Shoutout to the old sign painter at the county fair who showed me my big mistake

I had been making bumper stickers for about two years. Last month I set up a small booth at the Grant County Fair in Kansas. An older guy walks by, looks at my table, and just laughs. He points to one of my stickers and says the kerning is all wrong. I didn't even know what kerning was. He spent 20 minutes showing me how letters should breathe next to each other. I went home and fixed 40 old designs that night. Has anyone else had a random stranger teach them something that changed their whole approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

olivia_webb1mo ago

Now I obsess over letter spacing on every sign I see.

paulb981mo ago

Hold up - you see spacing issues EVERYWHERE now? @olivia_webb that's both awesome and kind of terrifying lol. Like, I bet even a simple McDonald's sign is a nightmare for you now. That extra gap between the 'c' and 'D' would drive me nuts. Man, I can't even look at comic sans in public without feeling weird now.