7 Funny Examples of Bad Typography
You’d be surprised how many companies are guilty of bad typography. We’ve scoured the web looking for funny examples to share with you. Let us know which one is your favorite. Our personal favorite was #5.
1. Pea in the Pod or Pea in the Poo?
The font choice makes a seemingly innocent word POD read as POO and a maternity clothing store probably would not like to be associated with poo.
What could be done to improve it?
Granted some people are not as immature as I am and may not read it as POO all of us here agree it looks like it says poo. To prevent issues like this we like to put logos/font ideas for brands through what we call “dirty testing” Dirty testing is where we take the idea/logo and ask a bunch of random people what they think.
When you tend to ask people you know there is always some bias that may interfere with their honest opinions. When you ask a bunch of random people you get differentiation in input. If A Pea in the Pod had asked outside of their circle someone with my 12 year old humor could have pointed that out to them.
2. Whore or Where magazine?
The fact that immediately the first word that comes to mind is Whore is not great. I had to look at the subtext to realize the title is actually Where. Also unfortunately with a women as the focus it emphasizes the context whore which I’m sure this lovely model does not apprectiate.
What could be done to improve it?
Overlaying images over magazine titles is a trend and ads interest and depth to the cover, however I’m baffled that not one person in the creative development picked up on that maybe this time it was not such a good idea.
Again getting other peoples’ opinions outside of your inner circle can open your eyes to something you are completely oblivious to. Seeing as this image is plastered all over the web as a bad typography example asking around would have definitely shown that most people will read this as the negative word whore instead of where.
credit; http://www.buzzfeed.com/lukelewis/newspaper-and-magazine-layout-disasters#.nqYzbxxL3
3. Flickering or F&*ckering lights?
KERN DOWN FOR WHAT? Kerning is important, even more so with different fonts. Some create weird spacing or ligatures like the LI in FLICKERING LIGHTS in this example. Which end up creating an offensive word, while it provides us with some laughs as a selling point this is catastrophic. When purchasing products there’s going to be a huge demographic of people that will not buy these because of what it looks like it says rather than what it really says.
What could be done to improve it?
Kerning, it would take 1 second to add that extra little space between the LI and save this company from being feature all over the internet as a bad typography example and probably losing a lot of sales if not have to re-print their entire packaging.
credit: http://inspirationfeed.com/inspiration/typography-inspiration/25-examples-of-kerning-gone-wrong/
Are we seeing a pattern yet? Normal words can easily be read as offensive or inappropriate due to bad fonts or in this cause again kerning.
What could be done to improve it?
Here at BrandBurst we will print off proofs for all the employees to proof read. There are times I may not see something that someone else does. The more eyes and minds proofing something the better chance you have of correcting mistakes.
credit: http://www.buzzfeed.com/alannaokun/keming#.xoAXwaa8z
5. Grapefruit or Rapefruit?
Rapefruit does not sound good for every meal. Again using objects as letters can add interest to type and make things more visual and fun. Just because something is trending or works in one context does not mean it works for every project. And let’s be honest the Grapefruit half is more of a C then a G.
What could be done to improve it?
The concept isn’t awful, the fruit draws your attention but again I do not read it as a G and feels disjointed from the actual text. Some photo manipulation to make the grapefruit actually look like a G would automatically improve it. Then just making sure the following text feels as it is part of the image instead of a separate entity.
credit: http://www.memecenter.com/fun/1174782/thats-my-fruit
6. Suit Yourself or Sh&* Yourself?
Even though she’s a very attractive model I still do not feel inclined to SHIT MYSELF. Bad font choice for the type treatment.
What could be done to improve it?
Again Suit Yourself not the best but not the worst concept just terrible execution. Maybe a different font would not make the U look so much like an H with the reflection or sometimes you need to find a different solution. Also our constant theme of having other people look at stuff to get opinions.
credit: http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6994497/crappy-design-fail-subreddit-picture-gallery
7. Kids Exchange or Kid Sex Change?
Another example of innocence destroyed by bad typography. Kids Exchange, completely harmless, Kid Sex Change not so much.
What could be done to improve it?
Larger Space between the words. Or even better have KIDS stacked above EXCHANGE so no one can even read it as KIDSEXCHANGE.
credit: https://twitter.com/typophile
We are all guilty of having to quickly putting something together and maybe missing things here and there but for clients a simple typo, or bad font, bad kerning all can have negative repercussions on the brand identity, or even sales.
The simplest typography mistakes can create the biggest problems. And now with the internet your company is a bad typo away from being laughed at on a buzzfeed list of bad typography. I’m sure Where magazine is not thrilled with the exposure their getting with WHORE magazine.
Which one was your favorite and why?
izzy806
annaxmalina
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
prguitarman
ellievsbear
romaincrisis
germansingergirl
