Love is in the Air: Oblique? More like Oblike!

Yes, the italic type from yesterday’s post has leaned into today’s.

Can there be any doubt how much I adore me some boxy, oblique typography? (I only wish I could blame the poor kerning of Pylones on the sign-installer.)

Love is in the Air: Hardware

Picking up that industrial flavor from the previous post, today’s affections are focused on the toolbox.

These logos employ simple but effective, great-looking typography. And some of my favorite things are at work here: holding shapes; bold condensed type; and in the case of DAP, a bold use of the obvious. (Too bad they updated this logo, as I find this version, complete with low-grade printing, utterly enchanting.)

Love is in the Air: A Couple of Maps

Seeing as how the weather finally seems to be more Spring-like, I guess I’m feeling the love. I was going through my backlog of images, and just decided I’m going to indulge in a whole mess of Pr*tty this week.

First up are a couple of interesting bits of lettering paired with maps (or, more precisely, silhouettes of geographical locations). The almost naive, but handsome lettering on both, combined with their stuck-on-industrial-equipment-and-showing-some-wear-and-tear character make me swoon.

Sh*tty: Companion Animal Protection Society

I’m not even sure if I need to say anything about this. Do you think the (possibly famous?) blonde lady signed on to be not only a dogface, but a puppy mill dogface? Meanwhile the actual face of the dog is so small on this poster you can barely perceive what it is you’re supposed to be so outraged by... he’s got a bum eye, I guess.

But here is where this design really accelerates to warp-speed sh*ttiness: as a passenger on mass transit, you too can be the face of a puppy mill dog!

Thanks for the chuckle, CAPS. Naturally, I kid. But seriously, this is a great ad...

For me to poop on!

Halvetica

Had this silly idea. Maybe it’s a poster. A t-shirt?

The surface area of each character has been mathematically halved—or as close as I could get—by making one vertical or horizontal slice, while still retaining the characters’ readability.

What do we think?

Brand Newish: Iroquois Manufacturing

Pr*tty

Sometimes when I come across something like this great looking mudflap, I have to research what the company is just to get the proper context. More often than not, I discover that if there’s good design at work in an unexpected place, the larger context demonstrates it’s just an accident.

Still, there’s a refinement in the type and in the arrowhead holding shape that bespeaks a certain level of taste. So I was hoping for the best.

Sh*tty

Alas, sometimes when I look up a company I discover not only is their good design an accident, but that they’ve done themselves the disservice of overriding it with something much worse.

Given that this company manufactures specialized, engineered truck bodies, I can only scratch my head at the decision to trade in their refined logo for this sixth-grader’s hand drawn version. What a shame.

Sugar Rush

One of the more mild consequences of Superstorm Sandy, is that Halloween has been decidedly postponed this year, if not altogether cancelled in some communities. Fortunately, our little town has decided the Trick-or-Treating must go on. So tonight, I’ll either be escorting my little ones from door to door, or answering my own door repeatedly to costumed little people.

Either way, there’s bound to be a lot of surplus candy in the house for the next several weeks. In celebration of that fact, I’m featuring some sugary sweets  from my image backlog that I find quite nice.

First up, Emergency Chocolate, from Bloomsberry & Co. The idea here is simple and clever: lean into the “curative” or “therapeutic” qualities people already attribute to chocolate. Then design it in a tongue-in-cheek way that encourages purchasing if for no other reason than novelty. Consequently, the design stands out really well on the shelf. And, true or not, also happens to look a bit Swiss. I hear the Swiss make some decent chocolate. 

Next we have something I’m still a bit uncertain about: Unreal Candy. Their message and mission is admirable if nothing else, and I say kudos to that. My uncertainty is more to do with their design, primarily that it’s sort of hard to read their name in that jumble of right angles. However, I think it’s amazing they’re doing something so aesthetically different from their peers. It has plenty of shelf-appeal for one thing. For another, it feels fun and fresh and appropriate without having to buy into the existing candy or “natural” products vernaculars. And that tips me from uncertainty to pretty much loving it.

Last up, this ain’t candy. It’s straight up sugar. Saint Louis sugar to be exact. Despite a quite handsome logotype, it’s obvious from their website that their brand design is a mess. Forgetting and forgiving that, these sugar packets are bright and cheerful, they come in an unusual shape, and they address something so few sugar packets do: most of the time they’re just sitting around waiting to be used, so why not make them decorative. To me, each one is an invitation to rip it open and pour it right into my mouth. You’re welcome mouth. (Sorry fat parts.)