How does this happen? (baseball uniform related)

[rockymtn devil]

As noted today on Uni Watch (www.uniwatchblog.com), the Baltimore Orioles new set of logos has incorrectly oriented the apostrophe (which shouldn't be there anyway since its plural and not possessive, but Oakland has done it for decades so I guess we're dealing with baseball grammar).

Compare:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/3249998937_b292ec8cbe_o.png

and

http://product.images.fansedge.com/41-90/41-90100-F.jpg

With:

http://www.gravitytrading.com/store/images/T/41ITMw2rENL._SS500_.jpg

How does a mistake like this happen? Is anyone here in the business of graphic design? Shouldn't someone, at some point (whether it be at the design level, with the Orioles, or with MLB) catch this and correct it? It isn't just a misprint on the website. They have produced game apparel with a backward apostrophe.

[DukieInKansas]

Maybe the apostrophe is there because it is one particular hat worn by one particular player. Therefore, it is that Oriole's hat.

[Mr Blue Devil]

As noted today on Uni Watch (www.uniwatchblog.com), the Baltimore Orioles new set of logos has incorrectly oriented the apostrophe (which shouldn't be there anyway since its plural and not possessive, but Oakland has done it for decades so I guess we're dealing with baseball grammar).

Compare:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/3249998937_b292ec8cbe_o.png

and

http://product.images.fansedge.com/41-90/41-90100-F.jpg

With:

http://www.gravitytrading.com/store/images/T/41ITMw2rENL._SS500_.jpg

How does a mistake like this happen? Is anyone here in the business of graphic design? Shouldn't someone, at some point (whether it be at the design level, with the Orioles, or with MLB) catch this and correct it? It isn't just a misprint on the website. They have produced game apparel with a backward apostrophe.


I am in graphic design and that shocks me. I love bringing up stuff like this to my manager thogh when I make a mistake!!!

I am in charge of developing all graphic design for a small Credit Union which includes the newsletter which I am 100% responsible for all grammar, spelling, content, etc.

It amazes me I get in trouble for a mistake yet an MLB team whose work would be reviewed by SOOO many people can make such a mistake.

[EarlJam]

It's the Orioles. 'Nuf said.

I'm an Os fan. They have become completely boring and irrelevant and have one cleat in the metaphorical grave - much like Barbara Streisand.

It bums me out. :(

-EarlJam

[alteran]

As noted today on Uni Watch (www.uniwatchblog.com (http://www.uniwatchblog.com)), the Baltimore Orioles new set of logos has incorrectly oriented the apostrophe (which shouldn't be there anyway since its plural and not possessive, but Oakland has done it for decades so I guess we're dealing with baseball grammar).

Compare:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3440/3249998937_b292ec8cbe_o.png

and

http://product.images.fansedge.com/41-90/41-90100-F.jpg

With:

http://www.gravitytrading.com/store/images/T/41ITMw2rENL._SS500_.jpg

How does a mistake like this happen? Is anyone here in the business of graphic design? Shouldn't someone, at some point (whether it be at the design level, with the Orioles, or with MLB) catch this and correct it? It isn't just a misprint on the website. They have produced game apparel with a backward apostrophe.

It's screwed up but I can also see how it happened. Once a logo or stylized symbol gets to a certain point everyone just assumes that's the effect they wanted. Sometimes, maybe even frequently, toying with typographic/grammatic conventions is the whole point, such as iPhone, MicroSoft (they actually changed it to Microsoft), Wip3out, and Toys-R-US (with the reversed R and misspelled word).

I agree this one seems like a no-brainer and having it scale across the organization and product line is pretty ridiculous.

[rockymtn devil]

It's screwed up but I can also see how it happened. Once a logo or stylized symbol gets to a certain point everyone just assumes that's the effect they wanted. Sometimes, maybe even frequently, toying with typographic/grammatic conventions is the whole point, such as iPhone, MicroSoft (they actually changed it to Microsoft), Wip3out, and Toys-R-US (with the reversed R and misspelled word).

I agree this one seems like a no-brainer and having it scale across the organization and product line is pretty ridiculous.

I can see how it happens in the design process (it took me a minute to pick up on what the blog was complaining about). I don't see how it happens, as you put it, across the entire line of a major marketing entity like MLB.

Of course, if you read Uni Watch often, it comes as less of a surprise. I can't believe how often numbers are sewed on upside down or names spelled incorrectly.

[EarlJam]

Look more closely. For the Orioles, maybe it's a teardrop, not an apostrophe?

-Ej

[pfrduke]

As noted today on Uni Watch (www.uniwatchblog.com), the Baltimore Orioles new set of logos has incorrectly oriented the apostrophe (which shouldn't be there anyway since its plural and not possessive, but Oakland has done it for decades so I guess we're dealing with baseball grammar).

I always understood the apostrophe in A's and O's to be a "letters omitted" kind of apostrophe, like in gov't, or cont'd. Athletics thus becomes A's, and Orioles becomes O's.

Still doesn't excuse the mis-orientation

[hurleyfor3]

I can see how it happens in the design process (it took me a minute to pick up on what the blog was complaining about). I don't see how it happens, as you put it, across the entire line of a major marketing entity like MLB.

Of course, if you read Uni Watch often, it comes as less of a surprise. I can't believe how often numbers are sewed on upside down or names spelled incorrectly.

While we're nitpicking punctuation, you might want to modify your fromline. All-caps postal abbreviations don't take periods. They're not acronyms.

Correct: Colo. or Co. or CO
Incorrect: CO.

Associated Press style would always abbreviate it Colo., BTW. AP never uses postal abbreviations.

[DevilAlumna]

It's the Orioles. 'Nuf said.

I'm an Os fan. They have become completely boring and irrelevant and have one cleat in the metaphorical grave - much like Barbara Streisand.

It bums me out. :(


Streisand wears cleats??

[rockymtn devil]

While we're nitpicking punctuation, you might want to modify your fromline. All-caps postal abbreviations don't take periods. They're not acronyms.

Correct: Colo. or Co. or CO
Incorrect: CO.

Associated Press style would always abbreviate it Colo., BTW. AP never uses postal abbreviations.

Well played (what if it was "I am from Denver, CO."?)

Of course, the Orioles logo is not nitpicking. That's an identity created to market a massive business entity. Lots of money was spent on it so that it can be sold for even more.

[hurleyfor3]

Well played (what if it was "I am from Denver, CO."?)


That is fine, because the period is the normal one at the end of the sentence. How you abbreviate the state is a matter of style, although I'd use the traditional abbreviations ("Colo.") myself.

Denver is one of a couple dozen U.S. cities that never needs the state, says the AP. This is a bone of contention for some cities not on this select list, such as Charlotte, N.C.

[hamster]

Streisand wears cleats??

Beat me to it.

This was the image I had:
'Well hello' CLOMP 'Dolly' CLOMP 'It's so nice' CLOMP 'Dolly' CLOMP
Poor Louis Armstrong would have ended up with little cleat shaped holes in his feet.

And they really wouldn't have matched that dress!

[Mal]

I think pfr's right. There's also the possibility "A's" and "O's" are seen as the plural of an abbreviation or non-word: more than one .pdf, for instance, is I think written as ".pdf's" rather than ".pdfs" so perhaps that's the case here, too. Maybe our resident grammarians can weigh in on the issue.

While we're picking on our friend rockymtn, I'll also point out the humorous oversight in his very first sentence - you know, when he's chastising the Orioles for messing up plural vs. possessive, and uses "its" for the conjunctive. D'oh! Just teasing you, rmd.

All that said, yes, it's pathetic that this never got stopped across the entire line of Orioles products. It's sort of like my constant amazement at how many professionally designed signs, or even nationally televised advertisements, mess up the plural/possessive issue rmd noted. How does something like "Two Meal's for The Price of One!" get written by a copy person with a college degree, then approved by numerous other people with similar educations so it eventually ends up on an interstate sign? It's preposterous. It seems to me that a majority of people are actually unaware of the correct usage, which is scary.

[alteran]

That is fine, because the period is the normal one at the end of the sentence. How you abbreviate the state is a matter of style, although I'd use the traditional abbreviations ("Colo.") myself.

Denver is one of a couple dozen U.S. cities that never needs the state, says the AP. This is a bone of contention for some cities not on this select list, such as Charlotte, N.C.

Somebody got an AP Stylebook for Christmas. :D

[hurleyfor3]

Somebody got an AP Stylebook for Christmas. :D

I was a Chronicle staffer. We used AP. I am still dorky enough to point out the differences between, say, AP, NYT and WSJ styles. And I refuse to unlearn AP and learn the Chicago Manual or whatever it is non-newspaper people use.

[EarlJam]

Streisand wears cleats??

Yes. She started this when her scaley talons fell off three years ago.

-EJ

[rockymtn devil]

I think pfr's right. There's also the possibility "A's" and "O's" are seen as the plural of an abbreviation or non-word: more than one .pdf, for instance, is I think written as ".pdf's" rather than ".pdfs" so perhaps that's the case here, too. Maybe our resident grammarians can weigh in on the issue.

While we're picking on our friend rockymtn, I'll also point out the humorous oversight in his very first sentence - you know, when he's chastising the Orioles for messing up plural vs. possessive, and uses "its" for the conjunctive. D'oh! Just teasing you, rmd.

All that said, yes, it's pathetic that this never got stopped across the entire line of Orioles products. It's sort of like my constant amazement at how many professionally designed signs, or even nationally televised advertisements, mess up the plural/possessive issue rmd noted. How does something like "Two Meal's for The Price of One!" get written by a copy person with a college degree, then approved by numerous other people with similar educations so it eventually ends up on an interstate sign? It's preposterous. It seems to me that a majority of people are actually unaware of the correct usage, which is scary.

I was just being ironic. As a young, gentrifying hipster, its (:cool:) my duty.

[pamtar]

I am in graphic design and that shocks me. I love bringing up stuff like this to my manager thogh when I make a mistake!!!

I am in charge of developing all graphic design for a small Credit Union which includes the newsletter which I am 100% responsible for all grammar, spelling, content, etc.

It amazes me I get in trouble for a mistake yet an MLB team whose work would be reviewed by SOOO many people can make such a mistake.

Please tell me your joking.

[Ben63]

Of course, if you read Uni Watch often, it comes as less of a surprise. I can't believe how often numbers are sewed on upside down or names spelled incorrectly.

100% true. I read UniWatch every day.

[blazindw]

As noted today on Uni Watch (www.uniwatchblog.com), the Baltimore Orioles new set of logos has incorrectly oriented the apostrophe (which shouldn't be there anyway since its plural and not possessive, but Oakland has done it for decades so I guess we're dealing with baseball grammar).

I'm so glad more people read Uni Watch!