AN INTERESTING THING has been happening at the gallery. Every other week or so, someone comes in and looks around, ending up at my desk with a quizzical look on his/her face. “Is this all New York, or just some of it?” or “Where are the New York photos?” I didn’t get it at first. But it kept happening. Obviously something was triggering the confusion. Finally, someone said “The sign said ‘New York,’ so I’m confused.” We went out and looked at the sign – “Oh my gosh! I thought sure it said New York! I must be losing my mind!”
So, for the next couple of shows, I used all caps. That’ll fix it.
Nope.
Spread out onto one line?
No.
Interestingly, as I’ve talked with these customers, it turned out they were all highly-educated, and most of them subscribed to New Yorker magazine, which uses all caps for the logo. Oh, and there’s New York magazine – also all caps.
I decided to try a different cut of Futura (the font I use for our business), but in bold (below). One more shot at using the words I want to. Alas, it’s still confusing folks. And yeah, I know it looks pretty much the same as the other ones.
When I was a designer at the Boston Globe, it was fascinating to witness the variations in perception, in people’s response to headlines and design. We were lucky to have a large, diverse staff. Whether it was a page on my drafting table or (later) on my mac, I loved to hear the reactions of passersby. I’d often be surprised at how differences – gender, age, race, sexuality, education, marital status, parents, non-parents, religion, political party, country/state of origin – influenced each opinion. It made for some lively discussions, and hopefully better design.
I’ve held on long enough. I’m not sure I’ve ever been this stubborn about wordage on something I’ve designed! But it’s time. I guess I’ve gotta come up with a new way to say that we’re showing all new work. New images? New photos? All new? I want it to feel sophisticated but simple. “Photos” don’t feel like art. But “photographs” is so formal, so long. Designers obsess over minutiae like this. I’ve had conversations with other font geeks over ampersands, and capital T’s. This is fun for me. At least it will be again, when I figure out what to say.
Suggestions much appreciated…
I love this blog post. It makes me think about font and perception. You could maybe title the body of new work with some other word, and then underneath it write “new works by Alison Shaw”. Good luck! Can’t wait to see what you come up with.
This is great; I’m going to show this post in my Typography class.
How about a list of ‘New Work” phrases in different languages, ending with English?
Nouveau travail
Nyt arbejde
Neue Arbeiten
Nuovo lavoro
New Work
Or, a really large N and W. Good luck! Bryson
How about “recent work” … ?
Hi Sue,
In response to your ‘suggestions much appreciated’, I’d like to suggest for the release of Allison’s new work, possibly;
NEW FROM ALLISON
Lauri :)
Assuming you want to give “new work” one more try, how about stacking new work so that the “w”s line up:
new
work
or maybe something where there’s only one “w” shared between both words.
Maybe too gimmicky but hey ;-)
Ron
ps. It’s really difficult for me to look at “new work” and not see “new york”. But I was born there.
I like it the way it is . It generates interest , conversation and excitement and in the end a lot of smiles .
Intended or not I think it’s brilliant .
Well, certainly the descenders on NYMag’s head keep the Y from looking like a W. But that’s not a feature you could use. And, probably, the imbalance in word length (and the historically distinctive font of the New Yorker’s cover) cause people to immediately grasp that cover.
And I’m not one for mixed letter forms in a word altho bolding the first letter in each word might be among the less undesirable of the options.
Perhaps increasing the height of the initial letters of the two words would differentiate them just enough?
I like your solution best, Sue, because you’ve figured out how to solve the problem without having to make other compromises in your design or description. I suspect a lot of the confusion relates to the geographic perspective of your visitors, many of whom are likely from the region and have brains, therefore, that are conditioned to read “New York” based on the first word and number, arrangement and similarity of the letters that follow before they consciously think about what those letters actually say.
Sue, great post. Doesn’t it have more to do with who you’re audience is? Mainly summer people from New York?
Over here in Newport, RI, I had no problem seeing WORK.
:))))
Your faithful fan, Elaine
New Work , New Work .
Love the blog!! Well written, fun, and interesting ;-) But — had to post here under “Mickey”. Really got a charge out of it. Only problem now, can’t get the song out of my head.
New Work , New Work . “So Good They Named It Twice”
Thank you both for making me laugh today .
Oh my gosh – Steph, I just got it! Mickey, I thought you were saying “new work” twice, like you were voting for it twice. duh. Thank Heaven for my Pandora station playing Ray Charles right now, or I’d be in trouble…
New in bold?
I’m really enjoying this! And as I look at the pictures above, I realize that I dislike the way the word “WORK” looks. It looks stark and hard — two things Alison’s photographs are not! The ORK overtake the W which is probably one of the contributing factors to the misreads.
Try something like varying the font size (little-big-little) over (big -little-little-big). It would break up the flow of the words and make people look closer at the wording.
It’s a challenge to do the typography so it’s clear, but doesn’t take away from the photo. Interesting idea.
2013 – WHAT SHAW SAW – or whatever year span fits? Sorry if it’s corny but I think it’s kind of cute in an unsophisticated way.
HA – what shaw saw – that’s great! And, yes, corny. Very creative.
Not
New
York
just kidding!
or
New
Work – with the W being the only letter in bold – or perhaps a different color?
I rarely respond to anything, but I loved this puzzle and enjoyed everyone’s ideas!
Both ideas are awesome. “Not New York” would certainly start some great conversations!
New Works
It’s not as classy but I think it solves the problem.
All things I’ll try – thanks!
Thanks Elaine, editor extraordinaire :). We’re faithful fans of your work too.
Hi Michael! Nice idea – I like it. Psyched to see you soon…
Hey sue (& Alison, since she has roots in graphic design as well.)
First, I have to tell you that the gallery looked amazing on my recent vision. And the work is beautiful, as always. And I’m so glad that you had the time to talk with me for a bit, and am hoping to get out to OB sometime again soon, and continue the conversation.
So, I was MOST intrigued by this post, although I do think that when I saw the email heading on the eblast, that said “designer’s dilemma” that I thought perhaps it might refer to some interior designer who was trying hard to decide which of Alison’s photos to use in a new client’s living room. But obviously not.
So, as both a graphic designer, a photographer, and a writer, who is a HUGE fan of Alison’s work, the following thoughts came to me.
• I love Futura. And the clean look of it, either in all lc or in all uc, is fine for me. And though I prefer the lighter weight, I could go with either. That is not the problem.
• The issue is not at all with the word”. It is with the word “work”, which the eye translates easily into “york” as the w and Y letterforms are so similar.
• I love the succinctness of the 4 letter words, and recent and awesome and all those other words don’t have the freseness, and photography is also too long.
So, what to do. Well, this just hit me, and personally, although I might be biased, I think that this just might nail it (Due to the limitations of the comment typography, this is not going to look right, but you’re a great designer, and I think that you will get what I mean):
NEW SH(O)AW
I would actually put in both letters – the O and the A, and have a strikethrough of some sort on the O. I think that it keeps it short, avoids the work/york confusion, and also is a fun was to play on the words both SHOW and SHAW. Adds some wit to the mix, and gets people thinking.
Hope that it is cooler up there than here…we have been sweltering all week here on the Connecticut coast, and just had a wopping thunderstorm roll through here, so it is now a veritable steambath outside. I’m going swimming.
All the best,
Marcy
Thanks for the compliment! Or it could be “new shaw” with “(show)” underneath. Or “new shaw show” – interesting… It’d only work once, though.
I don’t know the first thing about design…but maybe if you separate the words New and Work on the page, people will actually read the words instead of seeing New York?
Have you ever seen the following paragraph? Only the first and last letters are correct, yet most people can read it without any difficulty:
I cnduo’t bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.
Hi Susan! (my good friend since we were two). Interesting… wonder if using a subject/thing in the photo to separate the words would work…
What if you went with serifs? I’m not sure because I always let the designer choose the font. I too could be tricked into seeing that which isnt there. What great comments you’ve gotten- so interesting.
Hi Eileen! I agree – that could work. I want to stick with the futura, since it’s our logotype. But I could reconsider for just the sign.
I was going to say Recent Work but Jim beat me to it so I’ll second that idea!
But love Mickey’s , it will be in my head for a while!
Love it
Hi Sue,
I think the problem may be that New Yorkers who go to galleries are used to a title for the show. I’m not saying that’s right but I think that’s the reason. I go to the galleries often in the fall in NYC, usually photography sometimes other artwork. If I know of the artist, I probably would go to the show regardless of the title but if I’m not sure, I usually go to the photo gallery web page and see what is being exhibited. So, if someone that I am not familiar with has a show with an interesting topic or theme, I would probably add the gallery to my list. So, maybe you have to go back to some sort of themes because there may be a fixed mindset.
Good point, Donna. People responded really well to our show titles. We just burned out on coming up with them. Cleverness burnout. One of the issues is that even though Alison’s always shooting new subjects, she still continues certain series. So if she’s done some awesome new seascapes, there are only so many titles we can apply to them. We’ve done dawn, dusk, sea, and a few others. So after a few years of titles, we’d just sit upstairs in the studio with pen and paper, with no new ideas. It started to feel forced. Or we’d get punchy. I call the painterly ones “wooey” so I’d suggest that as a title, and everyone would start joking around, or roll their eyes. Also, so many customers come in asking “Which of these are new?” or “Where’s her new work?” that we’ve been doing well just going with that.
I like new work and I like calling it new work, personally. A small suggestion would be, on the version of new above work, to place an added 1/2 line in between so they have just a little more breathing room. And for the side by side version maybe an extra space between words would read more clearly. Other than that, I think it’s bringing people in to the gallery and it’s all good.
And also, those new images look absolutely wonderful, wish I could come in to the gallery and see the new york, oh-oops…
Great idea Heather! One thing I didn’t mention is that we used to come up with themes for our shows (one year we did color themes, and then we moved into our alliterative years – dawn, dusk, detail, etc). It got tough to come up with themes for each show. Not to mention that customers would often come in asking where the new work was. So it’s been great to always use our shows to present the newest photographs. I like your idea though.
I think you’re right, Chris, that perspective is everything. Who knows – maybe some of them wouldn’t have come in otherwise – never thought of that…
Interesting. Love this idea.
Wouldn’t want the ORK to overtake the W ;). Futura can be a tough font. It’s been “our” font for many years, and is pretty cemented as our look. But you’re right – it can be stark, hard, and can evoke the past, which can work for us or not.
I’m honored! Love the languages idea – driving the point home, so to speak. Thanks!
Love this – thanks Lauri!
See? It’s all about perception. Lining up the “W’s” is a great idea (for anyone reading this, Ron lined up the w’s in his response (lined up vertically), but wordpress took out the extra spaces). My teeth hurt at the shared “w” but I’ve always been a snob about that technique ;). I’m starting to think it’d be fun to do all of these suggestions and have fun noticing how people respond. Not the best business strategy, but fun for a design nerd.
Thanks Mickey. That’s true – lots of smiles and conversation, which is why I’m doing this in the first place.
Haha – I actually laughed out loud reading this. Hi Evy!
Sue –
I’m not an editor or a font geek :) but I’m enjoying the dialog! I am a firm believer that little things do matter, tho’ this New Yorker saw “Work” without hesitation. I do think that in this ever fater-paced world, we even read too quickly… But as you say, in the end it’s all about perception. So here’s 2 cents from a NON-designer: just “NEW”; or “NEW from Alison Shaw” with NEW on one line and the rest under it, slightly smaller font. (Actually my very first instinct was “New Stuff”. At least George Carlin would love it.) Then there’s also Roget’s to fall back on – new creations, latest issue… :) :)
Hi Doug – so here’s a perception for you. I read that as “fatter-paced world” (yes, there’s a typo, but just shows you what I’m worried about lately!). Great idea. NEW. Roget’s sent you down a more formal lane, which is often an issue with looking for synonyms. I like NEW.
Love George Carlin, btw.
Sue and Alison, this is a great blog!
Two possibilities come up for your title – split New Work on diagonals of the main image, like a book or bookends…
Or call it something synonymous like Fresh Prints … though maybe not the same style you are looking for!
We look forward to stopping by sometime between August 10 and 17!
Hi JP! Fresh Prints made me think of “Fresh Prince” – remember that show? Again with the perception stuff… Glad you’ll be stopping by!
I never read it as NEW YORK but then I am not from these parts. I like the word NEW and to resolve the dilemma I would vote for NEW WORKS as suggested by others. The S may help to finish the word with a soft curvy letter instead of the harder K.
Thanks Max. I agree. Hope to run into you two at the movies soon!
OR – open a gallery in Manhattan and you don’t have to change anything! except prices? ;-)
Fascinating thread -really.
Haha – I’ll run right out and do that…
Had to post this email I just got from a friend:
“Fascinating! And you know what? I opened the e-mail, read the headline and thought, “Oh, yay! They have a show coming up in New York–we’ll get to see them here!”
So much for lower case…”
My first reaction was, don’t these people stop and read or did they just glance at the words and “decide” it said NEW YORK? Obviously, they are not photographers, we would never do that! :D
Maybe move the two words a bit, like:
NEW
WORK
or even…
N W
E O
W R
K
To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure changing it around will make any difference. If they are only seeing it for a second, since they must be thinking, from, want to be, near, visited, have relatives living, or some other reason to have NEW YORK on/in their mind, that is all they will think they see.
Good luck! I am sure you will find some solution.
Lew
Lew, I think you’re right that changing the design of “New Work” wouldn’t do it. That’s why I’m looking for different words. The design suggestions are fun to read :), but I think the “New York” phenomenon will happen regardless. Thanks for your thoughts!
Sorry, after reading some of the other posts, what if you made it so tiny, they had to walk up to it to read it?
We put the sign out on an easel, to draw people into the gallery. We’re at an intersection, so you can see it from cars, bikes, and just walking by. I think it needs to be readable from a distance. But I could just put a photo out there with no words – that’s an option. Thanks!
Hi Sue! I was going to suggest new works but then I realized people from new Jersey will read it as Newark… Anyway, how about:
NEW
2013
Work
Nicely designed, of course, maybe the year bigger and a different color.
Thanks for the puzzle.
Haha – Newark – good one. Great idea to separate the words. Thanks for the suggestion!
Sue,
Why not remove the word Work all together?
Just say “NEW” and under it the date range.
awesome idea. great meeting today too!
“New Images”states it best and simply… having managed a college bookstore for years, I often found that what I thought were simple and clear signs were being read wrong by my customers who are all college students.. I found out it is best not to fight it because if more than one person reads it wrong, you have to change it.. for every one person who reads it wrong and mentions it to you , there are more that never say anything.. more than one complaint about the same thing is significant..so I would suggest : New Images by Alison Debbie
Thanks Deborah – I agree it’s best to change it. Love “new images!”
“Come in and view….what Alison Shaw…..saw…..
…capture…click…print.
Start spreading the views…..NEW WORK, NEW WORK!
Thanks Diane – you’re on a roll!