![cover[1]](https://lousybookcovers.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/cover159.jpg)
Stiff rendering, out-of-the-box filters, and an overused “trendy” font. Perfect!
(originally posted August 17, 2013)
November 29, 2020
Stiff rendering, out-of-the-box filters, and an overused “trendy” font. Perfect!
(originally posted August 17, 2013)
So which is considered worse: papyrus or bleeding cowboy?
I would say that Papyrus is technically worse, in that it’s almost impossible to kern correctly. Bleeding Cowboy worked the first few times I saw it, in a “revisionist Western” setting… but then when I started seeing it on EVERYTHING, regardless of whether it matched the genre, I knew that Bleeding Cowboy could never be used again for anything that expected to be taken seriously.
Y’know….I still think that Papyrus is evil, but I suspect that my take on that is due to my loathing of James Cameron, more than any legitimate bitching about Papyrus, overall. (Although, I will say, let’s not forget, it has no bold, no italic; obviously, no bold-italic, either and kerning? We don’t need no stinking kerning! And ligatures, which it desperately needs? Nope, don’t need none o’dat, either.)
But what I do think is that designers should get their heads out of their asses, about font “overusage.” I said this on Disqus, somewhere, a few months back, about someone (a client) that insisted on using Comic Sans in a layout:
“Yes, but, here’s the thing. Expecting a regular, everyday person who doesn’t “do” design, hasn’t been to the Font Snob School of Artistic Design, etc. to know that somehow, using Comic Sans [or Papyrus] is a hanging offense, is like expecting your Mr. Fruit Hat to know that it’s a criminal offense in the small country of Ullie-Boolie to wear a red tie on Tuesdays. And it’s childish to castigate him for it. It’s like watching 8th Grade Mean Girls attack some other chick for not knowing that a certain haircut was “so last year” or wearing a dress that someone else wore the year before.
This, “let’s all stand up on our hind legs and give that person the High Hairy Eyeball of Hate” thing, just because some schmuck somewhere uses Comic Sans or Papyrus, or Algerian…for frack’s sake, let’s get off our high horses. Do you think it would be okay for some finance guy to take a look at your books and then make fun of you, on some forum where he hangs out, talking about what morons designers are? Or a lawyer, that would see ANY of the cases that we see here, talking about how most designers have an IQ around room temp? In Celsius?
And it’s not like we’re talking “bad” fonts, really. (Arguably, Papyrus might be an exception, since it kerns like a ’77 Caddy Eldo corners 90-degree turns at 90MPH). PLENTY of designers deployed Bleeding Cowboys, which everybody loved and then, because everybody loved it, OH NO, it was BAAAAAD to use it. Then, only fools used it, and regular folks who used it on their DIY book covers earned sneering snickers from those “in the know.” And this entire thread with Comic Sans. Or, or or.
God, I must see Avenir and Avenir Next daily. Helvetica Neue. Oh, and lately NOVA. NOVA in every bloody “designed” book that comes across my desk. It’s the new hot font, obviously.
So, apparently, it’s COOL to use the hot new fonts and grossly overuse them, when “designers” say it is. BUT, the moment that designers decide that “regular people” (GASP, the HORROR!) are using that same font, well, then, wait for the sneering condescension and derision.
Seriously, folks? We need to stop acting like Mean Girls in 8th grade and get over ourselves, because that’s all it is. Using an overused font means NOTHING to the people that see the font in use, to people reading signs, people looking at book covers, people reading advertising or websites. Only designers think it means that the person who deployed it should be put to death in a pot of boiling whale ink. Let’s stop kidding ourselves. The next time you get ready to chide someone, try to remember that “cool girl” who made you feel like crap, because you couldn’t afford $500 shoes, or whatever. Because when you make fun of a regular, non-designer person using Comic Sans, or whatever–that’s who you’ve become.
I’m sure that this will earn sneering, condescending downvotes, so have at it.”
And that’s my $.02 on Font-descension (Font-condescension.) I am talking to myself, too, about this. I’m as guilty as the next guy or gal.
This was epic.
Thank you.
I agree to a point (although I will always aver that Comic Sans is simply ugly from the get-go, and didn’t need to reach oversaturation to be a bad font choice).
However, a self-publisher needs to function as a PUBLISHER, and ought to be at least familiar with the field in which he wants to publish. That’s what 95% of the content is here at LBC: People who hadn’t educated themselves on what looks professional. What works for your fifth-grade social studies report doesn’t cut it on Amazon.
I mean, we have an internet, folks; if you want to see what looks professional, it’s right out there. All you have to do is look for it.
If you want to be taken seriously — if you want people to fork over their money and sacrifice your time to read your book, you need to demonstrate up front LITERALLY that you are skilled enough to compete against the other choices readers have open to them. People judge books by their covers, and while you may rail against that (incorrectly, I’d argue), you can’t change that. And if you ignore it, you pay the price.
(Of course, the “you” referred to in this comment isn’t YOU, Hitch, since I know all of that; it’s the Great Straw Man You In The Internet Sky that we all address.)
Darling: I think, with all due respect, that you might have missed my real, core point. What I was saying isn’t about LBCs, or about how awful the cover designs are, etc.
It was about US. We who make fun about them and point out what was done wrong and the like.
I agree, 100%, that every cover designer in the world, whether a pro, or a first-time DIY amateur, has an obligation to research his or her area or genre and create a suitable cover, to the best of his/her design and technical ability.
What I was speaking to, rather, was the rampant snobbish bigotry and condescension around fonts. I mean, who the hell died and left the ‘design community,’ whoever THAT is, in charge of what’s bad now? Not due to a font actually being bad, or created incompetently, etc., but because once the Hoi Polloi use it, it’s now “bad”? let’s be honest–that’s the critieria. Once a regular, non-designer person uses a font, brother, that’s the damned kiss of death.
For example, Bleeding Cowboys. Let’s all be honest for a moment–it was a bloody brilliant font. Was it overused? Hells yes. Was it used on the wrong covers? Hells yes on top of Hells yes. But does that mean that every single instance of its use, from some arbitrary point in time, forward, is bad or evil? What if it’s a western? Is it still wrong?
Someone, somewhere, writes some blog article, 300 words on “why using Bleeding Cowboys is evil,” or worse,posts some damned Tweet picking on some ammy designer that used it and suddenly, OMG, yes, we’re off and running, it’s The Mean Girls of Fonts. Suddenly, everybody decides, all at once, that anyone who uses Bleeding Cowboys is no longer one of The Cool Kids. It’s human hen-pecking, where all the Cool Chickens decide that Chicken 5 is no longer “one of them” and they peck her to death. Really? Who died and made them the arbiters? Because they went to design school? Because they’re a mob? Because they want to also be perceived as a Cool Kid, so that they don’t get pecked to death next? (Hard to blame them for that.)
That behavior is bad enough. But how on earth would John Doe, first-time author and cover designer, ever know that? I mean, in order to do a job of his cover, sure, he runs around the net, he visits Amazon, he looks at cool covers–but if he decides that he likes Copperplate Gothic, or Algerian (god help us) or Papyrus, how on earth would he KNOW that he was in danger of being pecked to death? It’s so easy to pile on, right?
It’s one thing for us to say a cover is godawful. And yes, I’ve done it myself, criticizing bloody Papyrus (it’s that Cameron-hate there). But in looking at it…it’s insider knowledge. it’s stuff The Cool Kids know, because they’re in it every day and it’s not something that poor old John D. can really find out that easily.
I’ve been seeing this, over and over–not really here, by the way, but on Disqus on other sites–and I’m really fed up and sick and tired of the smirking condescension and disrespect, that consultants ooze all over the place, about clients–who, obviously, are NOT DESIGNERS, right, as if they were, they wouldn’t bloody hire one–who say that they like Comic Sans, or Algerian or Bleeding Bloody Cowboys, or yes, my fave, Papyrus.
It’s this sneering mob mentality, that somehow, this observation or statement makes their PAYING customers worth of contempt and discourtesy. And the reality is, their customers aren’t choosing “bad fonts,” really–they’re using fonts that The Cool Kids have decided, just aren’t cool any longer, because Regular People used them.
Watching new fonts is like watching the Hindenburg. The font is issued, The Cool Kids find it, go spare for it, it shows up in designs all over the place and then, GASP!–oh the humanity!–A regular everyday person used it for their Lunch board sign! Someone used it on her Pinterest page! And, worst of all, some DIYer used it for his book cover, or his book interior, or worse, an advertisement! The horror and the suffering!
And then, baby, that blimp is goin’ down, heading for catastrophe, for only one reason–The Cool Kids have spoken. The hoi polloi’s dirty hands have touched it, so it’s relegated to The Trash Heap of Hip.
/rant. Thank you for listening, if you made it this far.
Well, you know me — the cool kids can bite me. And I think Papyrus worked well on the Avatar poster, FWIW (mostly because it was used in such a way that its weaknesses weren’t brought to the front). Part of the problem is fonts that were ugly from the get-go (Comic Sans) or that have gotten so overexposed that their effectiveness is neutered (Bleeding Cowboy) (the latter being exacerbated by the flamboyance factor; after all, Trajan has 100 times the exposure of Bleeding Cowboy, but it survives because it doesn’t call attention to itself). And then there are fonts that are half of one, half of the other (Algerian).
But hey, *I* don’t hold it against someone who uses Bleeding Cowboy or Papyrus for a party invitation or birthday card. (Comic Sans is different, because it’s JUST SO UGLY.)
Oh, sweetie, if you wish, you may delete my ranty-rant.
I do agree that some fonts are fugly, no two ways about it. and yes, Papyrus did work well for “Dances with Wolves In Space.”
And yes, overuse is…unfortunate, but it doesn’t change the fact that some fonts are just beautiful or lovely or just…evocative and we oughtn’t castigate some poor Schmoe with his first book that uses it/them. That’s all I’m saying.
Can you tell I’m on my last nerve with a fellow book designer (print, of course) who is making my life a living hell, because zee fonts, zay do not KERN in zee ebooks? And zee leading, eet ees impossible!
(sigh).
On a BTW note, there’s a bike shop and a used clothing booth in my town featuring Bleeping Cowboys. Still looking forward to seeing it on a tombstone, as Algerian often gets.