I finally understood why some logos feel "off" after a friend pointed it out

I was at a coffee shop last Saturday and a friend who does graphic design on the side said "look at how that logo has no consistent spacing between the letters." I looked closer and yeah, the kerning was all over the place. She told me she spends like 30 minutes just adjusting spacing on a single word mark. Now I can't unsee bad kerning everywhere, especially on store signs and local business logos. Has anyone else started noticing design flaws more after someone pointed one out?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_fisher52d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, the kerning thing got me too. I was at a hardware store last month and noticed their big sign out front has the letters "H A R D W A R E" spaced out like they ran out of room and just crammed the last few letters together. It looks like two different fonts fighting each other. Now every time I drive past a pizza place or a hair salon I find myself squinting at their signs like some kind of logo detective. It's honestly ruined cheap signage for me forever.

blair_butler472d ago

and honestly @betty_fisher5 you're totally right about the hardware store thing. it's like once you see bad spacing you start noticing it everywhere, even in places you'd never expect. the other day i walked past a laundromat that had "WASH N DRY" on their sign but the "N" was literally floating halfway between the two words like it got lost. and don't get me started on the sandwich shop down the street that has their letters all different sizes on purpose but it just looks like they ran out of the right font halfway through.