Near my home, on my dog-walking route, there’s a small business called ‘FDM.’ Their initials are emblazoned in 2000pt capitals on the side of the property. I don’t know what it stands for, or what they do. The reason I bring them up is a one screamingly disrespectful disregard for typography, in what is an otherwise entirely sober Roman-esque sign.
I’m going to first show it to you upside down, in a fictional billboard advertisement sponsored by the lovely Jayma Mays:
Lovely — both of them sexy and sophisticated; both with subtle, clean curves that demand attention precisely due to their understatedness; both enticing you, by just giving a little away, to look further.
Right?
Yes, until the potential customer stops sitting in the driver’s seat upside-down, or reverts from their hand-walking on the pavement:
WTF?! Or should I say, MTF? The ‘M’ has suddenly broken in two and fallen in on itself. Why was it considered a good idea to use an upside-down ‘W’ in place of the ‘M’ into which the artist had poured countless hours of labour in order to be completely unobtrusive?
Is it intended as ‘attention-grabbing’? It works; but not all publicity is good publicity — I’m going to have to find myself a new dog-walking route.
p.s.; I’m sorry, Jayma. Every stroke of the GIMP brush was like a dagger in your baby-soft skin. But it was in the name of Typography!
deviled eegg 