"Vernacular"

Is that the right word?

I was not good at English at school; almost as bad as I was at French (last exam: 3% - you probably got more for getting your name right). I'm better now (thanks to this). But I always hesitate to use that word when describing this kind of thing that I abso-fucking-lutely love, shown on the Book Covers blog this week...

So, is that the right word?

Comments

[Nev]

Vernacular as the post title?

Very gutsy

[Richard]

Thanks.

(But am I right?)

[Andrew]

I'd consider the font used by fruit and veg stalls to be vernacular. Design from the street up, not the top down. So is that designed for purpose without any reference to form? Yes.

[Bert Vanderveen]

Yeah, the spelling is ok, but purely by accident rn is one of the trickiest kerning pairs… ; )

[Daniel]

Not only is it the right word, it's a bloody good word. Vernacular. Sounds like a binocular through which you can only see the works of Jules Verne. Which would be... interesting.

[Thom Wong]

Hard to know if vernacular is the right word without knowing what you're trying to describe.

[Richard]

I'm talking about a design that uses the stuff of the subject; a design for a book of photography that is based on the trappings of photography. My problem is that that doesn't fit exactly with the dictionary definition but you can see how it's kind of connected; it's not the language of the subject but the visual trappings of it.

[Nev]

I'd call this stuff ephemera, not vernacular. Some of your other stuff (the circus post) I'd be more willing to call vernacular – although the hand that painted it knew what it was doing as well. The sad thing today is that most examples of vernacular include crappy word documents done by anyone. I can picture blogs in 30 years getting excited by Times New Roman 12 pt.

Oh the horror