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Tasteless typographic puns
Posted by johnbutler in
21 Nov 2011 — 9:57am
21 Nov 2011 — 9:57am
This one takes the cake, I would say.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-21/germany-should-take-wisdom-from...
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21 Nov 2011 — 10:54am
Too subtle.
--
Why did the dyslexic person not get cured?
On the form he wrote that he was "byslexic".
hhp
21 Nov 2011 — 12:12pm
Yes, they do get points for it being subtle. How long did it take you to get it? I would think you’d get it quicker than most.
21 Nov 2011 — 1:12pm
I guess you're talking about the blackletter alluding to
the post-WWI austerity in Germany which led to WWII?
hhp
22 Nov 2011 — 8:02am
22 Nov 2011 — 8:46am
The font has an Anglo quality, rather than Germanic: it is Bitstream's version of London Text.
So I'm afraid the allusion "Blackletter = German" doesn't work for the typographically informed.
I immediately thought that as an anglo style, it represented Keynes, not Weimar, which contradicts the article's content.
Besides, for a graphic designer, "Weimar" suggest Bauhaus, not Völkisch.
A modernized (sans) blackletter (e.g. Tannenberg) would have worked better, but I suspect that would have required a font purchase, and the Bitstream font was on hand, bundled or in a folio.
22 Nov 2011 — 10:29am
There are layers of typographic informedness. From my experience the proportion
of even typographically-aware people who know that the Nazis in fact disowned
blackletter is quite small.
hhp
22 Nov 2011 — 11:12am
I love how much you guys are over thinking this one.
I think John is referring to:
austere |ôˈsti(ə)r|
adjective ( -terer , -terest )
• having an extremely plain and simple style or appearance; unadorned : the cathedral is impressive in its austere simplicity.
not really how one might describe a blackletter.
22 Nov 2011 — 11:26am
…over thinking…
But one wonders, would a typical Bloomberg reader interpret the word "Austerity" set in a fancy Anglo blackletter as connoting "German", or would there be a semantic conflict between the meaning of the text and the type style?
In general, designs that work on multiple levels, from lay to pro, are best.
That isn't over-thinking, but professional due diligence.