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Have a cup of Cozy…

I was at Panera recently and as I enjoyed my meal I noticed two kids who sat behind my table walk up and place an order. When they came back to their table I heard them say - “It’s not called a cup of cozy” to their mother and how the daughter felt so stupid for asking for it.

In Panera there was a hanging banner that on the top says “Have a cup of Cozy” - The word Cozy was on it’s own line and was also the largest size so it had more emphasis. Then it showed a cup with whip-cream and chocolate syrup. Underneath the cup it says Hot Chocolate, in a different typeface, different color, and what could of been a different weight. It was also placed in a spot that could easily been overlooked.

While the design was nice, and it caught my eye prior to hearing the event with the kids behind my table - it makes me wonder how many people have made the same mistake? In a world were meals have their own names that might have nothing to do with their contents - (Such as the Big Mac, McDouble, Whopper) it’s not surprising that someone might think this drink which you can’t tell it’s hot chocolate (due to the image only having the whip-cream and chocolate syrup) might be called Cozy. Yet when a person makes such a mistake and then walks up to the hanging banner to look at it a second time after being told “We don’t have a product called Cozy” to find out what the product is called - that’s a problem.

A simple solution is to move the part “hot chocolate” from the near bottom of the banner underneath the word Cozy. That way people won’t feel bad by making a simple mistake.

Don’t become sheep

Have an opinion. When I was a student, a professor of mine gave the assignment of developing an opinion on type. Now I do regret somethings I said during the assignment - “Times New Roman” however other things I said I don’t regret - For example that day I discovered I have a strong dislike towards didot and bodoni. Granted I believe I have Bodoni installed on my machine, however I might kill myself if I find out I allow didot to be installed.

Get to know me a bit better and you might find out I don’t like Helvetica much. Don’t get me wrong - it has a beautiful history and if you haven’t watched the documentary then I highly recommend you do. I however don’t find Helvetica to be that exciting. It’s boring, granted I’ve seen things in Helvetica with the use of color, size and the message presented - it does well. I don’t like the fact how much people use it as a default. Don’t be afraid to experiment with type.

Also another reason I dislike Helvetica is because of it’s “R” which funny enough is similar to Dodit’s and Bodoni’s “R”, I also know other designer’s share the same dislike towards it’s “R”. Anyways main point of this post - Don’t become sheep, have an opinion, however make sure you are willing to listen to other people’s opinions.