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Sports ???ustrated Wtf?
Posted by dezcom in
2 Mar 2006 — 3:20pm
2 Mar 2006 — 3:20pm
Check out the Sports Illustrated masthead here. The cap "I" is bigger than the 2 lower case "l"s next to it and the spacing between the 3 letters is less than the counter space of any of the others. Can you read the "Ill" in Illustrated or is it just a dream I am having that this sucks:
ChrisL
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2 Mar 2006 — 3:29pm
Yeah a tough call. I'd say you should slowly put the magazine down and walk away. :^D
2 Mar 2006 — 3:34pm
…probably designed by a jock.
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nc
2 Mar 2006 — 3:37pm
The spacing is consistent with elsewhere.
Works for me.
2 Mar 2006 — 3:39pm
I'm such a smart-aleck.
I think it does work. It is an unfortunate run of lettershapes and I assume they did the best with it that they could. I can read it as well.
2 Mar 2006 — 3:43pm
I'd not noticed that before and now thanks to you I'll never be able to look at the magazine the same way again! Fortunately I don't subscribe.
2 Mar 2006 — 4:31pm
Nice mustache.
2 Mar 2006 — 5:15pm
Since they're sticking two basketball players in front of 50% of the magazine name, I think it is fair to say thay they consider the brand recognition to be sufficient enough not to worry about the actual readability of the name.
2 Mar 2006 — 5:38pm
I know brand recognition is not the issue. It just strikes me that the first 3 letters look foreign to the rest. The "Ill" looks like the "M" in M&Ms. They could have just lower-cased the i.
ChrisL
PS: Si, you don't subscribe but do you buy the swimsuit issue :-)
2 Mar 2006 — 8:25pm
> PS: Si, you don’t subscribe but do you buy the swimsuit issue :-)
You know I was going to mention that ;-) Seriously if the people on the cover were 'more interesting', you might not be as inclined to notice the logo ;-)
2 Mar 2006 — 9:30pm
What about the lack of overshoot for the rounds? That bothers me at least as much.
Oops, must get back to work.
T
3 Mar 2006 — 5:37am
"Seriously if the people on the cover were ‘more interesting’, you might not be as inclined to notice the logo ;-)"
Got to agree with you on that one Si.
Thomas,
BACK TO WORK! :-)
ChrisL
3 Mar 2006 — 6:28am
What goes on behind their heads, the r's look different; does t ever have a lefthand bar; what does the st spacing look like; what is mustrated? Too many questions.
Tim
3 Mar 2006 — 7:03am
Is there an "ra" ligature in Illustrated?
Richard
3 Mar 2006 — 9:16am
Chris, Si, this one's 4U :-)
3 Mar 2006 — 10:38am
Now that photo has balls! :-)
1955--Hmmm, I was in Junior High then!
ChrisL
3 Mar 2006 — 10:52am
Might there be something to be said for illegibility in this context? Might the publishers be fine with it if, as you're scanning covers at a magazine stand, your eyes have to go back and linger on this one to figure out what it says?
3 Mar 2006 — 11:02am
I don't know when it started, but the tall-I treatment has been part of the SI logo for a long time. On the Wikipedia there is this cover from 1970:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1970_SI_cover_Texas_Slaughters_Arkans...
3 Mar 2006 — 11:07am
Here's one from 1961:
http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg
3 Mar 2006 — 11:51am
So it has been Sports Mustrated for all that long huh?
The buster with the new one is the outline combined with a 3D shadow edge all crammed into that narrow counter or sidebearing space. There is a lot of stuff going on in a few microns of space there. The older ones did not have either 3D or outline (plus, they had more letterspacing).
ChrisL
3 Mar 2006 — 12:12pm
Eh, I think it's all just to give it that aggressive, energetic, in-your-face, sports attitude. At least they restrained themselves from slanting it.
3 Mar 2006 — 12:33pm
I also think the tall I is just fine, and reads more like an I than the usual short sans I, which with a straight-legged l gets into trouble on the abbreviation for Illinois, Ill. Always looks like III.
3 Mar 2006 — 3:28pm
About magazine covers:
Lynne Staley Assistant Managing Editor/ Design Newsweek & Hillary Raskin Deputy Photo Editor Time:
http://poynteronline.org/content/content_view.asp?id=15422&sid=29
3 Mar 2006 — 8:10pm
Si,
Is this better?
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 12:13am
Right Chris, that shows the one-sided crossbar on "t" and the r-a ligature.
4 Mar 2006 — 1:22am
Yes, shows the spacing much better.
4 Mar 2006 — 3:14am
That sample seems to show more than just letters being legated… ;-)
4 Mar 2006 — 3:16am
Chris, is the "t" shown above (with no bar extending to the left) the inspiration behind similar t's in some of your fonts? How old is that image you posted, maybe its been effecting your work for some time…
4 Mar 2006 — 9:01am
Dan,
My son just started getting SI in January and the only "tease" I noticed before your mention here was the 8 young ladies below the masthead :-)
Nick,
Yes, this version of the logo is definitely more revealing of the forms. It is not overdressed for the occasion.
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 9:04am
"I’d say you should slowly put the magazine down and walk away."
Tiff,
I would say that now is a more appropriate time for your comment than before :-)
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 10:03am
"Yes, this version of the logo is definitely more revealing of the forms. It is not overdressed for the occasion."
Nice Chris.
Being from Illinois, Ill is always a legibility issue and we see it everywhere.
-Rob
4 Mar 2006 — 10:56am
I know this isn't about Sports ???ustrated, but I've also noticed this with Illustrator's name even though the cap height of the eye is lower than the ascender of the el. I think that this is just a common problem with sans serif 'ill' combinations.
4 Mar 2006 — 12:31pm
"I think that this is just a common problem with sans serif ‘ill’ combinations."
Which is one of the reasons I try to differentiate the "I [eye]" from the "l [el]" in the sans fonts I design.
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 4:25pm
Below are 2 hastlly drawn 72dpi possibilities at ending my Monk OCD fixation with the ill:
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 6:46pm
Chris,
You're working too hard :) John nailed the whole issue.
4 Mar 2006 — 8:20pm
David,
Maybe it just that I hadn't looked at Sports Illustrated in many years and never noticed the rebranding. Your 3rd example from December 2001 works the best for me because it is not overdressed with the outline plus 3D effect--therefore the interletter spaces make much more sense.
The whole thing to me was like waking up with a piece of food stuck in your teeth. You know that if you don't get up and floss it out that you will never get back to sleep :-)
ChrisL
4 Mar 2006 — 8:30pm
>Si,
>Is this better?
Can someone remind me what this thread was about? ;-)
5 Mar 2006 — 4:19am
Does a logo have to be legible to perform its task and at what point in its life does a wordmark become an illustration as recognisable as something like Mickey Mouse's sihouette despite being partly obscured. Or was it about kerning blondes?
Tim
5 Mar 2006 — 9:49am
For me it was about--a piece of a wordmark that seemed to separate itself from the rest of it enough to call attention to itself as a singularity and detract from the unity of the mark. The Mickey Mouse shadow is totally consistent with itself and no part of it becomes a squeaky wheel. (That and I kinda liked the 2 brunettes better :-D)
ChrisL
6 Mar 2006 — 12:59pm
Hello.
Does anyone close the space between two of the same (l's), like in illustrate or illinois to keep the (i's) seperate? Unconventional I know, but shouldn't it be done? Though only at text sizes.
6 Mar 2006 — 2:09pm
Sports Liistrated
6 Mar 2006 — 2:10pm
Sports lIIustrated