Yeah a tough call. I'd say you should slowly put the magazine down and walk away. :^D

…probably designed by a jock.

--------
nc

The spacing is consistent with elsewhere.
Works for me.

I'm such a smart-aleck.

I think it does work. It is an unfortunate run of lettershapes and I assume they did the best with it that they could. I can read it as well.

I'd not noticed that before and now thanks to you I'll never be able to look at the magazine the same way again! Fortunately I don't subscribe.

Nice mustache.

Since they're sticking two basketball players in front of 50% of the magazine name, I think it is fair to say thay they consider the brand recognition to be sufficient enough not to worry about the actual readability of the name.

I know brand recognition is not the issue. It just strikes me that the first 3 letters look foreign to the rest. The "Ill" looks like the "M" in M&Ms. They could have just lower-cased the i.

ChrisL

PS: Si, you don't subscribe but do you buy the swimsuit issue :-)

> PS: Si, you don’t subscribe but do you buy the swimsuit issue :-)

You know I was going to mention that ;-) Seriously if the people on the cover were 'more interesting', you might not be as inclined to notice the logo ;-)

What about the lack of overshoot for the rounds? That bothers me at least as much.

Oops, must get back to work.

T

"Seriously if the people on the cover were ‘more interesting’, you might not be as inclined to notice the logo ;-)"

Got to agree with you on that one Si.

Thomas,
BACK TO WORK! :-)

ChrisL

What goes on behind their heads, the r's look different; does t ever have a lefthand bar; what does the st spacing look like; what is mustrated? Too many questions.
Tim

Is there an "ra" ligature in Illustrated?

Richard

Chris, Si, this one's 4U :-)

Now that photo has balls! :-)

1955--Hmmm, I was in Junior High then!

ChrisL

Might there be something to be said for illegibility in this context? Might the publishers be fine with it if, as you're scanning covers at a magazine stand, your eyes have to go back and linger on this one to figure out what it says?

I don't know when it started, but the tall-I treatment has been part of the SI logo for a long time. On the Wikipedia there is this cover from 1970:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1970_SI_cover_Texas_Slaughters_Arkans...

Here's one from 1961:

http://i.cnn.net/si/si_online/covers/images/1961/0213_large.jpg

So it has been Sports Mustrated for all that long huh?
The buster with the new one is the outline combined with a 3D shadow edge all crammed into that narrow counter or sidebearing space. There is a lot of stuff going on in a few microns of space there. The older ones did not have either 3D or outline (plus, they had more letterspacing).

ChrisL

Eh, I think it's all just to give it that aggressive, energetic, in-your-face, sports attitude. At least they restrained themselves from slanting it.

I also think the tall I is just fine, and reads more like an I than the usual short sans I, which with a straight-legged l gets into trouble on the abbreviation for Illinois, Ill. Always looks like III.

About magazine covers:

Lynne Staley Assistant Managing Editor/ Design Newsweek & Hillary Raskin Deputy Photo Editor Time:

http://poynteronline.org/content/content_view.asp?id=15422&sid=29

Si,
Is this better?

ChrisL

Right Chris, that shows the one-sided crossbar on "t" and the r-a ligature.

Yes, shows the spacing much better.

That sample seems to show more than just letters being legated… ;-)

Chris, is the "t" shown above (with no bar extending to the left) the inspiration behind similar t's in some of your fonts? How old is that image you posted, maybe its been effecting your work for some time…

Dan,
My son just started getting SI in January and the only "tease" I noticed before your mention here was the 8 young ladies below the masthead :-)

Nick,
Yes, this version of the logo is definitely more revealing of the forms. It is not overdressed for the occasion.

ChrisL

"I’d say you should slowly put the magazine down and walk away."

Tiff,
I would say that now is a more appropriate time for your comment than before :-)

ChrisL

"Yes, this version of the logo is definitely more revealing of the forms. It is not overdressed for the occasion."

Nice Chris.

Being from Illinois, Ill is always a legibility issue and we see it everywhere.

-Rob

I know this isn't about Sports ???ustrated, but I've also noticed this with Illustrator's name even though the cap height of the eye is lower than the ascender of the el. I think that this is just a common problem with sans serif 'ill' combinations.

"I think that this is just a common problem with sans serif ‘ill’ combinations."

Which is one of the reasons I try to differentiate the "I [eye]" from the "l [el]" in the sans fonts I design.

ChrisL

Below are 2 hastlly drawn 72dpi possibilities at ending my Monk OCD fixation with the ill:

ChrisL

Chris,

You're working too hard :) John nailed the whole issue.

David,
Maybe it just that I hadn't looked at Sports Illustrated in many years and never noticed the rebranding. Your 3rd example from December 2001 works the best for me because it is not overdressed with the outline plus 3D effect--therefore the interletter spaces make much more sense.
The whole thing to me was like waking up with a piece of food stuck in your teeth. You know that if you don't get up and floss it out that you will never get back to sleep :-)

ChrisL

>Si,
>Is this better?

Can someone remind me what this thread was about? ;-)

Does a logo have to be legible to perform its task and at what point in its life does a wordmark become an illustration as recognisable as something like Mickey Mouse's sihouette despite being partly obscured. Or was it about kerning blondes?
Tim

For me it was about--a piece of a wordmark that seemed to separate itself from the rest of it enough to call attention to itself as a singularity and detract from the unity of the mark. The Mickey Mouse shadow is totally consistent with itself and no part of it becomes a squeaky wheel. (That and I kinda liked the 2 brunettes better :-D)

ChrisL

Hello.
Does anyone close the space between two of the same (l's), like in illustrate or illinois to keep the (i's) seperate? Unconventional I know, but shouldn't it be done? Though only at text sizes.

Sports Liistrated

Sports lIIustrated