It is quite bold and certainly makes an impression. If the post office looked like this, I think I would be confused for a few seconds as I wondered how I accidentally stepped into a personality-infused government building.
That said, I find this font incredibly hard to read; it almost feels like it's not English, and my brain has to work extra-hard to form words from the pixels on the screen.
I agree. It's almost painfully difficult in some places. I think the biggest problem here is the fact that everything is set in all caps, which is a pretty big typographic no-no.[1] The wide tracking and narrow characters of the secondary copy don't help either.
I was assuming that this was a "portfolio project" but the USPS is actually listed as a client. http://web.archive.org/web/20140703023138/http://www.grand-a... (Linking to the archive so as not to pummel their server harder.) I think they realize that the design s going to change a lot by the time it actually gets rolled out, that's why they published the original, idealized version on their website.
The two main typefaces are Knockout and Gotham, both being fonts from Hoefler & Co. — formerly Hoefler & Frere-Jones (H&FJ), until Jonathan Hoefler allegedly never gave Tobias Frere-Jones the equity stake he promised, eventually calling him just an employee[1].
Not only do I think is Hoefler & Co. a terrible company under Hoefler's leadership for that unethical move, the company has refused for the longest time to support web fonts using @font-face — now they partially support it, but only using their proprietary hosting platform, which is just setting a bad precedent for the open web.
There are plenty of small foundries producing high-quality typefaces, with @font-face friendly licensing for webfonts. Can we please stop using Hoefler fonts and supporting this guy?!
Agreed, they own some of the most well known typefaces in the world. Sadly, their pricing is absurd.
For example, I run a forum with a million daily page views. If I wanted to use Gotham, I need to pay $150 for the font, and then subscribe to their cloud service and pay $450 per month for that amount of page views.
I might be willing to pay a one-time $100 fee to use one of their fonts, or a $100 per year subscription to use any of their fonts. However, $5,500 a year for my site? That's almost as much as my servers. It's a laugh, I'll stick with the well respected free web fonts.
Is OP affiliated? I like the work, but batch processing images constrained to 2700px, then throwing all 60 of them to load at one time is killing you. Mockups or not, you're getting some traffic, so optimize those images (resize to 50%; save as 8-bit png for fewer artifacts than jpeg).
in my humble opinion, the "look" of the usps isn't their problem on the retail side. it's the fact that it's a complete and total PITA to ship with them, coupled with the wrong incentive structure for their employees.
1. streamline the process - one form to ship something, a letter, a package, whatever. one sticker goes on the package to indicate the shipping class (certified, etc). none of this a sticker here, a red stamp there, etc.
2. incentivise employees to be PRODUCTIVE. i don't know much about their existing compensation plan, but every time i go to a PO, no one seems to give a shit. i ship a lot of packages on my lunch break. the PO is PACKED at noontime... and there's one person at the desk. REALLY?
anyway, i could go on, but they have a long, long, long, way to go.
#2 is the #1 reason why I don't like dealing with the USPS for packages. It's easier for me to run to the post office and have them walk me through the process of the more complicated shipping (non-domestic primarily), but the people there are ass holes. Between the post office where I live and the office where I work (in two different states), I've never had a good experience. There's always some pissed off, rude middle aged woman who acts like I'm an idiot for not being familiar with all of their complicated protocols and rules for shipping.
So yeah, branding isn't their problem. It's the service itself that blows.
The most polite way to put it is people who willfully refuse to learn any market, are only given the alternatives of being frustrated or ripped off, often without understanding which is about to happen to them. So in this individual concrete example, basically you're saying that for a willfully uninformed customer, the USPS has made a policy decision at a high level to frustrate you instead of ripping you off, and you'd like to do business with someone who will rip you off instead of frustrating you. I donno if that's a huge win or if most people would really prefer that, especially if the alternative were explained to you.
I've shipped exotic electronics prototypes to Canada, all by myself, gettin it right the first time, about as exotic as you can get without involving ITAR, with only minimal and brief research. If you get ITAR involved, then I do feel your pain, but ITAR isn't the USPS's fault, even if they're the easiest people to lash out at.
There shouldn't need to be any learning of markets or navigating of postal office policies. This is a business like any other meant to serve their customers. Shipping a package should and needs to be as easy as checking out at Wal-Mart.
"Shipping a package should and needs to be as easy as checking out at Wal-Mart."
.gov politicians disagree emphatically. Those regulations weren't made for fun. They may result in a dysfunctional system. Monopolies do not serve their customers other than incidentally.
I wasn't really complaining that it's too difficult to ship stuff so much as I was that the employees I've interacted with have all been dicks. I guess not setting aside a weekend to memorize the poorly-designed info database on the USPS site is technically willful ignorance. But then again so is not taking a weekend to learn all of the inner workings of my car, or how plumbing works, or how to build a house, etc. and choosing to have a professional take care of it.
And I really don't think the only two options the USPS has are "be a dick" or "go figure it out yourself, you lazy shit"
Just use the Paypal shipping link, you just enter the recipient address choose your service and package size and you are done. Print the label on your printer drop the package in the mail. You also get the benefit of Commercial Base (COMBAS) pricing. Which is significantly cheaper than physically going to the post office for the same services.
2 isn't an employee problem, its a system problem.
They feel the big brother need to authenticate the heck out of you and your money and manually handle packages all at the same time, so a transaction takes 5 minutes and you get a fabulous line that takes an entire lunch hour to navigate.
The way it should work is vaguely like the automated checkouts at my public library, one human being who does virtually nothing other than reboot machines and create new / renew cards.
So a human being does the Big Brother tracking thing to authenticate your D/L and CC once. Then for all eternity you step up to a machine, slide your DL and CC thru the reader, you slap a sticker on the package, you throw your package on a conveyor belt, all good.
I think a system redesign could get transaction times down to a fraction of a minute and reassign humans to do stuff humans are really good at, like debugging a system they're experts at, exception handling/customer complaints, all that big brother authoritarian BS that they enjoy so much, and teaching other humans, while getting humans out of the work that humans are awful at, like following brainless repetitive procedures, manual labor, and data entry.
Where do you put all this conveyor belt and vending machine junk in existing post offices? Well, if you're not going to have people standing in lines anymore, how bout putting the gear where people used to stand in line for 30 minutes at lunch hour.
Another fix would be sh!t or get off the pot WRT big brother / evil empire stuff. Either get rid of all of it which would save a lot of time, or go all in (more likely, because its more profitable for 3rd parties) which means automatic scanning of drivers licenses and CCs and fingerprints for all transactions, which sounds bad, but if automated would be a heck of a lot faster. (Edited to make it clear I think they're achieved a local maxima of wasted time WRT big brother BS, so any change would almost by definition of a local maxima, speed things up)
There is also a bigger systemic issue WRT scrapping entire parts of the system. If big business can ship whatever they want to Canada without it being inspected or (properly) taxed, or dudes in China can ship me literally anything without the customs system doing much of anything, why not just scrap them? Get rid of the whole process, customs forms and everything. Its not like anything will change other than the elimination of a huge waste of time.
Literally all of your problems could by solved by buying your postage online ahead of time. The post office encourages this, and sells it through their own website, as well as resellers like Stamps.com.
Once you've attached a prepaid shipping label to a package, you can simply drop it off at any office, and they'll ship it. No personal interaction necessary. You don't even have to wait in line.
#2 x 1000, after my last experience with surly disinterested employees at USPS I took my business to UPS this weekend.
Cost slightly more but 0 paperwork and much better service.. Handed a list of addresses to the guy behind the counter, he filled the paperwork , printed the labels etc.. It boggles the mind this isn't standard at USPS which just seems to be a puzzle (#1)
It's an artificial debt... their pension plan is way oversized. Congress has put them in the ridiculous position of literally pre-paying pension obligations of employees who haven't been born yet.
USPS has authority to run its own deficits quarter to quarter or year to year, and they have significantly improved their financial situation since the financial collapse and large drop in first class mail usage. Last year they would have run a surplus if it were not for the pre-funding liabilities: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/us/postal-service-trims-it... Congress needs to get out of the way and let the USPS succeed, but I fear the privatization interests are just setting them up for massive failure.
Your experience is alien to me. I'm probably in the thousands of USPS packages shipped.
- Use electronic shipping whenever possible. With label sticker paper, it's less than 5 minutes for me to create, pay and print a label on usps.com and have it on the package. Then in most cases you can just drop it in the package slot at the post office or have your mail carrier pick it up, no interaction at the post office required.
- If you're making a little side money off of eBay, eBay or PayPal shipping couldn't be easier (and the price for First Class Package, if you're < 1 lb, is a third of Priority etc)
In the rare cases I have to interact with clerks - international, SCAN forms - they've been quite efficient everywhere I've been.
Basically, you can largely avoid having to ever stand in line. If you can't, I'd suggest not going in during peak times. Lines are slow because people who stand in lines largely don't know what they want and don't know how to work the post office.
You are correct that there are typically easier ways to ship. However, needing to know how to work the system is emblematic of the greater problem with USPS. Desk service is an important aspect of the mail system, and, while it may be alien to some, people need assistance with USPS' wide range of services.
A little nit-picky thing I have with the USPS's choices are their add-ons for tracking: USPS Tracking (end-to-end), Return Receipt (proof of delivery), Signature Confirmation (update to date tracking and proof of delivery) & Certified Mail (allows receiver to track delivery).
WTF - these are barely differentiated and only confuse people who don't mail things often. WWSJD (Steve Jobs) - probably have a single add-on choice he'd call something like PackageKit which would be $2 and include up-to-date tracking (for buyer and seller) and proof of delivery.
The branding, no matter how good looking it is - and it is good - must in the end enhance the product. But if the product itself is confusing, the branding and styles can only do so much. Concise product goals make the work of the designer more focused and the end result would be beautiful to use as well as look at.
Having worked on web projects for the USPS before 2000, I remember they had the design sense of a rock at that time. One web app I worked on was for internal use, I had to work with IE 2.X since they had actually paid MS for a license and shipped it to PO locations on a CD. They wouldn't consider supporting Netscape which actually functioned even though it was free. I guess "Welcome to the 21st century".
Not many people realize that the USPS is the ONLY federal government department authorized and mentioned in The Constitution. Cut the other departments, and give it all to the USPS because constitution.
Except it also delegate authority to Congress and the Gov't to do a number of things, and does not specify how those things should be done, allowing Congress and the gov't a great deal of freedom in implementation. So no, the USPS isn't the only constitutional government agency.
Is that an amateur proposal, or was this accepted by USPS, polished further and paid for? Based on the amount of text fillings, looks like the latter is true. In any way, what I see is highly impractical, and the brand book is far from complete. Here are some things I dislike about it:
-All caps. This is wrong, and it should be fairly obvious even to a child, when pointed out. Millions of people will see media based on it, and a generation will grow up, struggling to read all-caps price lists, all-caps footnotes and navigating all-caps menus on their smartphones. What's worse, is that they will subconsciously accept it as part of their lives and surroundings.
-Too much visual clutter: completely unjustified use of borders, underlines and dotted lines – also in between semantically same elements.
-What does "→" mean?
-Clickable elements are indistinguishable from statics on self-service terminals and smartphone apps. Footnotes are impractically small even for a HD screen.
Overall impression: somebody, truly oblivious of basic usability principles, thought that infographics (the Daily-Mail-grade ones) and UITableViews are cool, and built a company identity around them. And the other guys sold it.
Sure! I am probably biased, but I have been following Artemy and his studio from the early 2000s. He publishes semi-random notes on design, some of them influenced by realities of a post-Soviet state. Here is a link to the book: http://www.artlebedev.com/mandership/
Not to toot these kids horns and all but they have worked for draft and Weiden + kennedy. I think your pure design analysis of this has missed the mark as in their approach has a much more story driven purpose, creating a look and feel. To leave this out of your analysis or crit, is as though you are only judging half the equation. Purpose and design go hand in hand, And while I agree with the type comment I think that the work itself can illicit an emotional response of pride and accomplishment that the post office can champion. I mean they seem to be using patriotism and while that can be bad in some cases for the post office, which is a government body this would be a perfect place to use it.
48 comments
[ 22.2 ms ] story [ 192 ms ] threadThat said, I find this font incredibly hard to read; it almost feels like it's not English, and my brain has to work extra-hard to form words from the pixels on the screen.
[1] http://typographyforlawyers.com/all-caps.html
Edit: It's painfully slow to load, but it seems I was right.
I agree with jrockway that the "Knockout" font is a little hard to follow. The eagle at the end looks... cool, but unnecessarily violent :p
http://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/new_reta...
Not only do I think is Hoefler & Co. a terrible company under Hoefler's leadership for that unethical move, the company has refused for the longest time to support web fonts using @font-face — now they partially support it, but only using their proprietary hosting platform, which is just setting a bad precedent for the open web.
There are plenty of small foundries producing high-quality typefaces, with @font-face friendly licensing for webfonts. Can we please stop using Hoefler fonts and supporting this guy?!
[1] http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/17/5318206/hoefler-and-frere-...
For example, I run a forum with a million daily page views. If I wanted to use Gotham, I need to pay $150 for the font, and then subscribe to their cloud service and pay $450 per month for that amount of page views.
I might be willing to pay a one-time $100 fee to use one of their fonts, or a $100 per year subscription to use any of their fonts. However, $5,500 a year for my site? That's almost as much as my servers. It's a laugh, I'll stick with the well respected free web fonts.
1. streamline the process - one form to ship something, a letter, a package, whatever. one sticker goes on the package to indicate the shipping class (certified, etc). none of this a sticker here, a red stamp there, etc.
2. incentivise employees to be PRODUCTIVE. i don't know much about their existing compensation plan, but every time i go to a PO, no one seems to give a shit. i ship a lot of packages on my lunch break. the PO is PACKED at noontime... and there's one person at the desk. REALLY?
anyway, i could go on, but they have a long, long, long, way to go.
So yeah, branding isn't their problem. It's the service itself that blows.
I've shipped exotic electronics prototypes to Canada, all by myself, gettin it right the first time, about as exotic as you can get without involving ITAR, with only minimal and brief research. If you get ITAR involved, then I do feel your pain, but ITAR isn't the USPS's fault, even if they're the easiest people to lash out at.
.gov politicians disagree emphatically. Those regulations weren't made for fun. They may result in a dysfunctional system. Monopolies do not serve their customers other than incidentally.
And I really don't think the only two options the USPS has are "be a dick" or "go figure it out yourself, you lazy shit"
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now
They feel the big brother need to authenticate the heck out of you and your money and manually handle packages all at the same time, so a transaction takes 5 minutes and you get a fabulous line that takes an entire lunch hour to navigate.
The way it should work is vaguely like the automated checkouts at my public library, one human being who does virtually nothing other than reboot machines and create new / renew cards.
So a human being does the Big Brother tracking thing to authenticate your D/L and CC once. Then for all eternity you step up to a machine, slide your DL and CC thru the reader, you slap a sticker on the package, you throw your package on a conveyor belt, all good.
I think a system redesign could get transaction times down to a fraction of a minute and reassign humans to do stuff humans are really good at, like debugging a system they're experts at, exception handling/customer complaints, all that big brother authoritarian BS that they enjoy so much, and teaching other humans, while getting humans out of the work that humans are awful at, like following brainless repetitive procedures, manual labor, and data entry.
Where do you put all this conveyor belt and vending machine junk in existing post offices? Well, if you're not going to have people standing in lines anymore, how bout putting the gear where people used to stand in line for 30 minutes at lunch hour.
Another fix would be sh!t or get off the pot WRT big brother / evil empire stuff. Either get rid of all of it which would save a lot of time, or go all in (more likely, because its more profitable for 3rd parties) which means automatic scanning of drivers licenses and CCs and fingerprints for all transactions, which sounds bad, but if automated would be a heck of a lot faster. (Edited to make it clear I think they're achieved a local maxima of wasted time WRT big brother BS, so any change would almost by definition of a local maxima, speed things up)
There is also a bigger systemic issue WRT scrapping entire parts of the system. If big business can ship whatever they want to Canada without it being inspected or (properly) taxed, or dudes in China can ship me literally anything without the customs system doing much of anything, why not just scrap them? Get rid of the whole process, customs forms and everything. Its not like anything will change other than the elimination of a huge waste of time.
Once you've attached a prepaid shipping label to a package, you can simply drop it off at any office, and they'll ship it. No personal interaction necessary. You don't even have to wait in line.
Plus, it's really every US tax payer paying for the problems...
http://money.cnn.com/2012/03/05/news/economy/postal_service_...
- Use electronic shipping whenever possible. With label sticker paper, it's less than 5 minutes for me to create, pay and print a label on usps.com and have it on the package. Then in most cases you can just drop it in the package slot at the post office or have your mail carrier pick it up, no interaction at the post office required.
- If you're making a little side money off of eBay, eBay or PayPal shipping couldn't be easier (and the price for First Class Package, if you're < 1 lb, is a third of Priority etc)
In the rare cases I have to interact with clerks - international, SCAN forms - they've been quite efficient everywhere I've been.
Basically, you can largely avoid having to ever stand in line. If you can't, I'd suggest not going in during peak times. Lines are slow because people who stand in lines largely don't know what they want and don't know how to work the post office.
WTF - these are barely differentiated and only confuse people who don't mail things often. WWSJD (Steve Jobs) - probably have a single add-on choice he'd call something like PackageKit which would be $2 and include up-to-date tracking (for buyer and seller) and proof of delivery.
The branding, no matter how good looking it is - and it is good - must in the end enhance the product. But if the product itself is confusing, the branding and styles can only do so much. Concise product goals make the work of the designer more focused and the end result would be beautiful to use as well as look at.
I also like Montserrat, free typeface kind of similar to Gotham, yet kind of different.
http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Montserrat
http://www.fontspace.com/julieta-ulanovsky/montserrat
Is that an amateur proposal, or was this accepted by USPS, polished further and paid for? Based on the amount of text fillings, looks like the latter is true. In any way, what I see is highly impractical, and the brand book is far from complete. Here are some things I dislike about it:
-All caps. This is wrong, and it should be fairly obvious even to a child, when pointed out. Millions of people will see media based on it, and a generation will grow up, struggling to read all-caps price lists, all-caps footnotes and navigating all-caps menus on their smartphones. What's worse, is that they will subconsciously accept it as part of their lives and surroundings.
-Too much visual clutter: completely unjustified use of borders, underlines and dotted lines – also in between semantically same elements.
-What does "→" mean?
-Clickable elements are indistinguishable from statics on self-service terminals and smartphone apps. Footnotes are impractically small even for a HD screen.
Overall impression: somebody, truly oblivious of basic usability principles, thought that infographics (the Daily-Mail-grade ones) and UITableViews are cool, and built a company identity around them. And the other guys sold it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
*edit for spelling