Ugly atheist buses

I was hoping someone else would’ve said this by now, but I think I’m going to have to be the jerk.

In my post about the British atheist bus campaign, I said I wasn’t interested until I actually saw the ads, which were attractive and well-done.

Because initially I was afraid they might look more like the following visual atrocities:

From Washington, DC –

And from Spain –

(If you need to refresh your eyeballs, here are the UK ads again, and here is a turtle eating a strawberry.)

Discussion

So my first thought is, WTF is up with the Santa? Let’s have a closeup:

Nothing against him – looks like a super cool dude. Just don’t understand what the hell he’s doing on this ad, in a Santa costume, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, “I’m as confused as you are.”

But the rest of the ad is fine, right? Sadly, no. Here’s the version that goes on the sides of the buses, sans Santa:

Not offensively bad, just bland. The most obvious font in the world, in the most obvious colors, with some seasonal clipart thrown in at random, all working together for a coordinated aesthetic of goofiness. It says, “I was designed by a committee, or a professional they didn’t pay enough.”

(Next year they should use some of the million dollars they just raised.)

As for the Spanish buses, the campaign deserves kudos for trying to emulate the British ads. Except they committed the worst typographical sin made possible by the digital age: artificially condensing (or expanding) a typeface by rescaling the letterforms horizontally, instead of switching to a font that was designed to be narrower (or wider) in the first place. Looks like they’re using Twentieth Century, of which a properly condensed version is available for only $30.

Really though, if they’re going to emulate the British ads, they should’ve used the same font, which is available for free.

(h/t Renko at Typophile)

Conclusion

I say all this not to be negative, but because I want these groups to do better. Design is important. If you’re going to invest thousands of dollars on ads, you need to spend some of that money on the design.

These ads, while they get their message out, I think also hurt the image of humanists and atheists in some viewers’ minds. The British ads may not win any high-profile design awards, but they do look like the product of a community that is modern, sophisticated, even a little hip, while to me the others recall John Brockman’s image of atheists as losers, which we’d all like to put behind us.

That’s a harsh note, so why don’t we end with a beautifully designed (and hopeful) billboard from the FFRF.