I think we can safely declare my design career dead.
Cause of death?
Blippo.
Blippo is an atrocious typeface designed in 1969 at the tail end of the Psychedelic 60's. And it looks it.
See above.
It remained popular throughout the 70's because everyone was stoned. As the 80's dawned, people sobered up (or switched to cocaine) and saw it for the horror it was and quickly abandoned it. It was left for dead.
Or so we thought.
With the advent of desktop published it was raised from the dead, a zombie typeface. And sadly, it became a favorite of the great unwashed masses. You know you've seen it, on church bulletins, yard sales, maybe a four year old's birthday invite.
It's here to stay.
But no professional designer would touch it with a ten foot pole. Maybe, in certain rare circumstances, used ironically, just maybe. But probably not. It's radioactive.
Clients rarely come forward requesting specific fonts. If they did, especially with Blippo, the best thing to do is ignore them and design something with a better font and it would soon be forgotten. If they persisted, you'd resort to reverse psychology...
"OK, sure, I see, you're going for a "retro" feel, you feel your customers are sophisticated enough to "get it" and not see your company as backwards and out of touch. Good for you! That's so brave!"
That would usually do the trick.
And yet yesterday, one of my clients emailed me with a suggestion.
"We thought the ad would look great in this font..."
And there on my screen was Blippo.
And I said "OK". And did it. Didn't even put up a fight. I just didn't care.
And that was the moment the career died. Without so much as a whimper.
I guess I can take some solace in the fact that Blippo at least had something of a pedigree. It was based, so they say, on an unfinished font designed at the Bauhaus in Germany, the birthplace of modern graphic design. Of course, it was unfinished for a reason, but whatever.
And all things considered, it could've been worse.
It could've been Hobo.
