Punctuation problems

As of this morning, Aol. joins the likes of vitra., EAT., MORE TH>N, LV=, Yahoo! and nineties rocksters Therapy? by incorporating a punctuation mark into its identity.

You can see how messy that sentence gets.

The whole thing gets a good write-up in the New York Times.

With the possible exception of Therapy?(?), these are all successful national or global brands. There's nothing wrong with a bit of punctuation (especially if it's an ampersand). 

But they do present problems for writers.

For the moment, Aol. is continuing to write its name as AOL on its website. It'll be interesting to see whether this discrepancy lasts, or the Aol. usage gradually takes over.

They could end up in the same situation as Yahoo!, who always use the exclamation mark, no matter what the context. It's especially strange when it comes at the end of a sentence, as in: "What's the point of Yahoo!?" or "Please accept our sincere condolances, from all your colleagues here at Yahoo!"

Either way, if these brands think they're onto something with their punctuated logos, they ain't seen nothing yet. Over to you, Aalto University in Helsinki.

In your face, Yahoo!!

Comments

[Daniel]

What bugs me about the Yahoo! one is that they insist on incorporating that registered trademark symbol after the exclamation, no matter how small it is. Look at the mess it makes here for example: http://www.flickr.com/. Yuck.

Also, I've never quite understood why, despite not being an acronym (as far as I'm aware), LEGO demand on using shouty capitals. Just because your logo is in capitals, that doesn't mean you have to write it like that all the time, surely?

Or maybe you do. I'll consult an expert on such matters at !a"al"t?ou;n!i,ver&&r.s-it?y, and see what they think on the matter.

[Nick Asbury]

Just found out The Guardian Style Guide says this under 'company names':

"A tricky area, as so many companies these days have adopted unconventional typography and other devices that, in some cases, turn their names into logos. In general, we use the names that the companies use themselves: easyJet, eBay, ebookers, iSoft Group, Yahoo! are fine; but Adidas (not adidas), BhS (no italicised h), Toys R Us (do not attempt to turn the R backwards). Many of these look odd, particularly when used as first word in a headline, although some are becoming more familiar with time."

I think that's a fair enough policy, but wish companies didn't feel the need to be so quirky. Writing your name in caps is like writing your Facebook updates or tweets in caps – just a bit annoying.

[Daniel]

That just reminded me of something hugely annoying I spotted recently at an out-of-town warehouse-shoppingparkhell, where they have massive versions of high street shops. Sometimes they choose to differentiate between the regular-sized shop and the bloated version with a simple "megastore" or "metro" chucked onto the end, which makes sense. So what have BhS done?

"BhS Homestore."

Good lord.

[Nick Asbury]

Now you've gone and ruined my afternoon.