Skip to main content

State of the Union Invitations... Sigh.

I am a graphic designer. So the typo hits me a but harder than some. HOWEVER, can we talk about the OTHER problems with this tacky invitation?
Firstly, the House of Representatives has a SEAL. There's scarcely a reason to add a goofy, hyper-stylized "House of Representatives wordmark on this design.
Next, we have the horrible text placement. This is a common problem with pre-printed tickets (note the gold foil) that are sent through a laser printer for personalization. See how the 9:00 PM time is sitting RIGHT ON THAT GOLD EDGE? Next time try something other than MS Word, mail merge, homey.
But that's just the beginning of the layout issues. Given that there's a fair amount of info to tackle in this space, it's reasonable to divide the card into separate zones. What's less clear is why they didn't center the text in the right side of the card in the horizontal space allocated for it. It's MADNESS.
And can we talk about the font salad for a moment? One thing Obama's team was REALLY tight on was branding. They grabbed some well coordinated font families and rode them all the way through eight years. Even when they switched it up a bit, the branding elements were easily identified.
Here we have SIX DIFFERENT FONTS fighting for attention. I've already mentioned the over-worked House wordmark, which holds two fonts (albeit coordinated) in its space. The House seal has its own serif font. A reasonable choice would be to maintain that same serif font across the rest of the card. But NOOOOOOOOO! We get a DIFFERENT font for the "Admit Bearer" message (one of the nearly ubiquitous Garamonds), THEN the stalwart Palatino (Times New Roman's old-ass bougie uncle). And that's before we flip the divider back into classic "Old English" (SOOOOO Classy!)
Lastly, might I direct your eyes to the hellishly bad trim on the right edge? We've got a decent amount of black space on the left, but Holy Sh*thole... what's up with the OTHER side. That card looks like its barber fell asleep during the line-up and kept shaving that edge until it hit the neck meat.
In the overall scheme of things, this is barely a blip, but CAN YOU IMAGINE the fooferaw had Obama's team made a mistake like this for his FIRST STATE OF THE UNIOM?
P.S. It appears that they went for a "fancy" cover stock with a slight texture. Unfortunately, laser toner doesn't adhere to textured stocks particularly well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Missy DID HER THANG!

So it's a MAJOR night for some of my faves. Missy. DID. the DAMN. THANG. Side note: Describe J Lo's performance from last year. Can't do it? Thass what I thought. NikkiFree Wiggins  said she will have floor seats if Missy goes on tour. Hell, I wanna be the dude pulling her off stage on the wheeled transport for costume changes. Note to camera operators. When you have a BUILDING FULL of people singing Missy lyrics word for word, DO NOT WASTE CUTS to Taylor Swift's poseur azz shimmying her narrow shoulders in a jacket designed to be editorial. Ma'am, you don't deserve to be featured if you're not a fan. And certainly not multiple times. And CERTAINLYcertainly not in an extended take that took precious seconds from my Missy stanning during Lose Control. Also: Put your tongue back in your mouf, Swift. Back to Missy... Am I the only one who thought that they built the entire VMA set specifically to highlight Missy? That was DAMN-ed impressive. FRfr. I m...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ashley Todd

Y'all know the story by now. White, female McCain phonebanker, Ashley Todd, leaves Texas to venture North to support her candidate. After a stint in New York, she ends up in Pittsburgh until Thursday, when she lost her effing mind and became Susan Smith Part Deux . The McCain campaign can hardly be blamed for this girl's actions. However, they need to be questioned on their response. Within hours of the incendiary allegations, two things happened. McCain and Palin called Ashley Todd. A press flack from McCain's Pennsylvania operation started pushing the story and adding salacious details. Consider what was at stake here. In a campaign environment already marked with strained racial tensions, Todd's story was potenitally explosive. It would have made a lot more sense to issue a generic statement (like Obama's campaign did). Instead, McCain and Palin lent legitimacy to the allegations (at least for a few hours) by calling her. They vetted Todd's story abou...
Post a Comment
Read more

Green Book? Nah, Son.

My last Green Book post... Maybe. I was considering all the backlash over the #BrownBook win and feeling pretty good about myself when I realized one of the most glaring lies about the "racial reconciliation" message of this "well-meaning" movie. And it's a BIG lie. I'm 50 years old. Green Book is set in 1962. In other words, six years before I was born. The movie would have us believe that "Lip" Villelonga's "radical transformation" about race is a proxy for how society has changed in those 56 years. Bruh. The ACADEMY AWARDS hasn't even changed that much in the past 30 Years!!! Y'all remember the 62nd Oscars, right? (No you don't). 1989 was a year when movies like Glory, and Field of Dreams, and Born on the Fourth of July (which rewarded Oliver Stone as Best Director), and Dead Poet's Society, and a LOT of really good movies were released. Google it. You won't BELIEVE how...
Post a Comment
Read more