"Strecth the type to make it look better"

[nikdoobs]

I have a coworker who refuses to accept that stretched type looks like shit. I give customers a pass cause they really don't know better, but this dude has been in the sign business his whole life.

Worst part is, he's our main sales guy so we just pump out tons of terrible up signage cause he's hard headed and stuck in his ways.

Sorry to bitch, I just needed to vent. If I say anything to him WWIII breaks out.

Anyone else have annoying coworkers that do this?

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I stretch text all the time if I need something to fit a space and the font family I'm using has no extended version. The difference is, I convert text to curves and edit the nodes to make it look proportional and legit.

 

[Gino]

Nothing should be extended or squashed more than 10% from it's original size. If you can't find a type style which will work without making it illegible, then you're no designer or layout person. You s*ck, and that's all there is to it. Let WW III break out and teach him some design. Evidently, he is not what he thinks he is in his own little mind. Enlighten him. Does he ever come on here ?? Hope not, cause he won't learn much about design or layout. This place is only good for which printer should I buy, what font is this and where can I get the cheapest ink.

 

[Johnny Best]

Just start calling him "Stretch".

 

[nikdoobs]

I stretch text all the time if I need something to fit a space and the font family I'm using has no extended version. The difference is, I convert text to curves and edit the nodes to make it look proportional and legit.

Yeah, I can understand that, but this dude literally wants the text to look stretched.

 

[nikdoobs]

Let WW III break out and teach him some design. Evidently, he is not what he thinks he is in his own little mind. Enlighten him. Does he ever come on here ?? Hope not, cause he won't learn much about design or layout.

LOL, there is no teaching this guy anything. Trust me, I've tried. It's not worth ruining my day over stretched type.

And hell no, he doesn't come on here. He already knows all there is to know about signs so why waste his time on here?

 

[Gino]

So...... why do you keep him on ??

What's he got to do with stretching type, if he's a sales person ?? Does he take his tablet and draw horrible things for the possible customers ??

 

[Billct2]

I knew a "sign guy" that fell in love with Gerber's distortion tools....except he was the biggest tool. If he's in sales maybe you can suggest to the boss he stick to selling and leave the designing to those better qualified

 

[nikdoobs]

So...... why do you keep him on ??

What's he got to do with stretching type, if he's a sales person ?? Does he take his tablet and draw horrible things for the possible customers ??

I'm not the owner, I'm the "design" guy. He's the sales guy. Gives me the shitty layout he wants to present to the customer. I put the shitty layout in the computer exactly how he wants it and presents it to the customer. So yes, essentially he's the sales guy and the design guy. I'm just the monkey who puts it in the computer.

 

[Gino]

Well, do his ugly designs sell more signs than not ?? I'd have a talk with the boss and ask him why he is allowing perfectly made ugly signs go out, when you can do far better ?? He sounds more like a control freak then a salesman.

 

[Johnny Best]

Sounds like they don't need a designer, the sales guy does the layouts and the monkey just reputs it in the computer.
You should relay it out the way you think it should look. Maybe his eyes are to far apart.

 

[Dan360]

We have a sales guy who deals with a lot of construction companies and he brings stuff like this from time to time. They have a conversation about what they want and at times it's nonsense. For simple things we give them two proofs, one the way they discussed and one the way the designer suggests. They usually go with the designers suggestion. But there are some that are stuck to their guns about crappy layouts. Complex designs we try to educate, some listen while some don't.

If a sales person constantly tried to argue design with me, I would open illustrator for them and tell them to design away while I did something else.

 

[bannertime]

The worst is when someone stretches something like Bebas or Impact. Mind boggling.

 

[fresh]

my partner does this all the time. if I can catch it in time, I fix it. Its stupid to waste time doing the same thing twice, but, like, i have pride in my work. I'm not sending out garbage when I know its garbage and I can fix it.

 

[rossmosh]

Here's what I do often under a different situation:

I crank out two versions if it's only going to take an extra few minutes. One that looks good to me and one that the customer/someone else wanted. Then I let them decide.

If you win the proof war often enough, you'll simply have to put your foot down at one point and say "for the past few weeks we've been submitting your design and my design, and 12 times out of 14, they picked mine. I'm the designer. Your the sales person. I'm going to design the way I think it looks best while taking your and the customers input into consideration. If you have a problem with this, we'll have to sit down with the owner to determine how we will move forward."

 

[myront]

Stretching text has its place but it's not commonly recommended. A simple For Sale sign, "blowout", or %OFF for instance.
ps... ever have someone show a picture of a logo that has been stretched and they think it's ok. Drives me nuts!

 

[Andy D]

 

[Bobby H]

I have a hatred of type squeezed or stretched out of its normal proportions. The hatred gets really intense when the squeezing or stretching is applied to a uniform stroke sans serif typeface such as Gotham.

If anyone wants a sign design to give off an amateur-quality, garbage look one of the quickest ways to make it happen is squeezing or stretching the type. Distorted type is a very very common trait in bad graphic design and ugly signs. If a customer asks for the type to be whacked out of its normal native proportions I'll ask him how many major brands he has seen do that with their logos and advertising materials. Squeezed/stretched type on signs is very small time looking.

I also have a pretty intense hatred of Arial. It is the go-to font for hack-level computer jockeys, probably because it begins with "A" and is always near the top of the font menu. Arial is ugly. It doesn't have many weights to it. There are only two widths, normal and narrow. Because of those limitations the hacks will squeeze and stretch the $#!+ out of it to make Arial fit anywhere.

When a sign designer sets lettering in Arial and then distorts it he is doing two things: 1. taking a visual dump on the commercial landscape with his sewage signage and 2. stating very clearly he doesn't care at all about the job he is doing. Just crank the stuff out FAST..

Clearly there is no shortage of "sign designers," sign companies and signage customers who don't care how a sign will look next to the street or on a building, even if the ugly sign is visible to the public for 10 years or more. That fast, cheap attitude is one of the very things that inspires sweeping anti-signs codes. Eventually the general public gets sick and tired of looking at the toxic clutter. It's impossible to legislate good taste. So the city government just bans the #@!! out of everything.

30 years ago I could understand someone squeezing or stretching type in an early version of Adobe Illustrator. Fonts were not plentiful then. Today there are many thousands of typeface families available, quite a few even for free. Some typefaces have super families loaded with many weights and widths. Many new typeface releases can be bought at huge discounts. Adobe's Typekit service has thousands of foundry quality faces available to sync. The OpenType Variable format is resurrecting the Multiple Master Concept, allowing users to alter width axis values of a typeface without ruining the balance of the strokes.

 

[GTracer]

Nothing should be extended or squashed more than 10% from it's original size. If you can't find a type style which will work without making it illegible, then you're no designer or layout person. You s*ck, and that's all there is to it. Let WW III break out and teach him some design. Evidently, he is not what he thinks he is in his own little mind. Enlighten him. Does he ever come on here ?? Hope not, cause he won't learn much about design or layout. This place is only good for which printer should I buy, what font is this and where can I get the cheapest ink.

I am curious??? Where do you think all of the "Expanded" or "Condensed" type styles came from that I have in my various font collections? Many of them are extended or squashed more than 10% from the regular font.

 

[Gino]

Okay, fair enough, but you need to answer me two questions first.

Are you a designer by profession ?? Graphics designer....... not a collection putter togetherer.

Can you give me 3 or 4 examples of these pre-manipulated fonts you are referring to by name ??

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