ADVENTURES IN THE DESIGN WORLD™: Indiana Jones and the Typography From Hell
So Gene K. points us to the new teaser poster for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the movie that will almost surely prove to be the Phantom Menace of the last unsoiled LucasFilm franchise, and what do we get? Besides a slightly geriatric-looking, bland-as-oatmeal Indy pose and a big-ass un-be-nose-holed skull, we get what is quite possibly the worst typography in the series' history. Check out the differences in the "Indy font" used for the words "Indiana Jones" between the new poster and the original Temple of Doom poster:
The new typeface has less of an italic slant, the letterforms are clunky as hell (look especially at the "D", "A"s, and "S" in comparison to the Temple version -- it looks like a third grader who overdosed on Children's Nyquil drew them), and the kerning/overlapping choices are cartoony at best, atrocious at worst. I know tight kerning is all the rage ever since everybody got the whole "Illustrator lets me kern this shit out to over 500 now!" out of their system in the mid nineties, but come on, it's not like you've got a narrow column width to deal with -- it's a fricking logo!
Couldn't they just have scanned in the old photostat and traced it?!? Jesus H.
posted by John Eats at 6:04 AM
2 Comments:
"Credit Where Credit's Due" Dep't: I learned about the new poster from Pelzmantel. Thank you for this opportunity to express our bile over poor typography!!!
"I Can Nitpick Too" Dep't: Check the "ON" ligature in the new logo. WTF's up with that tiny bit of negative space? Overlap or separate - pick one.
Also: Coloring the "and the" white (instead of keeping it the same color as the text below it) creates a further cognitive separation between Indy's name and the (sub)title, subtly reinforcing the "IJ" BRAND IDENTITY. Not that the distinctive IJ font doesn't do that already, mind you, but now the "branding" seems more blatant (corporate).
And hey! We've gone from a regl'ar ol' trademark to a registered one!
I love you both for caring so much about typography.....*sniff*
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