Wii Warm Up: The font

by JC Fletcher { May 30th 2008 at 8:00AM }

We like the Wii logo. It's iconic and friendly. But any time the Wii typeface (the Continuum family) is used for something other than the Wii logo, we find it vaguely awkward-looking, with the possible exception of lowercase Continuum Light (as seen in a certain website header).

Sorry, Wii fansite operators. We know this is going to come off as insulting. But it's just a personal quirk, not some pronouncement of font law. What we want to know is if anyone else shares this feeling. Does the Wii font just not look right most of the time?

Tags: continuum, font

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Nigeria @ May 30th 2008 8:35AM

Needs more Comic Sans!

In fact, the world needs more Comic Sans. You can never have enough Comic Sans: fact.

Tesche @ May 30th 2008 8:38AM

no...not at all...

Discosis @ May 30th 2008 9:13AM

Yeah, it looks a bit weird.

In my opinion, using the Continuum font for a game logo just because it's on Wii is lazy, lazy design.

Gun Barrier (Gamer Tag) @ Jun 21st 2008 7:51PM

well ps3 used the Spiderman Font

Discosis @ Jun 21st 2008 11:53PM

True, but with Spiderman being a Sony property there's a connection there.

Silly, though.

Diego Silva @ May 30th 2008 9:20AM

god... who cares??

Hamster @ May 30th 2008 9:59AM

I'm a Myriad man myself.

Dolph @ May 30th 2008 11:05AM

I work in the internal design studio for a large stock photography company and we face this issue all the time - in our case, we never let our logo be used as part of a product name. Instead, you spell out the name of our company. Perhaps Nintendo should do the same.

And now my work life has officially crossed over into my gaming life. Must play some Wii Fit hulahoop to cleanse myself.

Adam @ May 30th 2008 1:52PM

Weirdo

samfish @ May 30th 2008 2:15PM

I'm 99% positive that Nintendo is using a custom version of a font called Avenir. Continuum is just a free knock off font, near as I can tell.
http://www.myfonts.com/fonts/linotype/avenir/

Most major companies just don't use any old font, especially free ones you can get from the web. It's much more common for them to have custom fonts designed.
That said, Avenir is actually a VERY nice sans serif font. I think it just doesn't work as well with the rounded off edges.

milan @ May 30th 2008 3:11PM

I always stare at the "Wii" part of Mario Kart Wii, because it's the same as the Wii logo. It doesn't bother me, but in a way, i guess it kind of does.
At the very least, it is uninspired.

Batmyke @ May 30th 2008 4:21PM

I'm a full-time graphic designer, and I've used Continuum (all three weights) a few times with success. The key is (as with any font) not overusing it, and finding the right context for it.

As with Wii Chess, it's a bad choice; italicized letters, a different weight and color (not black) all would have made the word 'Chess' better complement the 'Wii' part of this title. But that doesn't make Continuum inherently bad for general use!

Batmyke @ May 30th 2008 4:21PM

@ Dolph

While I agree with your comment about not allowing use of your logo as part of a product name, this product is Nintendo's own, so this case is not exactly the same.

Batmyke @ May 30th 2008 4:27PM

@ samfish:
I checked Avenir out at myfonts.com, but I can't see the character map for any of the font packs; are you sure it's the same? Without seeing the map, I just don't know for certain...

Continuum, while a free knock-off, has certainly not been a disappointment to me.

Soiden @ May 30th 2008 5:46PM

I saw Avenir, and it doesn't look like the Wii logo font. Avenir doesn't have rounded edges, Continuum does.

And that logo, Wii Chess, looks a little strange...

raindog @ May 31st 2008 10:28AM

They're close, but neither Avenir nor Continuum is the Wii font. Check the lowercase E's and the x-height vs. the ascenders. You could sub one out for the other and most people wouldn't notice, obviously, but it's like Arial vs. Helvetica.

(Er, for those who don't know them, Arial and Helvetica are different fonts that look similar too.)