In my many ruminations on logos that have readability problems, I've often mentioned ones that attempt to share a letter between two or more words (like this one). There's a set of readers I hadn't thought of before, though, who would have an even harder time with this type of logo: low-literacy readers and especially second-language readers.
While traveling in another country recently, I was that reader, and I had no idea what this sign said:
Is it Skipper Stoffer? Skipper Toffer? Skipper Toffe? Kipper Stoffe? I still don't know.
Nice-looking sign, though. Too bad I don't have any idea what it says.
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Another Reason to Not Share Letters
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3 comments:
Huh. In Danish, 'fabric' is 'stof.' But they don't say stoffer for fabrics -- stoffer is a slang word for drugs, or also a nickname for Kristoffer. That appears to be a sewing shop, so perhaps you were in a non-Danish, but Scandinavian country? Skipper in Danish means skipper, so possibly also elsewhere.
Thanks, Jean. It was taken in Copehagen, and I assumed it was a tailor or seamstress from the symbol. Maybe it's a play on the slang word for drugs, could that be considered clever?
Well, I'm not totally fluent in Danish, so I might just be unaware of stoffer as a common plural for fabrics. I think if I saw it on a sign like that, I'd assume it wasn't about drugs. But I'm honestly not sure how a real Dane would take it.
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