Call for Submissions-The Gallery of Unfortunate Type

We’ve all seen ‘em…typesetting that makes us cringe.

Business signs that make us want to cry.

Billboards and posters in windows that make us want to go in, take the proprietor by the shoulders, shake them (gently, now) and go “why…why?”

A love for type means a love for properly set type. Something–we know not what–about learning the development of great type (we all have our favorites–we go toward Gill Sans and Garamond and Palatino) gives us a deep reverence and sensitivity for well-done type and typesetting.

In this spirit, we’d like to throw open the doors and start what we hope to make into a tradition here at Designorati:Typography; right now, we’ll call it “The Gallery of Unfortunate Type.”

What we hope to do is gather all the amazingly bad stuff we can, put it up on our virtual studio wall, and laugh and learn. We hope for a certain irreverence, and don’t want to get too mean, but through gentle snark and a love of well-done type and typesetting elevate the general mien, informing our own typographic sensitivities and, sometimes, figuring out just how far down that bar can go.

In the end, of course, it’s not really about mockery but knowing that one can get a much better handle on what’s good by knowing what’s bad, and having a little fun along the way.

So come up with a photo of some egregious typographic sin. We’ll take all comers, from Comic Sans on dire warning signs to Algerian on directional signs to blackletter used where Helvetica is more called for.

Email your submissions hither (samuel.klein@designorati.com) with whatever brilliant remarks you may have, and we’ll share and enjoy with all.

Submit!…and we’ll have some fun along the way