Monday, March 17, 2008

Good Band...terrible type

This band is one of my favorites(The Mars Volta), and yet I can't stand to look at their fliers/album covers because of the type. Before I took type classes I thought it was cool, but now I see it needs to open up line spacing and the decorative little pieces on the top and bottom of the letters make them seem like totally different words. Sometimes for fun, I like to call them "The Mars Voila" or "The Mars Viola" because that "T" always reads like and "I" to me.

6 comments:

Georgia said...

I agree that the letter spacing is really tight. Also, I think that "the mars volta" is really difficult to read. I had to read your explanation before I could get the name. Especially with parts of the letters cut off or broken up.

anits said...

I have to agree as well. I couldn't even tell what the name of the band was until I read your comment. Perhaps the designer should have changed the type face or the color of the type. It's important when selling music, that the bands name is legible... after all.... sales is what counts.

little cody. said...

i agree...that typeface is yuck. it is so illegible and if anything you WANT people to know your name and be able to see it and read it right away. its supposed to grab the consumers attention off the shelf and convince them to give in and buy the album.

I'd Rather Be Baking said...

The typeface is really illegible, and the color does not help it at all. The image is more legible; thus, higher in the hierarchy than the typography. But the band's name really should stand out first and be what the buyer sees.

skidmark said...

Ew. This flier would definitely turn me off because a poster or flier is suppose to be easily understood and got but because the letters are all pushed together it is very illegible.

Bethany said...

Legibility just does not seem to be much of a factor for them. Really the problem is that there is this competing between the busy-ness of the picture and the abstracted text. If one came back it would work a lot better.