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Urgent Design Help
- Thread starter Marco
- Start date
Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
Choose a font for "Urgent Care" that uses small caps. The difference in font weight in your version is not a good look.
bob
It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Lose the button with the + inside. Don't use clipart in this sort of thing. Ever..
The attempt at small caps for 'Urgent Care' is particularly dreadful.
The italic 'EXPRESS' needs even more skew if it's supposed to imply speed. Right now it looks like a mistake.
The two text lines should not be the same size or even close to it. Decide which line is more important.
Lose the black outline.
The attempt at small caps for 'Urgent Care' is particularly dreadful.
The italic 'EXPRESS' needs even more skew if it's supposed to imply speed. Right now it looks like a mistake.
The two text lines should not be the same size or even close to it. Decide which line is more important.
Lose the black outline.
signbrad
New Member
Marco,
You are new here? Welcome to a site that is not known for tactful critique. I have been guilty of unkindness, too. Teaching is an art that many of us, including me, have not always mastered well. Develop a thick skin.
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Did you understand the comment by Fred Weiss? Regarding "large and small caps?" Most of us in the sign industry are weak in the area of typography. Understanding the difference between small caps that are fake and small caps that are real is one of the finer points of typesetting. And honestly, most sign goobers don't give a rat's ass. As designers, sign makers have traditionally lived in a world far removed from skilled typographers and other professionals in the print industry. Who really appreciates it, for example, when we use "smart quotes" instead of hash marks? Who even understands the distinction? Sign painters have historically been the undereducated, blue-collar inhabitants of the graphic design world, and have traditionally been looked down on by the design industry in general. Even today, many design agencies view sign companies as mere "service bureaus" whose job should be to simply manufacture what REAL designers create. (I was told this by a Kansas City design agency).
So, I appreciate it when finer points in typography (and punctuation) are pointed out. For an explanation of the correct use of "small caps," there is an online resource called Butterick's Practical Typography that is a good place to start.
Real "small caps" versus fake "small caps"
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For good information on the finer points of punctuation, see
Finer Points in the Spacing & Arrangement of Type
by Geoffrey Dowding
Interesting little spoiler from Dowding's book—look at the placement of a hyphen in historical documents. You'll notice that it is vertically centered with adjacent letters. The modern below-center placement of a hyphen is actually the default lower-case position, yet it has become so ubiquitous that it is "standard." Paul Rand once said that poor design has become so commonplace that it is considered correct.
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As already mentioned, the words "Urgent Care" in the blue panel need more margin. It is uncomfortably crowded. From a distance, this compromises legibility. Note that your spacing in between the white letters is greater than the margin. This contributes to the crowded look. Try swapping the two—more margin, less letter spacing. The visual improvement is remarkable, and legibility at distance is greatly enhanced.
One of the greatest weaknesses among sign artists today is not appreciating the critical importance of negative space. Here is a rough rule of thumb—have more space surrounding your composition and less space within the composition. Mike Stevens, author of Mastering Layout, even proposed an actual formula for determining margins for a traditional layout. Whether you agree with his numbers or not, his formula is a good starting point.
Brad in Kansas City
Notarealsignguy
Arial - it's almost helvetica
It's pretty bad but I didn't mind the cross since it's a universal symbol for emergency care. Having Health Express front and center might make people confused, it's a vitamin shop, dispensary, doctor's office, medical supplies, pharmacy. I know it says urgent care but the whole attention span thing of people today may come into play before they get to that. I'm a crappy designer so take my advice with a grain of salt.
Gino
Premium Subscriber
Just today, a customer came in to go over my recent recommendations to his new supplied logo design. He used very thin copy and his layout didn't work well for long vans. But getting back to colors, he used a lite yellow on white vehicles for his name and some other secondary copy. I explained to him going from 0 to 10 with white being 0 and black being 10 a lite yellow comes in at 1 or 2 and has no contrast from copy to background. He understood instantly and said, it looked good on my screen and I finished up by saying and your face is about 18" away from your screen. Anything will work in those parameters.
Stacey K
I like making signs
Marco - that's considerably better than the original. You are on the right track, keep going. Maybe try a few different color options. the guys are right about the black/red, black/blue combos. Many seem to use a white background, perhaps it represents cleanliness? IDK
Maybe you can try the cross between the Health Express like below or perhaps use a more unique font for the Health Express...and are you tied to using the colors? Maybe try some new ones for fun. I just googled logos for a couple ideas. Do not copy them of course but I like to google logos, even in different industries. It often sparks an idea! And for color combos also!
Don't get discouraged with comments. Any time I post a logo I'm working on 99% of the comments are usually negative LOL There is no logo in the world most of us will agree is perfect. Maybe I should start a post on that! LOL
Maybe you can try the cross between the Health Express like below or perhaps use a more unique font for the Health Express...and are you tied to using the colors? Maybe try some new ones for fun. I just googled logos for a couple ideas. Do not copy them of course but I like to google logos, even in different industries. It often sparks an idea! And for color combos also!
Don't get discouraged with comments. Any time I post a logo I'm working on 99% of the comments are usually negative LOL There is no logo in the world most of us will agree is perfect. Maybe I should start a post on that! LOL
Johnny Best
Active Member
JBurton
Signtologist
This is critical for this industry. I do some where 3/4 of the sign is the words Urgent Care, the other 1/4 is devoted to the regional hospital they bribed to use their branding. WTF, you spent all this money to be XXX urgent care, instead you're xxx URGENT CARE. And then their insistence that if you aren't using gotham bold, all caps, you're doing it wrong...
Johnny Best
Active Member
First it is AI with you, now critical thinking, you are running out of the baseline a little to far.