Comments on: Gnomedex: No Stinkin’ Badges

By: Vladimir

Vladimir — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mikey D is having an effect once again! I do agree it may have been better for readability to drop the http:// from the urls, and where can I get a badge that says “Party Only”?

By: Don

Don — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

More important what is the url for “Party Only”? They not only left off the http:// bit but the address as well. ;-)

Someday maybe I’ll be cool enough to be invited and well funded enough to go…

By: ManxStef

ManxStef — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Are you sure that’s Univers? The K looks more like Helvetica’s to me. It’s hard to tell — parts are a bit blurry due to the depth of field — but my guess would be Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold. The sloppy kerning of “Party Only” make me think it’s set using Word, too.

God, I’m such a type geek!

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Manx: Good call. It’s really hard for me to tell as well, but now that I look at the K, it curls just a tad more on the bottom which would be consistent with Helvetica Neue. I’m going to change it in the entry unless and until we hear otherwise.

By: Vladimir

Vladimir — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I wish I was a type geek like everyone else seems to be. I can generally only recognize a few basics like Times New Roman, Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet MS and Century Gothic. :(

By: Anton Zuiker

Anton Zuiker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Mike, NYTimes Magazine tomorrow has a feature on highway sign fonts, which I seem to remember being mentioned in one of your previous posts about name badge design.

By: Eric M.

Eric M. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Here is the link to the NY Times article; http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/magazine/12fonts-t.htmlIt has a slide show relating to the history of road sign design and goes into the technique of making fonts readable.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Anton and Eric: Thanks for the pointer to the Clearview article! Great read. My favorite quote –

“It will completely change the look of the American highway, but not so much that anyone will notice.”

By: Geoff Parker

Geoff Parker — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for your positive comments to the badge. Polar Rose was the official badge sponsor and I was responsible for the design. I was inspired by your blog post which Chris passed my way.

The only problem we had – and also our reason for having the badge in portrait format – was the un-availability of the plastic badge holders in a 6x4in landscape format.

In response to other peoples comments: The font is Helvetica Neue Condensed Bold and although the badge was designed in InDesign in the end it had to be output in Word format – so the kerning suffered a bit.