Software 32: text or wordmark?

Subject: Software 32: text or wordmark?
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Wed, 21 Jan 1998 09:11:16 -0600

Tom Herme posed a problem about a product named "Software
32": <<My marketing manager wants to format every instance
of the product name in Brush Script and give a superscript
appearance to the 32.>>

If memory serves, Brush Script is one of the more readable
scripty typefaces, but it's still going to look odd and be
less readable than using your standard text font. I think
the problem is that your manager is confusing the use of a
trademarked name with the use of a wordmark. The wordmark
is a graphic representation of your company's name, and to
present a consistent corporate identity you've got to use
the same typography (color, size, typeface, position, etc.)
on all your corporate communications. In text, this is
wholly unnecessary. Check out any IBM, Microsoft, Adobe,
Corel, or other large-company software manual and you'll
see how this works: as a graphic on the cover of the
manual, the wordmark is always consistent; in the text,
it's simply body text, and rarely carries so much as a (TM)
or (R) symbol.

Your question raises another concern, however. Just how
often do you repeat the product's name in your text?
Without seeing the text itself, I can't comment on this,
but it's worth having a second look: the users have already
bought your software, so you don't have to remind them of
its name on every page. Use the software's name primarily
where it's not otherwise obvious which of several pieces of
software that are running simultaneously (e.g., your
product, Netscape, plus Win95) you're referring to.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.




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