Some happened after 1986, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransom_note_effect

It is sad that good designers have to spend so much time convincing a client not to use crap. Try to explain to the client that their image is very valuable and worthy of careful design consideration. A cheap "just like all the rest of them" logo will not distinguish your client from his competition or help position them favoorably in their customer's eys. Good things only come from good hard work. I wish you the best in your meeting! We have all been there.

ChrisL

when did we first see these examples of bad typography

Progress is often the result of incorporating "mistakes", which are made possible by new technology, into the canon.
That is where the paragraph indent came from, to go way back in time.
Negative leading and fitting of text in the 1970s were made possible by photosetting.
Scaling distorion is a desktop-publishing phenomenon, because it's easy for computer-using designers entrusted with typography to "squeeze to fit". And hey, it looks new, different, and interesting -- or at least it did 15 years ago, if you didn't find it horrifying.

But perhaps your client is into a retro-vernacular-1991 kind of thing?

"Ransom Note" typography was popularized by Jamie Reid in his designs for the Sex Pistols in 1977, and used by Neville Brody in The Face magazine (before he designed his own typefaces).

Honestly, I don't know whatever to make of your post.

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soren olsen

I want to stress that I am not necessaryly against horizontal scaling of type ... but if you design a logo you have to analyze your client's present situation, the desired goal and how to get there - and _then_ you design a logo. If you skip the analysis, and just scale a word 200 percent and crop the ascenders and call that logo design, that is wrong.

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soren olsen

Yes it is, and it happens every day anyway.

ChrisL

My problem with scaling type is it distorts the weight balance of the characters. Stretching thins the verticals and condencing thins the horizontals.

Dan is of course right. The sad part is that so few people care that the weight balance is out of whack.

ChrisL

I learned not to mess with a typeface unless you absolutely know what you are doing, and the client probably doesn't. If you want a long skinny typeface, find one, don't butcher something else. Like Dan said, so few people care about type, they don't realize it's an art. And that's why I was so happy to find this forum!

I absolutely detest the Ryanair ads (UK), with their hideous yellow background colour, really cheap downmarket typography set in ALL CAPS horizontally scaled to about 30%.

They make me cringe (and angry) every time I see them.

What makes it worse is it's my typeface. I almost feel ashamed, like it's my fault that they been so poorly used

Nick Cooke

Nick, It isn't your fault! There is no way to make sure someone does not screw up your perfectly good as is typeface. I hope they at least paid for a liscence.

ChrisL

That's unfortunate! There should be a way to code a typeface so that it disables the ability to destroy it! You guys work on that...I'm gonna go raid the office kitchen for some breakfast matter.