“Just look, every title is as big and bold as possible and almost fills the screen to attract attention. In fact, titles from the ’30s are perfectly readable on an iPhone today,”. . . . But compare that to the minuscule type for the Batman movie The Dark Knight, which is barely legible on the small screen. Maybe it’s time to bring back the old style for the new media.
The New York Times Style Magazine
No tags for this post.In a sign that no matter is too small to affect international diplomacy, the US State Department has issued an edict banning its longtime standard typeface from all official correspondence and replacing it with a “more modern” font.
In an internal memorandum distributed on Wednesday, the department declared “Courier New 12″ — the font and size decreed for US diplomatic documents for years — to be obsolete and unacceptable after February 1 [2004].
“In response to many requests and with a view to making our written work easier to read, we are moving to a new standard font: ‘Times New Roman 14′,” said the memorandum.
There are only three exceptions to the draconian new typographical rules: telegrams, treaty materials prepared by the State Department’s legal affairs office and documents drawn up for the president’s signature, it said.
The memorandum offered no explanation for the exceptions, leaving foreign service officers to speculate as to whether the White House, US treaty partners and telegram readers are not yet able to handle the change.
― AFP via Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Tags: News
SBC closed its acquisition of AT&T today, and introduced a new logo for the “new” AT&T.
Welcome to the realm where words no longer carry any meaning as the following re-design rationale proves:
“The revitalized mark symbolizes these attributes — innovation, integrity, quality, reliability and unsurpassed customer care,” Whitacre [chairman and CEO of AT&T] added. “Our customers know that we’re focused on keeping our promises, committed to operating honestly, and dedicated to bringing them new products that make a difference in their lives.”
The new logo reinvigorates the AT&T globe — one of the most recognized corporate symbols in the world. The new globe is three-dimensional, representing the expanding breadth and depth of services that the new AT&T family of companies provides to customers, as well as its global presence.
Transparency was added to the globe to represent clarity and vision. Lowercase type is now used for the “AT&T” characters because it projects a more welcoming and accessible image. The core of the new logo remains blue because both the SBC and AT&T brands are strongly associated with that color. The overall design more accurately represents the company that is leading the industry in delivering best-in-class services to consumers and business professionals.
For comparison, Saul Bass‘ classic 1983 logo — shown below in its 1998 “revitalized” form — is a paragon of good design judgement compared to the “reinvigorated” laundry detergent dispenser ball of a logo of today! And the typography — what font is that anyway, Tahoma?
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Myanmar has gone a bit too far: it is using a one-to-one copy of the Foreign Affairs magazine’s logotype.
