Week 1: Nicole Buckbinder

My first example of typeface is the T.G.I Friday’s Restaurant word mark. T.G.I. Friday’s is a huge franchise with many competitors. Some of these include, Applebee’s, Outback Steakhouse, Chili’s, Tully’s, Friendly’s, and more. Therefore the way that T.G.I. Friday’s is advertised and portrayed is really important to make it stand out from the rest of its competitors. The typeface says a lot about the restaurant itself and in my opinion it doesn’t give it a lot of character.

I think that the font being used is the very popular “Helvetica Bold.” It is a sans serif font, which is a very clean and modern typeface. The restaurant and bar “Friday’s” in my opinion isn’t the most clean and modern place ever. It is known for its fried food and bar therefore I think that the typeface should have more of an edge to it. In addition, because the font “Helvetica” is used so often and appears everywhere, I don’t think it is helping the restaurant stand out from its other competitors.

The logo consists of all caps except for the “i” in Friday’s. I think that this was done to make it more unique and show that the restaurant has a little bit more of and edge to it. However, I think it isn’t that successful because in my opinion it looks awkward, it is not centered and makes the boldness of the word “Friday’s” less appealing. The “T.G.I.” is placed right above the word “Friday’s” in the center and is exceptionally smaller then the word “Friday’s.” I believe that this was done because not a lot of people refer to the restaurant with its whole name. The “T.G.I.” stands for “thank God it’s” and then FRiDAY is being emphasized by its larger size. The “T.G.I.” gets really lost in the logo and it could be controversial because of the word “god” in it.

In addition the word Friday is supposed to resemble something fun and relaxing. It is a day that represents a good time, which is what they should be trying to represent that it will offer its customers. The logo has a straight baseline, and the words are very plain and black which shows its simplicity and is very straight forward. Surrounding the words are red and white striped diagonal lines. I think the reason why they made the typeface so clean and simple is so that it isn’t as distracting because of the design around it. However, doesn’t this design remind you of the signs that you see outside old barbershops? I don’t think people have their best, crazy, and enjoyable times at a barbershop do you?