{"id":1464,"date":"2019-03-27T04:47:50","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=1464"},"modified":"2019-03-27T04:47:50","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T04:47:50","slug":"the-oscars-showed-us-why-typography-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=1464","title":{"rendered":"The Oscars Showed Us Why Typography Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a\u00a0major\u00a0<\/em>twist ending and a\u00a0major\u00a0snafu at the very end of the 2017 Academy Awards for the category of Best Picture.\u00a0The <\/em>wrong winner was declared.\u00a0If you look back on the\u00a0footage\u00a0and analyze it, you could read on Warren Beatty\u2019s face that something was not right just before the Best Picture winner was announced.<\/p>\n

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language readable.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s quickly review the second-by-second timeline of what happened:<\/p>\n

1. Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway come out to present Best\u00a0Picture, but are wrongly given the envelope for Best\u00a0Actress, instead.<\/p>\n

2. Warren reads the card, then stops for a moment to read it again to be sure (which the audience thinks is supposed to be comical). He even checks to see if there\u2019s anything else in the envelope.<\/p>\n

3. He then proceeded to show Faye Dunaway the card with a facial expression that likely reads, Is this right?<\/em><\/p>\n

4. Before he could say anything to her, Faye automatically reads the card (which looks like she didn\u2019t fully read it)\u00a0and announces\u00a0the wrong winner.<\/p>\n

5. A mistake happened that has\u00a0never\u00a0happened in the Oscars\u2019 88-year history.<\/p>\n

I would imagine there are multiple redundancies so that something like this does not happen\u2014especially at the Oscars.\u00a0But there\u2019s one thing the Academy possibly didn\u2019t consider (or forgot)\u00a0for this year\u2019s winner cards:\u00a0typography.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the original screenshot of the Best Picture winner\u2019s card:<\/p>\n

First, it\u2019s legible.\u00a0You can tell all the letters apart. Second, it\u2019s somewhat readable, but the visual weight of Moonlight\u00a0<\/em>and the producers names are equal and blend together. Lastly, even though it is\u00a0just\u00a0<\/em>a winner\u2019s card, it\u2019s not visually appealing. I think it\u2019s fair to say it\u2019s objectively bland.<\/p>\n

\n

Based on that\u00a0<\/em>card design, I\u2019ve reconstructed the card Warren and Faye\u00a0would\u2019ve seen,<\/strong>\u00a0the one they\u00a0received:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s\u00a0horrible\u00a0<\/strong>typography. I will emphasize horrible again.\u00a0Horrible. Or to be nicer, not good. Look at it again. Of course, anyone could\u2019ve made the same honest error.<\/p>\n

The words \u201cBest Actress\u201d are\u00a0on there\u2014at the very bottom\u2014in small\u00a0print.<\/p>\n

You are on television with millions of people around the world watching. You are a little nervous, and you have to read a card. You will most likely read it from\u00a0top to bottom\u00a0(visual hierarchy) without questioning whether the card is right. That look on Warren\u2019s face was, This says Emma Stone\u00a0on it<\/em>.\u00a0Faye must\u2019ve skipped that part to be caught up in the excitement and just blurted out, La La Land<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t blame Faye or Warren for this. This was the fault of two entities: whoever was in charge of the design of the winning card (Was it really a design? C\u2019mon.)\u00a0and the\u00a0unfortunate person\u00a0who handed them the wrong envelope.<\/p>\n

A clearly designed card\u00a0and\u00a0envelope (don\u2019t even get me started on that gold on a red envelope) would’ve prevented this.<\/p>\n

Here are the main three things wrong with the winner cards in general:<\/p>\n

We all know this is the Oscars, but the logo doesn\u2019t need to be at the top of the card.<\/p>\n

The category, \u201cBest Actress,\u201d is on the bottom, in small print.<\/p>\n

The winner\u2019s name\u2014the main thing that should be read\u2014is the same size as the second line and given equal weight.<\/p>\n

\n

Now, let\u2019s imagine an\u00a0alternate timeline\u00a0where the presenters were given\u00a0this modified version\u00a0of the\u00a0wrong\u00a0card, using the same elements of the original card:<\/p>\n

It may not seem like much to a regular person, but changing the sizing, positioning, and weight of the text makes a\u00a0big difference. A big enough difference that this embarrassing mistake could\u2019ve been prevented.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s analyze the differences between the original card and my modified card with a side-by-side comparison of\u00a0subtle, yet important, changes.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what should\u2019ve been changed based on the three critiques I just made:<\/p>\n

1. The logo doesn\u2019t need to be at the top of this card. Everyone knows it\u2019s the Oscars.\u00a0We move the Oscar logo to the bottom\u00a0<\/strong>where it\u2019s least important in this context.<\/p>\n

2. The award category, \u201cBest Actress,\u201d is moved to the top\u00a0so that it\u2019s the first thing anyone sees and reads. There is no confusion what the category is because it\u2019s clearly stated\u00a0first.<\/p>\n

3. Emma Stone\u2019s name is\u00a0bigger\u00a0<\/strong>than the title, La La Land<\/em>,\u00a0because she is the winner of this category.\u00a0The\u00a0winner\u00a0<\/em>should be the most emphasized thing on the card\u00a0with all other information, such as the film\u2019s title, in a smaller or a less thick font (I understand that the text can only be so big so as to have a consistent look for all the cards while accommodating longer names).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it. That\u2019s all the designer needed to do. Those three things. I guess hiring a card designer wasn\u2019t in the budget this year.<\/p>\n

With a modified card,\u00a0even <\/em>if\u00a0the presenters had gotten the wrong one, none of this would\u2019ve happened because the presenters would\u2019ve looked at it and one of two things would\u2019ve happened: Their eyes would\u2019ve read \u201cBest Actress\u201d or \u201cEmma Stone.\u201d Reading either of those would indicate that this\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0the card for\u00a0Best Picture, and they would\u2019ve asked Jimmy Kimmel or a producer to come to the stage to get it corrected.<\/p>\n

The card needed to be written and designed in a way that makes it clear to the reader only the essential information.<\/p>\n

The card needed to be written and designed in a way that makes it clear to the reader only the essential information. As a creator, the importance of typography is an\u00a0absolute\u00a0skill to know, and people\u2014not just designers\u2014should consider learning it. Typography can be immensely helpful when writing a resume that\u2019s well-structured, creating a report that looks exciting, designing a website with an intuitive hierarchy\u2014and definitely for designing award show winner cards.<\/p>\n

\n

And lastly, to the\u00a0Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, I would like to submit my design template for the 90th Academy Awards winner\u2019s card (my commission fee is more than reasonable). The card is clean and easy to read for any presenter, with only relevant information. Even the words, \u201cThe Oscars,\u201d don\u2019t need to be on there (fewer words to read). The statue graphic works fine.<\/p>\n

And big congratulations to\u00a0Moonlight<\/em>\u00a0for winning\u00a0Best\u00a0Picture!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

This article was originally published on FreeCodeCamp. Read the original article.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a\u00a0major\u00a0twist ending and a\u00a0major\u00a0snafu at the very end of the 2017 Academy Awards for the category of Best Picture.\u00a0The wrong winner was declared.\u00a0If you look back on the\u00a0footage\u00a0and analyze it, you could read on Warren Beatty\u2019s face that something was not right just before the Best Picture winner was announced. Typography is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1464\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}