HOME | DD
wizfrikiman β What You Must NOT DO As A Graphic Designer
by-nc-nd
Published: 2012-10-21 14:10:03 +0000 UTC; Views: 3852; Favourites: 85; Downloads: 32
Redirect to original
Description
Fonts by Cyberella (accidentally credited her as Cyberela, please ignore.)Related content
Comments: 83
You could also call this what to NEVER put on anything. I see kids use this on their papers/projects and I die inside.
π: 0 β©: 1
I understand. I feel the same when I see movies use it (cough-Avatar-cough).
π: 0 β©: 1
My mother thought I was crazy when the first subtitles in Avatar popped up and I started hissing, "Papyrus? Papyrus?! He's got a ridiculously huge budget for this project and the only font he could think to use was Papyrus?!"
~VelkynKarma
π: 0 β©: 1
Trust me, you're not the only one. It was even worse when I watched it here in Greece, with Greek subtitles. I usually love subtitles, but the Na'Vi speech had the Greek equivalent of Papyrus and the human speech were in Helvetica. That's TWO of the most hated fonts in the universe!
π: 0 β©: 1
At least I'm not alone. And yeesh, that sounds like barrels of typographic fun X_x
~VelkynKarma
π: 0 β©: 0
PAPYRUS IS THE PINNACLE OF THE FONT WORLD. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?
π: 0 β©: 1
The first one a lot of book covers use it XD
π: 0 β©: 1
Yeah! Some books even make anaglyph covers based on that effect.
π: 0 β©: 1
I know James Patterson does a lot
π: 0 β©: 0
the first this in red is a whole world classic magazine title ( the color red , the 3D, the drop shadow) pure clishΓ© at its finest
π: 0 β©: 1
Exactly. Magazines love bevels for some reason.
π: 0 β©: 0
I'm a graphic designer as well, & while the majority of these are correct; especially outlining a font or using drop shadow on it, I have some opinions on a few other things such as Papyrus or Comic Sans & the lighting in the 3rd "this" are fairly dependent upon application & intensity of the lighting. For instance, if there is an invitation someone would like to look Egyptian, Papyrus is a good font to use for that since that's what the old world wrote their records on & it helps to lend it that certain nostalgic feel without actually using papyrus paper. As for Comic Sans, its funny how people try to blame the bad use of that font on the font itself claiming its a bad font (not that that's what you're doing here, I just see that a lot) because that fonts origin is specific to comic books (although there is no one comic book font, there's hundreds, just look at Richard Starkings & his company Comicraft) & comic book use only because the letters inside a comic book can't be boring, which Comic Sans isn't otherwise it'd look like newsprint. So anyone attempting to use it outside of that, I agree, you'd either have to be a genius to get it to work or a fool for attempting to work it outside comics, likely the latter. As for the lens flare, well of course you don't want the viewer to feel like they must squint while looking at your design, but that is an extreme case that you show here (which is great because you're completely correct on it) but this technique can be used on a less intensive scale; for instance the Heroes television series season 1 [link] which is a successful use of implying lens flare without actually blinding the viewer. Sorry if it seems like I'm trolling, but I just wanted to help educate the people you're trying to help out as well & thought to offer the possible variations of font application. I was taught by a successful instructor that sometimes pushing the font beyond what is accepted is the only way to stretch the boundaries, then you can reel it back a little until its application is more practical. But again, almost everything you use here is true & for the most part I agree ^__^
π: 0 β©: 2
Thanks for the critique.
Papyrus can be useful in very specific occasions, but using it in every design you have is just absurd. And I see it happen a lot. As with Comic Sans, you can read the discussion I've had with other users in the comments below. It is a badly-made font. Not just as a comic font, but as a font overall. Using it would be extremely un-professional. There are tons of alternatives, some even free. Check out Blambot, they have so many good fonts that you will never use Comic Sans, ever again.
Now, lens flares. To be honest, I never really liked the Heroes logo, but I acknowledge that they at least put some effort into making their own version of the effect. I agree that it does look nice. The lens flare I demonstrate on my tutorial is the standard, default one from the Photoshop filter. It literally takes you ten seconds to make it. Its usage in logos is really an exercise in laziness. A different lens flare, created by the designer themselves instead of just a Photoshop filter slapped on the logo, is a much better choice when it comes to creating the effect you mention.
π: 0 β©: 1
Hmm, actually you may make a good point with comic sans being a bad font overall, I think I may have confused it with being used as a real comic book font at some point, but I don't think it actually was... So I did some digging & found that it was created to mimmick comic book fonts, aha! So in that respect I completely agree, if anything ever calls for a "comic font" well, there's always Richard Starkings & Comicraft which has created thousands of font types based on actual artist & letterer's hand drawn fonts from many famous & much loved comic books.
As for the lens flare deal, the later half of the paragraph you wrote was my point exactly; if done right, by the designer in a way that they created, a lens flare can be useful as long as its not overblown, a stock filter, or just outright laziness. It really just depends on the designer/project & in a case such as this- pushing old things in new directions if & when possible or applicable at all, while avoiding sheer duplication of bad or contrived choices.
π: 0 β©: 0
What is it graphic designers dislike so much about the Papyrus and Comic Sans fonts? I've heard about this several times before but since I'm not in graphic design I never found out the reason behind it.
π: 0 β©: 1
Straw-hat, the main thing about Papyrus is that it's overused to the point of meaninglessness. The whole point of a logo is to stand out, so making one out of a font everyone sees a thousand and fifty times a day is not very sensible
The main thing about Comic Sans is that it is, in fact, a BAD FONT. The guy who designed it thinks it's a bad font. In a comic the kerning and spacing are awkward; in anything else it's sloppy.Here's a good discussion of it by pro comic-maker Jason Brubaker, with links to more discussion:
[link]
And another breakdown here:
[link]
And now you know!
π: 0 β©: 1
Well said, Caraphae. I've been guilty of using Comic Sans in some of my comics, but I discovered the wonderful Blambot fonts after that and realized my mistake! I'd like to re-edit all of my old comic stuff just to remove that stupid font.
There's also a font called "I Hate Comic Sans!" [link]
π: 0 β©: 1
Blambot fonts is incredible! Even his pay fonts are affordable, and his free fonts are better than a lot of the pay fonts on the market.
Also, bwahaha on the alternate font. XD
π: 0 β©: 0
I seriously laughed at the PS
Moreover, you're right
π: 0 β©: 1
Because these are all design clichΓ©s and pure designs of artistic laziness. They are largely frowned upon by the graphic design communities around the world, yet people still use them to a disgustingly high degree. The last two are references to the widely hated (yet extremely popular) fonts Papyrus and Comic Sans.
π: 0 β©: 3
Aw, I like Comic Sans. What's wrong with it?
π: 0 β©: 0
Thank you, now I see. 
π: 0 β©: 1
yes comic sans is very lame... my all time favorite font is Garamound (its serif one)
π: 0 β©: 1
Yeah, I really like Garamond, too!
π: 0 β©: 0
