Hindsight is 20/20 and Typeface So Good You Can Taste It

Signage/clock face in Portland's Pearl District.

At first glance, it's a cool clock. An interesting signage piece that is integral to its function. Good design move, one might be inclined to think to oneself or speak aloud to uninterested passersby. Then, the double take: What.....does....that.....sign.......say..........???

UR BLUE HO

Wtf? I mean, clearly, it's for a restaurant called Blue Hour, once you peer at the street level signage. But, circular text is tricky. Where to start/end? Will it work? Will people get it? That all depends. Though we read clocks from the Twelve position back around, we don't read text from top back around. We read text left to right. In the U.S., that is. The main problem here is they are trying to do too many things. Not only is the sign illegible, the hands can barely be seen behind the milky panel, making the time unreadable as well! Maybe making the two words different colors would have helped. But let's not get into that. In short, this is poor execution on the part of the Blue Ho! That is your name as far as I'm concerned. But according to them, I DA HO. So, there it is. They're insulting potential restaurant patrons. Good one.

Signage for Saint Cupcake from the inside.

Cupcakes are all the rage these days.  But with something that has such strong ties to nostalgia and cutesiness, there is great danger in the design of such a shop to induce vomiting with their graphic choices. (Perhaps cupcake typeface is worthy of a dedicated post! Stay tuned.) But not so here! We're just going to have to say it:  Fontomonopoeia!  The Saint did it right. Good work. God would be proud.

Until Next Time,

Font Police