. This is not part of their plan to take on iOS and Android. So, I don't understand the point you're making with your comment. Are you suggesting that everything at Nokia come to a complete standstill until they can placate smartphone pundits?

It's just frustrating that, just because we don't "like" Nokia, we can't talk about the actual story; everything has to be a referendum on WP7.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#29

Post by tptacek » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

jluxenberg wrote: post #24

LoonyPandora wrote: post #14

Erik Spiekermann isn't very happy about the new typeface. He did the original, and says this one is bland [1]. Though it is, the old face was shockingly dated and needed replacing [2]. Nokia Pure is a nice readable typeface, very appropriate for use on mobile devices, elegant in it's own way - but too bland. They should've saved some money and just said "Frutiger". At least they aren't setting their logo in it. [1] h…

the old face was shockingly dated and needed replacing How was the older typeface dated, other than being from 2002?

It (the original) has a very Santa Clara circa 1998 Rotis corporate thing going for it.

Re: Nokia Pure: Nokia's New Official Font

#30

Post by devtesla » Tue, Mar 29, 2011, 6:04 PM UTC

rbanffy wrote: post #15

This is awesome. With this new beautiful, strong font acting as a multiplier of the huge competitive advantage they got by opting for Windows Phone 7, both iPhone and Android are doomed.

Oh god, I can't tell if you are being sarcastic. head explode