I've noticed that overall, the design of Kaiju and neo Kaiju is of course amazing, but I'm always suprised in the English Language promos and packaging they use a super basic font like Impact or some boring serif font. Why is that? Is that due to legibility issues for non native English readers? It's not like snappy English fonts arent freely available. It of course has its own aesthetic but I'm more just curious. Any font/kaiju nerds who can illuminate please chime in.

i hate the word 'font'

You're such a font of hate...

i specifically hate when i design a logo or something and people ask 'what's that font?'. because when i design a logo i just pick a font and type it out and call it a day.

At my gig we pretty much have to stick to 2 fonts when we do internal work which sucks and is a blessing all at the same time.

I hate the word Kaiju

I hate words. Let's all switch to pictograms.

Typeface?

yeah i like that better

Abe I suspect you hit the nail on the head and answered your own question, but another thing to consider is that typography isn't the primary focus of people involved in making kaiju. An obvious exception is Brian's work, in which you get both well-designed toys with well-designed headers and promo graphics. The unity of "look and feel" is exceptional in both senses of the word. By contrast, I was a little surprised by the cheesy-looking header for the first production Beetlar (not that I really care) but again, the toy's the thing.

I used to hate the misuse of the word "font" when "typeface" or as the case may be "logotype" are the proper terms, but feeling outnumbered on this issue in an age when words like "font" are no longer the exclusive domain of typo-nerds, I looked up recent thoughts on the issue. As it turns out, the consensus seems to be that internationally, the graphics community has yielded to common useage such that "font" is now basically interchangeable with "typeface." Too bad if you ask me. I like that typographers used to be notoriously anal retentive about proper terminology as well as their craft itself. The egalitarianism of personal computers has diffused a lot of traditions, but such is progress.

To clarify the old-school differences, a "typeface" in the days of lead press type was the style of the letterforms. "Font" was more like a subset or some house's version of a typeface. This is a weak example, but think of Helvetica as a typeface, and Microsoft's Arial as being a Helvetica font. A "logotype" is exactly that ... think of the elaborate "Lucasfilms" logo ... that's a logotype, where entity-identifying words and logo are united.

If I got any of that wrong or if anyone can clarify better, please do speak up. It's been a long time since a strict Swiss German disciplinarian at art school cracked his typographical whip on xoco and classmates.

post some header examples. I'm not sure I know what you are talking about.

Like these?

That Madmantic header that liquid posted is probably the kind of thing that Abe was talking about. I don't have any pix here at work but as another thought ... I kind of like that some headers look slapdash. Part of the whole D.I.Y. aspect of neo kaiju. More punk than pro.

Id put the Mad Mantic header in the group I was specifically speaking to. And as I said theres definitely an aesthetic at work there but what I saw this AM got me wondering



Now I'm not talking about the sculpt or the packaging on this one in particular, but just the MADHEADBARBARRIMAN" typeface.

I'm all for more punk than pro. I am turned off completely when things look too perfect & clean.

Slop it up!

but one request...CAN WE PLEASE STOP CALLING THESE FIGURES KAIJU?!

They aren't. Thanks!

I agree about the Kaiju thing. When I was getting rid of the last of my western crap the person I sold it to asked me why I was selling it and I replied about getting into Japanese vinyl. He then said "Oh cool Kaiju, I don't understand why you like that stuff." I proceeded in walking off.

i think it might be a Japanese aesthetic thing. A lot of JP websites have that cluttered I-just-learned-HTML look and use Courier New in abundance. Function over form?

You should speak with Frank K. He is the one that adminsters the Rules of this board.

True, true, but in the print media, Japan is currently one of the world's leaders in innovative graphic design, right up there with the UK. I guess it's all in the context. In magazine, book, and poster design, graphic excellence matters. Not so much in kai ... er ... toy packaging.

its because they dont really have a reason to buy lots of western typefaces. Most guys I know in J have like just the default fonts for english and then millions of JAPANESE fonts in various styles.

i always thought typeface is like Garamond

then fonts would be Garamond Bold, Garamond Italic, etc.