Shoutout to the guy at the craft fair who got me second-guessing my whole design process

I was at a booth in Austin last weekend and this older dude looked at my bumper sticker stack and said "your fonts are too clean, people want something that looks like a sharpie wrote it." I argued back that crisp vector text reads better at 60 mph, but he pulled out his own stickers and they were all hand-lettered with obvious wobbles and smudges. Now I'm sitting here wondering if I'm overthinking the design or if readability really matters more than personality. Which side do you guys lean on for your own work?

2 comments

2 Comments

wells.brooke2d ago

...and then the guy probably sells thirty times more than me because people love that "I made this in my garage" vibe, right? I mean, my fonts are so clean they could pass a corporate brand audit, but that's not exactly what sells at a craft fair where everyone's drinking local IPAs and feeling artsy. Honestly though, there's room for both, but now I'm over here eyeing my own vector files like they're fancy robots who don't know how to have fun. Maybe I'll try a hybrid approach, you know, crisp shapes but with a little wobble in the details to fake the hand-done look.

terryr462d ago

Had a buddy who did woodworking, made these perfect smooth cutting boards with laser engraving. Nobody bought them. Then he started leaving tool marks on purpose, rough edges, handwritten labels. Sold out every weekend. People want to feel like they're buying from a person, not a factory.