Why Typography Matters -- Especially At The Oscars (freecodecamp.com)

An anonymous reader shares a blog post: There's one thing the Academy possibly didn't consider, or forgot, for this year's winner cards: typography. First, it's legible, you can tell all the letters apart. Second, it's somewhat readable, but the visual weight of "Moonlight" and the producers are equal and blend together. Lastly, even though it is just a winner's card, it's not visually appealing. I think it's fair to say it's objectively bland. That's horrible typography. Of course, anyone could've made the same honest error! You are on television with millions of people around the world watching. You are a little nervous, and you have to read a card. You will most likely read it from top to bottom (visual hierarchy) without questioning whether the card is right. That look on Warren's face was, "This says 'Emma Stone' on it." Faye must've skipped that part and was caught up in the excitement and just blurted out, "La La Land." I don't blame Faye or Warren for this. This was the fault of two entities: whoever was in charge of the design of the winning card (Was it really a design? C'mon), and the unfortunate person who handed them the wrong envelope. A clearly designed card and envelope (don't even get me started on that gold on red envelope) would've prevented this. The blogger, Benjamin Bannister (a creative consultant for old and new media), adds that there were essentially three things wrong with the card in question: Oscars logo need not to be at the top of the card. The category, "Best Acress" was at the bottom, and in small print. And, the winner's name, the main thing that should be read, is the same size as the second line and given equal weight.

Comments

" Faye must've skipped that part"

[Anonymous Coward]

Wrong.

There was a whole backstory of Faye and Warren fighting over who got to read Best Picture. Warren eventually conceded to her; he would open the envelope, and Faye would read the name.

When he looked at the card and started stalling, Faye freaked out that he was going to read the name, so she read it as soon as she was able to see the title.

Re:" Faye must've skipped that part"

[Anonymous Coward]

Plus - Warren had apparently presented two times before, had a rough idea what he was looking for; you can see his confusion. Faye apparently had never presented before, had less of an idea what should "look" right. A quick glance at the card, she saw and read the title.

Plus, the category is as the article mentions, in tiny type at the bottom of the card. Presumably both these old fogies were not wearing their reading glasses. (76 and 80 years old) The category may have been the least readable part of the card, as well as not being prominent.

Another point was the envelope exterior had the category as gold foil on deep red, rather than the traditional deep red on gold... Making the category even less readable on the outside, assisting in the mix-up.

Re:" Faye must've skipped that part"

[xevioso]

But they will see the film now.

In addition, I am not sure what industry you are in, if they give out any sort of performance awards, literally no one cares...except the people in your industry.

In Hollywood, not only do the people in that industry care, but tens of millions of people care who watched it.

Re:" Faye must've skipped that part"

[Pfhorrest]

Whether or not "literally" just means literally, it definitely does mean mean "figuratively" either, and I've seen some awful blunders from people trying to hypercorrect under that assumption, ala:

"...so since I was too drunk to study I ended up getting figuratively the lowest grade in the class!"

"Wait, what is 'lowest grade in the class' figurative of?"

"Oh you know, I just mean like, it wasn't like LITERALLY the lowest grade in the class, just, y'know, a pretty low grade."

Non-literal uses of "literal" may be figurative uses, but that doesn't make "literally" mean figuratively. If you had to give a one-word definition for the new figurative sense of the word literal, it would be something more like "hyperbolically".

Viral Marketing?

[monkeyxpress]

When I first read the story on the front page of basically every newspaper, my immediate thought was that it was a publicity stunt. Maybe it wasn't, but I know that I - and many of my friends - didn't care about the oscars this year until that story popped up. Whether this was 'fake news' or not, we are most definitely entering a strange new world, where information is more readily available than ever, but more unreliable than ever.

Re:Hindsight

[ZorinLynx]

>plugged the power cable into a USB slot because he wasn't paying attention

How??!