This is part 2 of a 2-part post on ad design and legibility. In this part, we’ll look at how to use basic reading concepts to get more people to read your advertising.

Meaningful sales messages are transmitted through language, not design. The goal of design, therefore, is to encourage and support readership. In general, a designer should strive to:

1. Draw attention to the copy and help the reader get started reading.

2. Make reading easy by applying the basic rules of layout and typography.

3. Help communicate the writer’s message (not produce a work of art).

Specifically, a designer should make every effort to work with the realities of how people read and make the process as easy and transparent as possible.

Principles of designing ads for high readership

Assist the left to right Eye Rhythm — Use serif type, because the serifs form a lateral line that helps the eye move left to right. Don’t set type reading down or at an angle, because that’s not the way people read. Don’t overdo the leading, because that makes the next line harder to find — a spit second makes a big difference. Set your type flush left and ragged right in most cases, though a justified right margin can work just as well — though not in letters.

Avoid unnecessary Fixations and generate necessary ones — Most reading should flow along with as few stops as necessary. So throw out anything that makes the eye stop in the main text. However, you want the eye to stop on certain important points, such as the 800 number or the order card. Italics, underlines, and bold subheads, for example, create stops at points of textual significance.

Work within the natural Eye Span — Look at a few magazines and newspapers with a high circulation. (Readers Digest or USA Today, for example.) Notice how the best ones often use narrow columns with 5 to 8 words per line. That’s because narrow columns work with the natural eye span, while long single columns do not. These publications are designed to be read, as should your promotion.

Divide the copy into logical Thought Units — Clustering ideas so that they can be seen in a single eye span helps the brain process information. Most people actually read and comprehend much better when each eye span takes in a single unit of thought.

For example, if you have a headline that reads “Now you can have 12 issues for $12,” consider breaking the copy into 2 visual parts: “Now you can have / 12 issues for $12.” You can do this by putting them on separate lines, by using a second color, with italics or underlines, or any number of ways.

Leaders (…) and dashes (–) also help to divide copy into easily absorbed chunks much better than commas, colons, and semi-colons. “Now you can have … 12 issues for $12.”

Stick to standard Configurations — With words, don’t set type in all caps or put spaces between letters, because that obliterates all configuration. Stay with lower case and initial caps as often as possible, including most headlines. With numbers, remember that spelling helps the reader whiz through it, but using the numeral will produce a short stop. So, spell numbers that aren’t as important and use numerals for numbers that should draw attention.

In addition, my learned colleague James Rosenfield often discusses icons, which he defines as a “communication instantly and involuntarily assimilated by the brain’s right hemisphere.” Configuration is the buck-fifty word for the same idea. Logos, faces, numbers, words, and personal imagery are all icons.

Use Familiar type and layouts — In most cases, use a Roman or serif face for body copy unless there’s an overwhelming reason not to. Roman faces have more irregular features, which makes words more recognizable.

Help the reader avoid Eye Fatigue — Eye fatigue can result from a number of things, including too many regressions, a reduced reading rate, and a slower recognition rate. Do absolutely everything possible to help the readers eyes move along effortlessly.

For example, use type of about 9 to 12 points for body copy, but slightly larger type for older or younger readers. Break up long copy into smaller chunks, indent paragraphs, and space between paragraphs to let the eye rest every here and there. Prefer black type on white paper. And if you must reverse type to draw the eye, keep it short and 10 or 12 point sans serif (because it’s too easy for the ink to fill in the little serifs). Avoid glossy, hard-to-read paper. Avoid text over tints and pictures, unless there is enough contrast.

Of course, assuming a designer can successfully apply these basic principles for legibility, he or she should also attempt to improve the “body language” of the message … create the right impression or “feel” through type that is compatible to the message … help establish credibility and value … illustrate the promise of the sales proposition … and a hundred other vital tasks.
However, nothing is more important than legibility. Ever.

Is this creatively limiting? Absolutely not. In fact, it presents a supreme creative challenge. For just as the copywriter cannot write arbitrarily, the designer cannot design arbitrarily.

And remember, what is important here are not the specific rules, but the principles behind them. A designer must always know why he or she is doing something. How it affects readership.

A designer must ask: What does the writer want to say? Am I helping that message reach the prospect or am I getting in the way? What can I do to help the prospect read this effortlessly?

And there you have it — your primer on legibility. Have your designer read it and tape it to the wall. Because in printed media, reading is everything.

Related posts:

1. Design and legibility: 10 basic principles of reading
2. Comic book ads reveal “action” design

This is part 1 of a 2-part post on ad design and legibility. In this part, we take a look at how people read.

With no special instruction, people instinctively learn spoken language. In fact, within just three years, an infant will master a vocabulary of about 1,000 words. Reading, however, must be taught. It’s a difficult process, and even after years of instruction, most people remain relatively poor readers into adulthood.

Reading is literally an unnatural act.

This is crucial for you to understand, since so many marketing efforts, and most especially direct mail and print ads, depend on your getting people to READ. In fact, I would go as far to say:

Direct mail and print advertising is all about READING.

Reading envelope teasers. Reading letters. Reading brochures. Reading order forms. Reading headlines. Reading coupons. Without reading — easy, effortless reading — you have no sales.

Therefore, one of the most devastating response barriers is simple legibility. Can your prospects read your message? Can they read it effortlessly?

Don’t confuse “legibility” with “readability.” Readability is about content comprehension and is the responsibility of the copywriter. Legibility, on the other hand, is about form presentation. This is the designer’s responsibility.

Assuming the copywriter does a good job of writing copy, the designer can encourage or discourage readership with layout and type treatment. So, a designer must understand the basics of reading.

The Reading Process

To understand legibility and how design affects readership — and thereby sales — we must first understand how people read. (Forget how people “should” read. We are only concerned with how the average person actually does read.)

Here are the basics of the reading process:

Eye Rhythm — In Western culture, we print written materials with the words arranged horizontally left to right. To read this material, the eye moves left to right along a line of type and then sweeps to the left and down to the beginning of the next line.

Fixations — As the eye moves along a line of type, it stops at certain points to allow the eye to see and the brain to comprehend one or more words. These stops are called fixations, jumps, or “saccades” from the French saquer meaning to pull. Each fixation is about 1/4 second.

Eye Span — During each fixation, the eye sees the word or words upon which it fixates as well as an area around that point. A reader’s eye span may be as small as a single word or as large as whole phrase. A good reader will see about 2 1/2 words per fixation, but the average reader may see less. The ordinary radius maximum is 2 inches around a fixation point. With standard text, this translates to about 29 letter spaces, 17 of which are clearly seen.

Thought Units — The eye span isn’t arbitrary. The brain naturally divides sentences into thought units or idea chunks. In the sentence “Bill caught the ball,” the two thought units are “Bill” — the person who did something — and “caught the ball” — the thing he did.

Configuration — Every word has a particular shape. With constant, repeated exposure to a word, reading stops and instant recognition begins. When you see a stop sign, for example, you don’t mentally sound out S-T-O-P, you perceive the whole word by its shape and instantaneously understand its meaning. Because numerals have little configuration, the eye fixates more on numbers than words. Also, since there are more shape differences with lower case letters than with capitals, configurations in lower case are recognized faster than all caps.

Recognition Rate — How fast a reader understands words during reading is called the recognition rate (or word response rate or rate of perception). Obviously, the faster a person recognizes a word, the faster and more effortless the reading. In the previous sentence, you probably whizzed over words like “the” and “a,” but paused for a split second on “recognizes” and “effortless.”

Familiarity — The more familiar a reader is with the type and the appearance of the words used, the easier the reading. Roman or serif faces are generally more familiar to readers. Type that gives words irregular features give words a more distinct and recognizable shape.

Reading Rates — The average person shows a constant increase in reading rate throughout the school years, followed by a sudden drop after graduation. In Junior High, the average reading rate is 200 words per minute (wpm). In High School, it’s 250 wpm. In College it rises to 325 wpm and then to 400 wpm in Graduate School. Then it drops back to 200 wpm in adulthood, with reading comprehension at about 50%.

Compare this to the average rate of speech, which is 140 to 160 wpm, and you’ll see that most people read slowly. (By the way, for most people, anything above 600 to 700 wpm is scanning, not reading.)

Regression — Moving the eye back over previously read material is called Regression. Not only does this lower the reading rate, it actually alters the sequence of information into the brain and lowers comprehension.

Eye Fatigue — The average adult eye travels approximately 1,600 feet per day — that’s 584,000 feet or 110 miles per year! So, it doesn’t take much to produce Eye Fatigue, which in turn slows the recognition rate and generally makes reading slow and even more difficult.

In part 2, we’ll look at how these reading principles should be used to help improve the readership of marketing and advertising materials.

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I was looking at some old ads for comic books recently. In addition to bringing back boyhood memories, it got me thinking about what’s often wrong with ad design these days.

Comic books (and the ads for them) are all about action and adventure. The design creates this feeling with vivid colors, imperfect hand lettering, perspective, and angles.

Imagine what a comic would look like if the colors were muted, the letters were small and perfect, the images were flat, and all the graphics were linear.

It would look like many ads you see today. Boring and aloof.

What you see in the ad I’m showing here for the Human Torch (a member of the Fantastic Four), is what you could call “action design.” It’s purposeful imperfection, designed to give the feeling of action by presenting a slightly chaotic arrangement of elements on the page.

Yes, it’s over-the-top. And no, I’m not suggesting you create serious ads this way. But I am suggesting that you allow yourself the freedom of angling an element or two, varying your type size, and otherwise departing from an anal-retentive and linear style.

Making an ad look so perfect that it appears to be more a work of art than something people want to read, puts the ad at arm’s length and fights against the engagement you want. A little imperfection seems more human, more likely to draw the eye, and just plain more interesting.

Try handwriting a headline, tilting a photo, creating an ugly red URGENT stamp, using yellow highlight behind important words, setting a few words in BIG type, and other techniques to inject a bit of action in your ads.

Who knows, maybe you’ll boost results and end up a super hero around the office.

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Direct response design is all about getting people to READ the text. If no one reads the words, why bother running the ad?

While flipping through some magazines recently, I came across this ad for a laser sighting device. I know what the ad is about because of the photo, but certainly not because of the text. This ad ignores virtually every convention for designing readable copy.

Notice that it wants to be a direct response ad. There’s an offer for a DVD at the bottom, but the Web address and phone number are tiny and hard to read. There is no headline. The text is “justified,” meaning it’s stretched to line up with both margins. Copy is set in all caps. The background is dark. And the main text is framed as if it’s artwork.

If you want to design an ad no one will read, this is how it’s done. I’m writing a blog post about it and I’ve still not read it!

Now here’s another ad from the same magazine. The product is grass plugs. It’s not going to win any design awards, but notice the difference.

Here you have an ad that IS designed to be read. Not only is there a headline, there’s a headline with benefits. The text is a bit small, but it’s legible and set in three columns, which makes text lines short and scannable. Subheads spell out benefits and organize the copy. There’s a clear, highlighted call to action and an order form. The designer was even smart enough to use black type on a yellow background, which is a high-contrast combination in print.

If you want people to read an ad, you must follow the conventions of readable type. If nothing else, look at a newspaper or high-circulation magazine for ideas. There’s a reason popular publications are popular: people READ them.

Related posts:

1. Design and legibility: 7 tips for high ad readership
2. Design and legibility: 10 basic principles of reading
3. Comic book ads reveal “action” design

Is the woman turning to the right or to the left? That depends. Some will see her turning one way while others will see the opposite.

This animation is a visual trick, but it illustrates the idea that two people can look at the same thing and see something entirely different.

Selling is largely about perception. And everyone’s perception is a bit different. To be successful at writing or designing direct mail, ads, or other selling tools, you must grasp this simple idea.

Every person comes to your advertising with different experiences, knowledge, language skills, attitudes, preferences, and prejudices. Even something as simple as a headline can create a totally different response for two people.

Stop struggling with old-fashioned diet pills. Now a revolutionary new weight-loss system can magically melt away fat in just 3 weeks with no special diet or boring exercise!

That’s a typical headline, but ask two people what it says to them and you may get two radically different answers. One person may be intrigued and enticed to read more. Another may think it’s empty and deceptive drivel. Same headline, different people, different reaction.

You can get the same variety in response to design. For example, if you have a copy-heavy layout with little focus on aesthetics, some would react positively and benefit from the depth of information while others would react negatively and think that ugly design equals bad products.

There’s nothing you can do about these various reactions. What you can do is try to understand the expectations and communication preferences of your target audience and meet them.

More specifically, you should consider the sort of advertising your audience responds to. When you rent a mailing list, you can often research the advertising of other companies using the list. When you create a print ad, you can look at past issues and evaluate the tone and appearance of the other ads in the publication.

This is not to say that you should compromise what you believe to be solid selling techniques. But you shouldn’t be a slave to one style for copy and design. Do what you need to do, but consider adapting to your audience so their perception of your message aligns with your own.

Oh, and about that spinning woman …

… it’s from an actual psychological experiment on visual perception. Supposedly, it tells you if you’re right brained or left brained. But if you try hard enough, you can make her appear to change directions. One source claimed that the more intelligent you are, or the more integrated your left and right brain, the easier it is to get her to change directions.

I’m curious. Which way do you see her spinning? Can you make her turn the other way at will? I initually see her spinning clockwise. But I can make her change if I concentrate.

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In a recent article on 37signals, a writer asked the question, “Can good design also be ugly?”

He’s referring to the Drudge Report, a news site that is loved (and hated) by millions. It’s one of the most popular and successful Web sites in the world. And it’s profoundly ugly.

The writer’s conclusion is that, yes, good design can be ugly. And I heartily agree.

He says that the ” … definition of design goes beyond aesthetic qualities and into areas of maintenance, cost, profitability, speed, and purpose.” Or, in architectural terms, we might say, “form follows function.”

He’s writing from the perspective of Web design, but his take on what makes for good design applies to anything, most especially to direct response advertising.

Here are a few of his arguments about why Drudge is “beautiful.”

It’s classic – It’s generic list of links, black and white monospaced font, and ALL CAPS headlines have survived every trend, every fad, every movement, every era, every design do or don’t. It doesn’t look old and it doesn’t look new — it looks Drudge.

It’s straightforward – There are no tricks, no sections, no deep linking, no special technology required. It’s all right there on one page.

It’s unique – When you’re on the Drudge Report you’re on the Drudge Report. There’s no question where you are. The design has become iconic.

It’s bold – Drudge says “this is the story of the moment” with a huge headline. This is what’s important in the news right now and nothing else even comes close. It’s bold, it’s risky, and it’s pure Drudge design.

It’s good cluttered – Stories aren’t grouped or organized except probably more interesting ones up top. And that’s it. Your eye darts all over the place looking around for something that looks interesting. The design encourages wandering and random discovery. The site feels like a chaotic newsroom with the cutting room floor exposed.

It’s fast – When you visit The Drudge Report, you get the Drudge report. There are no interstitial ads. There’s no load time. There’s no buffering. There’s nothing but instant content.

It’s one page – Every visit and every visitor is focused on that one page with a headline and three columns. He knows exactly what people are going to see, he knows exactly how people are going to see it.

It makes him a great living – Based on published ad rates and traffic numbers, it’s estimated that Matt Drudge makes “over a million a year.” Not bad for a single black and white page on the internet.

It’s not hard to see how this applies to ad design. Good direct mail or advertising design follows many of the same principles. Specifically, good design means doing what’s necessary to get the job done. No more, no less. Good designers are those who aren’t afraid to create something ugly if that’s what the project calls for.

And there you have what is the single biggest hurdle for designers working on direct marketing projects. Their training and instincts often drive them to create something “beautiful” when that’s not what’s needed.

When I added design to my skill set years ago, I had a big advantage. I didn’t know anything about design and had no formal training. My entire focus was on communicating a selling message. So ugly was fine with me. And it works, because response rates for those projects where I handle design tend to be higher. If I need pretty, I call in one of my other designers.

Not all Web sites should aim for the ugly Drudge look. Likewise, not all ads should be ugly. But sometimes that’s what works. And when it does, that too is a beautiful thing.

What do you think? Can ugly be beautiful? Have you ever had an ad fail because it was too pretty … or for that matter, too ugly? I’m interested in your experience or thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Comic book ads reveal “action” design
2. Design and legibility: 7 tips for high ad readership

Color is one of the most powerful elements of design for direct mail, ads, and other marketing materials.

Why? Because color is a form of nonverbal communication. Research has shown that color increases brand identity, assists in memory, increases a reader’s participation in ads, and improves readership, learning, and comprehension.

This is a complicated subject and is worthy of a dozen posts, but I’d like to cover just three important points about why color choice is so important.

Color carries meaning through association.

This meaning can be divided into two parts: natural associations and psychological or cultural associations.

By “natural association” I mean that colors bring to mind certain ideas that everyone understands. For example, green is associated with nature because that’s the primary color of plants everywhere in the world. Blue is associated with the sky. Yellow is associated with the sun. These associations are simple and universal.

Psychological or cultural associations are more tricky. In the U.S., orange is associated with Halloween because pumpkins are a big part of that holiday. But since many other cultures don’t celebrate this particular holiday, that association doesn’t exist. Likewise, while black is associated with death in the West, white is often the death color in other cultures.

There is a “vocabulary of color.”

Colors are not as clear cut as words, but there is a loose meaning for most colors. What follows is a quick definition of some common colors for those who live in a Western culture.

• Black can signify death or evil, but it is also a power color and can be sophisticated.

• White is the color of purity, but can also imply coldness or sterility. Like black, white can be a classy color.

• Red suggests excitement and strong emotions. It’s a color easily recognized by the eye, so it’s good for getting attention.

• Blue is the most popular color, especially among men. It’s calm, soothing, and businesslike.

• Green is the nature color, providing a feeling of tranquility and calm. It can also signify wealth and stability. Today, it is associated with recycling and environmentalism.

• Yellow is warm and cheerful. It’s the most attention-getting color, but can be fatiguing for the eye. Black type on a yellow background provides maximum contrast for short, high-impact messages.

• Purple signifies wealth and royalty. It also carries an exotic feeling. However purple can be a weak color for design.

• Brown is the color of nature, with a feeling of strength and warmth. It can be both down-to-earth or sophisticated. It can also be boring or even evoke a 70’s feel.

• Orange is the combination of red and yellow, so it’s energetic, warm, and enthusiastic. It is often used to draw attention.

• Pink is typically associated with romance and love. It’s a calming color for most people. Just as blue is the “male” color. Pink tends to be the “female” color.

Practical considerations should guide color choice.

Color associations and vocabulary are something you should know. But when it comes to designing marketing items, don’t get carried away. Copy is more important than color, and the whole point of design is to make sure people READ the copy.

So keep a few things in mind:

• Black type on white paper is both practical and legible.

• Your cost savings from printing in two colors can sometimes outweigh any benefits from printing in many colors.

• Colors are seldom psychologically additive. That’s a fancy way of saying that you can’t reap the symbolism of multiple colors by throwing them all on a page. Too many colors will be distracting and make your layout look unprofessional and “cheap.” Keep it simple.

• When in doubt, use blue. It’s a favorite color and it’s easy to use in design. It’s legible for headlines, produces good-looking tints, and lets you highlight key points in the copy while not drawing much attention to the design itself.

• Some colors are hard to work with, such as orange, brown, and pink. They often don’t print the way you want them and tints can be tricky.

• Orange is a great color to grab attention. It goes in and out of popularity, but in general it’s underused. So it lets you stand out more easily.

• Red is a power color for headlines, subheads, phone numbers, and other hot spots. Red and black can create a high-impact, reader-friendly layout. Just make sure you use a red that looks red and not pink or purple.

• The best use for color? Photos and illustrations. Graphics like these can give a layout plenty of “pop” and let you keep the text simple and readable.

There you have it. That’s my quick reveiw of key points for using color in direct marketing. This barely scratches the surface, but there should be plenty here to give you some ideas for improving your marketing materials.

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1. Marketing to seniors: Interview with Senior Market Advisor

Good direct mail design is like good design in other fields. The best work results from a designer who understands how design is used to accomplish something.

In other words, form should follow function.

In the case of direct mail, the function is to deliver a sales message to a list of recipients to persuade them to take some kind of action, such as placing an order, requesting information, or going to a Web site.

The wrong way to design direct mail is to come up with a “creative concept,” then force fit the copy into the design.

The right way to design direct mail is to understand the selling message and the goal of the mailing, then allow the design to naturally flow from these ideas.

For example, if the goal is to build traffic for a Web site, it would be silly to create an elaborate envelope package. Since you’re not asking for money and the action you’re asking for is easy, all you need is a small piece, such as a postcard.

On the other hand, if you’re selling a product with a $500 price tag, you shouldn’t try it with a postcard because you’ll need a lot more room to convince your recipient to part with his money, provide a means of response that may include a reply form, and include other information such as instructions or your return policy.

Always ask basic questions, such as: How much do I know about my recipients? Are they prospects or customers? How good is the list? How large is the list? What action do I want them to take? What is my price point? How much do my recipients already know about what I’m selling? How badly do they want it?

In general, the more you know about your ideal buyers, the better your list, and the more expensive the product, the more justification you have for using a larger more expensive mailing.

Other key design elements to keep in mind:

• Design for efficient mail processing, clean address placement, and all possible tabs and folds.

• Keep it as simple as possible. Don’t over design for the purpose of the mailing.

• Make it readable. Direct mail is all about reading. If it’s an older audience, for example, increase the font size.

• Make it scannable. Use the correct graphic treatment for main points, such as headlines, phone numbers, and benefits, so people will quickly get the point.

• Use images that reinforce copy points. Don’t use photos just for eye candy.

• DON’T DESIGN FOR AWARD SHOWS! What wins in the mail isn’t necessarily what wins in award shows.

In a way, direct mail design is simple if you approach it with the right mindset. But like any other specialty, there are few who do it well.

Those who DO do it well are as prized as good copywriters by smart direct marketers.

Related posts:

1. 7 stupid ways to screw up your direct mail
2. Quick tips for writing variable direct mail copy

You’ve heard it a thousand times: “Copy is king.”

Sure. That’s because direct marketing is all about the message, and copy delivers the message. But … and this is a very important but … design is what delivers the copy.

Assuming that copy is the only important part of a printed direct marketing message is like thinking that the screenplay is the only important part of a movie. A movie starts with the script, but until it’s translated into visuals, there’s no movie.

It’s the same with advertising, direct response advertising in particular. The sales pitch starts with the copy, but the copy must be translated into visuals before you have a complete message that people can read and interact with.

Even a simple letter requires some design: page size, type, color, logo placement, underlines or highlights, signature in blue, and other elements. Get these items wrong and the design will obstruct the copy rather than enhance it.

How? Here are 5 of the most common ways design can kill your copy:

Start with a visual “concept.” There’s nothing wrong with concepts per se, but the message should guide the concept, not the other way around. I once had a client who would send a design and ask me to fill in the blanks with copy. This led to terrifically weak direct mail. Of course, starting with copy from a writer with no regard for design can be nearly as bad.

Design to impress rather than sell. I once saw a print ad for a fax machine with a massive, artsy photo of a woman’s head with protruding tubes and wires. I guess the idea was that, at the time, having a fax was supposed to make you plugged into the world. Or something. It was an interesting visual, but since there was no fax machine anywhere to be seen, the ad served to display the designer’s skill instead of sell the product.

Get fancy with type. I do a fair bit of design, so I know that using the same old Times, Arial, Verdana, and other common typefaces can get a little boring. But selecting unfamiliar or hard-to-read type will discourage reading. And printed direct response advertising is all about reading. Tiny type, white text on a dark background, all caps, text over artwork, text running in odd directions, and other techniques, if overused, can also discourage reading.

Make your phone number or Web site address small. This is mostly a problem in brand ads, but I see it in direct response too. A big phone number screams “call me.” A prominent Web address says “visit this site now.” Setting these elements in tiny type and burying them in your copy where no one can see them instantly is foolish.

Making the design too “neat” and tidy. Every designer has a different style, so there’s no one right way to design anything. But one wrong way is to make every layout perfectly balanced and formal. Neat looking designs discourage interaction.

Example: I once revised a direct mail brochure for a client. The brochure had many folds and each panel was perfectly balanced and complete by itself. There was no incentive to unfold it. I reworked it so that when folded the panels were incomplete, with only partial headlines or images showing. You had to open up the brochure to see the entire selling message. This encouraged both mental and physical interaction with the message. It was not as pretty, but it was more effective.

I’m preaching to the choir here, I’m sure. The sort of designers or copywriters who would disagree with any of this aren’t the sort who read this blog.

But it’s helpful to remind yourself now and then how important design really is. Good copy sells. Good copy with good design sells on steroids. Bad design kills good copy.

Remember: Copy delivers the message. Design delivers the copy.

Related posts:

1. Design and legibility: 10 basic principles of reading
2. 7 stupid ways to screw up your direct mail
3. Design and legibility: 7 tips for high ad readership

My wife dragged me to a mall recently and I ran across a good example of why getting super creative with type endangers legibility.

Take a look. (Forgive the poor quality of the photo. I snapped this with my cell phone.)

Sure, you can tell that it reads “SALE.” But it takes a second for your brain to make it out, doesn’t it?

This sign violates two basic principles of legibility. It spells a word vertically rather than left to right, which is the standard in English. And it crams the letters together so that the familiar configuration of the word is damaged.

Now take a look at an example of good legibility just a few stores down in the same mall.

Same word, but it reads left to right and uses the natural shape of the word to make it instantly recognizable. The brain doesn’t need to read this sign, it recognizes and understands the word “sale” instantly.

From a designer’s perspective, the creative sign is more interesting. But that’s irrelevant, since the purpose of the sign is to announce a sale and bring people into the store. All things being equal, the less creative sign is more interesting to customers since they’re interested in the sale, not the sign.

By the way, you should also note that the less creative sign uses the colors red and yellow, which are more dramatic than the soft blue of the other sign. Plus it adds some copywriting savvy by calling the sale an “ultimate sale” and providing some detail on the number of styles marked down.

I recently referred to an article that provides a primer on reading and legibility in design. If you didn’t read it then, read it now. Even if you’re not a designer, you need to understand these ideas since most direct response advertising is about reading.

(Oh, and for the people out there who hate shopping but get suckered into malling anyway, this illustrates a great way to eat up time when a mall is about to close. Announce that you have an idea for your blog and take photos. Don’t take the pictures when you first see a good subject. Walk way past it, then say you have to go back. Then fiddle with your camera for a while. If you’re good, you should be able to reduce your shop time by 10 minutes or more.)

Related posts:

1. Design and legibility: 10 basic principles of reading
2. Design and legibility: 7 tips for high ad readership