Saving the Oval

saving the ovalhow social media has gotten us half way there 10 lessons in marketing a cause

jeff white | kula partners | #podcamphfx 2011


some stats•opened early December•can handle over 500 people

at once•centrally located•free to the public, including

rental gear

•over 8,500 have signed petition

•more than $3,000 raised privately

•more than 15,000 visitors to savetheoval.ca in <3 weeks

*about the typographyIt has been brought to my attention that some people were upset that my talk wasn’t going to be about type. I shall endeavour to also provide notes about the typography in these slides. I have no idea if this will work or simply be confusing as hell. I apologize in advance if it’s the latter.


This typeface is FF Meta, designed by Erik Spiekermann for the West German Postal Office. It became the Helvetica of the 90s.

I once heard Erik speak at Carnegie-Mellon University. He compared Helvetica to Univers by saying “It’s like comparing shit to crap.” I tend to agree.

lesson 1: see the signsTens of thousands of people used the oval over the holiday season. Three supportive Facebook pages showed up at once. Recognize an opportunity to contribute and act on it.


It’s a friendly sans serif, and exceptionally capable as a signage face. Legible from a great distance, with lots of space in the counters and many weights. Some find it a bit bland though. Such are the woes of a humanist sans.

Adrian Frutiger designed his namesake typeface in 1968 as a signage face for Charles de Gaulle airport in France.

Gill Sans is a popular typeface choice for some reason. It has some interesting features, but I think it’s particularly ugly.

lesson 2: own your media

You need a real homebase for your issue. Register a domain. Use social media platforms for outreach. Free tools abound. Use them, but be cautious.


Given that Eric Gill sexually molested his own children though, I have a hard time using it for anything. Be my guest though.

lesson 3: move fastThe advantage of having such great tools widely available is that you can have a platform up and running in minutes. Get it live and iterate.


Futura is an incredibly popular sans serif typeface. It’s very geometric in appearance, but is actually carefully modulated to make it look that way.

Design students love to use Futura because it’s so modern. Except that it was designed in 1924. Grab a clue, design students.

lesson 4: share share shareIt doesn’t need to look messy like TechCrunch, but provide sharing tools that people will actually use. Know your networks.


Ah, Arial. The bastard child of a Microsoft that didn’t want to pay license fees for Helvetica.

Here’s a cool party trick: the easiest way to tell the difference between Helvetica and Arial is the upper case R.

Helvetica has a little hook on the leg of its R. See?

lesson 5: get political

Find out what politicians have to say on the matter. Get one of them on your side. You’ll have an inside track and it will be easier to access those in power with their help.


Gotham was designed by the talented duo of Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones.

It’s been used frequently but most notably by Obama as a large part of his branding and social media campaign. Some would say the poor typeface has jumped the shark.

lesson 6: fightBe prepared for some vocal opposition. Be smart when you respond, no matter how wrong or ill-conceived the other party is. Opposition means you’re doing it right.


Designed by Chris Costello in 1982 for Letraset. Even the designer thinks the face is overused and incorrectly chosen by people who don’t know better.

Papyrus is nearly as hated as Comic Sans and that’s saying something. If you want your documents to look ‘old’ there are far better ways.

lesson 7: money changes things

When money starts to get involved, you need to get legitimate, and quickly. There will be vocal opponents to this and you’ll be called a scammer. Nothing talks like cold hard cash though.


Optima was designed by Hermann Zapf. Yeah, the Dingbats dude.

The trouble with Optima is that it’s bloody wishy washy. It’s both sans serif and serif, and it’s not particularly good at either. Shouldn’t your message take a stand on something?

lesson 8: be preparedWith a campaign like this, you’re always working. Be prepared at all times with up to date stats, know your opponents and have counter arguments ready. Don’t come out swinging but stick to your core message.


Otl Aicher designed the Rotis family with four variants: sans, serif and semi versions of each. The type family also has numerous weights and italics.

Having a broad family to work with allows for lots of different intonations in your work. Font design is incredibly difficult and it’s worthwhile to pay for typefaces you use, especially for commercial purposes.

lesson 9: go old school

You need the help of traditional media. Without it, you’re only talking to the fishbowl. Be remarkable enough that TV, radio and newspapers notice, then make yourself available.


Carol Twombley designed

Trajan to look like the

characters on the Roman

Trajan column, constructed

in AD 113.

While it’s gorgeously

designed, it’s overused,

especially on movie posters

and wine labels. There are

better, more interesting

choices like Warren Chappell’s

Trajanus, which also has a

complete set of lower case

characters.

lesson 10: ask for helpYou can’t do everything alone, so know when to ask for and accept help. So, I’m asking for your help. Blog about this. Set your FB and Twitter statuses to ask others to sign the petition. Write your councillor. Join us Tuesday on the Oval.


Typefaces like Verdana and Georgia were designed explicitly for on-screen legibility.

Leave them there, it’s where they are best. Using web and screen fonts in print is a surefire way to make your printed documents look amateur.

discuss.There’s lots of things we could talk about now. Over to you.


Are you for or against the Oval?

How else could Social Media be used to promote this cause?

What’s your favourite ampersand?

Only one space after a period. This isn’t actually open for discussion. I don’t care how your typing teacher taught it.

thanks.http://savetheoval.ca


@[email protected]

Background by Flickr user Peter Kaminski

http://savetheoval.ca

http://savetheoval.ca

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterkaminski/22101670/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterkaminski/22101670/

Saving the Oval

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