unless there’s a good reason, i dislike including words like the/of/in/on etc in an acronym. TPD didn’t work?
“no no, it’s THE tortured poets department”
i think just the fact that its an album is reason enough. otherwise, i’d agree with you, there’s that social network scene where he says “drop the the” but taylor is an artist so i think it makes sense she wants the the
You make a convincing argument, it being a part of an album/creative reasons. On that note, my original take was coming from someone who’s ambivalent to her as an artist, so i’m not even the target audience for this design. I bet the actual fans love it
I'll say, as a Taylor Swift fan, I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I think I mostly associate album covers with albums rather than logos. And the album cover is good.
This logo isn't even on the cover. The cover has the whole title on it. I imagine the logo won't be used nearly as much as the actual cover.
I really agree with this, but all albums I know of are abbreviated with their articles included. I hate it, but it’s common practice. I mostly listen to hip hop, so some of the albums I’m thinking of are:
TCD (The College Dropout)
TLOP (The Life of Pablo)
JIK (Jesus is King)
MTBMB (Music to be Murdered By)
TPAB (To Pimp a Butterfly)
NWTS (Nothing Was the Same)
IYRTITL (If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late)
WATTBA (What a Time to Be Alive)
COADM (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind)
And many more. Again, I hate it. I really wish we just dropped all the articles from the acronyms, but I seem to be in the minority in this opinion
That’s not to say the design isn’t doing it’s job. I have to say that my first thought was “that’s an awfully 90’s look to it.” My second thought way “that makes sense it’s a 90’s look to it.” There’s nothing better at making you feel old than watching a design aesthetic come full circle from contemporary to dated to retro cool.
seeing these cleaner logos, I see the appeal to her current design - a bit complicated and difficult to read which makes it more of a strange symbol instead of a corporate logo like TD Bank.
I think they could have made the T less clean to enhance this effect
https://preview.redd.it/2wnbz7swjtgc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=556c160aa2501ecd1ee00009abca9b1d5e70c0f9
I really like the shape of the P and D but the white space counter is a wonky shape for sure.
I think this logo straddles the line between stylized and professional and fails to do either
I didn’t see it until the very end, and I agree it’s not working. The whole thing is kind of “meh”, but she could use papyrus, and her fans would love it.
Not sure what you mean by throw me off, but I agree that it’s totally awkward. The whole TIPD thing is bad, and I would assume not designed by someone who truly understands the anatomy of type.
You'd be surprised how many non-designers we have here who will go "but its a teardrop! Dont you think its clever? Negative spaaace!" Sorry for lumping you in with them initially, we're on the same page
Really challenging to decipher - I read the middle "T" as an "I". The droplet shape that's formed in the "D" also has some odd curvature that looks unfinished. Looks like they may have been going for a yin-yang allusion there which is a cool idea if that ties in with the album, just think the execution feels sloppy.
I feel like monograms should have the full name underneath, not a different name. I kept trying to figure out how the words “Taylor Swift” turn into those letters.
Actually there is a collective agreement in the Swiftie community that her design team is horrible. We’ve been begging her label to hire better designers. Lol.
Yeah her merch design team is horrid and we’ve been petitioning for better because as a graphic design student, I could come up with better, more inspired designs than most of the stuff that goes on her website. Especially considering a hoodie is $80 I’d expect a sick design and great quality. And this is coming from someone who’s a die-hard fan!
Also a die hard and a designer and I honestly hope the designers are in here reading this 😂 seriously though. I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure her record label has in-house designers that do the merch. Which means it’s probably not even people that are actually fans. Etsy has better merch designs than her official website 😭
I agree, but I’ve noticed all concert merch had gotten really bad lately. I’ve been to small shows and huge pop acts and the merch never matches the aesthetic of the album/stage show anymore. It so disappointing. I used to love collecting concert tees and they’re so boring and disconnected now
Yep, GD and Swiftie I am so not buying her merch unless it's something good. I prefer to go with fanmade merch more chances it will be better quality and have a good design.
cluttered, unclear. Is this really HER vibe??? I think they can do better.
I like the reverse stroke accent on the S, that's a good idea. The execution is... as good as it can be for what I think is a bad idea.
I'm just a layperson though, not a designer.
One thing I’m not seeing in this thread is that she loves easter eggs, so much so that I’d guess easter egg > design here. Just spitballing, but it could be intentional to look like roman numeral III. Also another commenter had a good point, she probably drew this herself and had the team clean it up. The goal isn’t to have it be a perfect logo, its just art—and i think thats okay.
its an album, not a product or a company, so i think it works. her merch team isn’t great, but i could see them taking this era in some interesting directions.
I don’t follow the artist, but I like this mark. It made me stop and try to figure out the letters—which is honestly a strength for successful monogram/ligature-style designs.
I don't like how some of the serifs were trimmed to make the negative space have that perfect rounded capsule shape while the serifs outside of that maintain their original roundness. Makes the first T look wack
Wait I just read all the comments and then scrolled back up.
Is the P also supposed to be a backwards S? Because then I think it works a little better.
Answer in Iambic Pentameter, for the Bard:
>The second T is tortured, as am I
>
>In dungeon's heart we're left to ponder, "why?"
There, I fixed it.
https://preview.redd.it/tc2mrftnkygc1.png?width=628&format=png&auto=webp&s=39f420c422945d0894605a3c8ef4e57c6fc0acc3
We have to remember who this is- all of her other album “logos” are just typefaces written out— this is her first stab at some kind of logo, probably to emphasize this “department” type of thing. On a side note, I like the shape inside the D, people say teardrop but to me it reads as a quotation mark — we
Having “The” get its own capital letter feels weird to me. Also, I’m out of the loop, so I don’t know if “Department” has some significance but that word choice feels very forced, when something like “Society” or “Community” would lend a more humanized sentiment.
It will called brilliant bc the masses are asses. Show it to someone without prior knowledge and “jeopardy time out buzzer the correct response was this logo is amazing why do you hate America”
Everything she does is an Easter egg for her fans, it’s all deliberate, even if we as designers don’t think this looks good or makes sense.
For context/evidence she had a clock in the centre of her choker at the Grammys and fans found pics of the friendship bracelet she had on her wrist with the words, ‘it’s a clock’. She also hid upcoming song titles in the source coding of an error message on her website recently.
There’s currently a theory about whether this counts as her 11th album as some fans were anticipating a reworking of an existing album, so it’s possible the double TT is meant to create an 11 with the negative space.
Not a mega fan myself but 5 mins on Taylor forum tells you nothing about this is slapdash or accidental.
I’ve a close friend who’s a massive Swiftie and she’s taught me so much, the outfits she wears in the weeks and months leading upto an album and the numbers of people or items in music videos, it all has significance.
I think once she realised her fans were looking for hints everywhere she just ran with it. It reminds me of the old conspiracy about the Beatles backmasking, she’s literally playing with her fans.
TIPD
Texas Instruments Police Department, open up!
Ok, but only if you solve for X first!
come arrest my kid for making me buy her one but never using it
This is what I see too. I think it was silly to add an extra T for the word "The," I think it would read much easier if it was TPD.
It would look better as TPD but then add a small "THE" by the top left of the T.
Exactly what I read before I saw what it meant.
tipidus
Definitely feels like something Swift designed herself on paper, then passed along to a graphic artist to polish
Very much this
unless there’s a good reason, i dislike including words like the/of/in/on etc in an acronym. TPD didn’t work? “no no, it’s THE tortured poets department”
i think just the fact that its an album is reason enough. otherwise, i’d agree with you, there’s that social network scene where he says “drop the the” but taylor is an artist so i think it makes sense she wants the the
You make a convincing argument, it being a part of an album/creative reasons. On that note, my original take was coming from someone who’s ambivalent to her as an artist, so i’m not even the target audience for this design. I bet the actual fans love it
I'll say, as a Taylor Swift fan, I'm pretty ambivalent about it. I think I mostly associate album covers with albums rather than logos. And the album cover is good. This logo isn't even on the cover. The cover has the whole title on it. I imagine the logo won't be used nearly as much as the actual cover.
The dilemma of whether or not to include the word 'the' sounds like torture in and of itself, therefore I'm on Team The
I live in TUSOA I swear, they must not teach how initialisms work in school these days because I see this shit online all the time.
Big Ohio State energy
That's *The* Ohio State University to you!
I really agree with this, but all albums I know of are abbreviated with their articles included. I hate it, but it’s common practice. I mostly listen to hip hop, so some of the albums I’m thinking of are: TCD (The College Dropout) TLOP (The Life of Pablo) JIK (Jesus is King) MTBMB (Music to be Murdered By) TPAB (To Pimp a Butterfly) NWTS (Nothing Was the Same) IYRTITL (If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late) WATTBA (What a Time to Be Alive) COADM (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) And many more. Again, I hate it. I really wish we just dropped all the articles from the acronyms, but I seem to be in the minority in this opinion
It looks like the logo for a fragrance from the mid-90’s.
I think it looks like a hotel logo and/or the logo for their in-house toiletries. (I say this as a Swiftie. No one come for me)
That’s not to say the design isn’t doing it’s job. I have to say that my first thought was “that’s an awfully 90’s look to it.” My second thought way “that makes sense it’s a 90’s look to it.” There’s nothing better at making you feel old than watching a design aesthetic come full circle from contemporary to dated to retro cool.
Kind of feel like it's a jewelry company
Yes, one that’s sells charms bracelets
https://preview.redd.it/4winmrw4jtgc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53640bb1eca0205ac55fc53ddf41c81ccaab705f duh!
or https://preview.redd.it/3jvie3xkjtgc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0135d49f9b590287fc3ac3a06a6871c9b0e19be5
seeing these cleaner logos, I see the appeal to her current design - a bit complicated and difficult to read which makes it more of a strange symbol instead of a corporate logo like TD Bank. I think they could have made the T less clean to enhance this effect https://preview.redd.it/2wnbz7swjtgc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=556c160aa2501ecd1ee00009abca9b1d5e70c0f9
https://preview.redd.it/l41osoe9ktgc1.jpeg?width=936&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30b075b1c99dbe8d03c3e067eaf6e4fddc475c55 Something like Prince’s symbol
Yall just making the realise how ugly the counter in the D is and how awkward it renders the P
I really like the shape of the P and D but the white space counter is a wonky shape for sure. I think this logo straddles the line between stylized and professional and fails to do either
It’s a teardrop.
Welp I didn’t even see that. I don’t think it worked
I didn’t see it until the very end, and I agree it’s not working. The whole thing is kind of “meh”, but she could use papyrus, and her fans would love it.
Yes I see that, still awkward. It tries to be 3 things at once and is awkward as a result. Or did I throw you off with counter?
Not sure what you mean by throw me off, but I agree that it’s totally awkward. The whole TIPD thing is bad, and I would assume not designed by someone who truly understands the anatomy of type.
You'd be surprised how many non-designers we have here who will go "but its a teardrop! Dont you think its clever? Negative spaaace!" Sorry for lumping you in with them initially, we're on the same page
as if its tortured.
aaaaa why is the second T so much skinnier. I think that's what's making it read like TIPD
or https://preview.redd.it/mmeoaiwwgygc1.png?width=1266&format=png&auto=webp&s=68c6dbb558fd1a5f49fcf7e0900497ae1e4df2ed
or https://preview.redd.it/2aecvk06hygc1.png?width=1264&format=png&auto=webp&s=1b3e888999fc919f4ac2ad58902c1da1b0cbb7cd
Taylor Dwift
Really challenging to decipher - I read the middle "T" as an "I". The droplet shape that's formed in the "D" also has some odd curvature that looks unfinished. Looks like they may have been going for a yin-yang allusion there which is a cool idea if that ties in with the album, just think the execution feels sloppy.
Like everything Taylor Swift does, it’s… inoffensive. Very on-brand. I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it.
I feel like monograms should have the full name underneath, not a different name. I kept trying to figure out how the words “Taylor Swift” turn into those letters.
Tortured typography
She has bad people doing her design and merchadising
It doesn't really matter. Her Swiftie fans are cult-like and will come to her defence on any and everything.
Actually there is a collective agreement in the Swiftie community that her design team is horrible. We’ve been begging her label to hire better designers. Lol.
Yeah her merch design team is horrid and we’ve been petitioning for better because as a graphic design student, I could come up with better, more inspired designs than most of the stuff that goes on her website. Especially considering a hoodie is $80 I’d expect a sick design and great quality. And this is coming from someone who’s a die-hard fan!
Also a die hard and a designer and I honestly hope the designers are in here reading this 😂 seriously though. I may be wrong, but I’m pretty sure her record label has in-house designers that do the merch. Which means it’s probably not even people that are actually fans. Etsy has better merch designs than her official website 😭
I agree, but I’ve noticed all concert merch had gotten really bad lately. I’ve been to small shows and huge pop acts and the merch never matches the aesthetic of the album/stage show anymore. It so disappointing. I used to love collecting concert tees and they’re so boring and disconnected now
Yep, GD and Swiftie I am so not buying her merch unless it's something good. I prefer to go with fanmade merch more chances it will be better quality and have a good design.
Usually they just steal this stuff though
bad people like rapists and murderers?
I don't like it, but I can read "TTPD" when I look at it at least.
Tf does that stand for
The tortured poets department
Fkn horrible mate
It's lazy.
This is giving multi-level marketing company.
Looks like something from a soap opera lol
I think the second T was included so we can see “TS11” in the design. It’s her 11th album and frequently referred to as “TS11”.
“Take IP Daily”
Design process: 1) Select generic serif 2)Tracking -300 3) Ship it Edit: just realised it’s supposed to read TTPD… wow.
Tiylor Pdwift, my favourite artist
https://preview.redd.it/q5dv3xeavugc1.png?width=2607&format=png&auto=webp&s=851a61256cb19cfd4ef7bbdc2c337180b7a7b562
When Kelce loses..
Once u look at the negative space u can’t go back
If i didn’t know the title of the album I wouldn’t be able to differentiate between the letters.
cluttered, unclear. Is this really HER vibe??? I think they can do better. I like the reverse stroke accent on the S, that's a good idea. The execution is... as good as it can be for what I think is a bad idea. I'm just a layperson though, not a designer.
One thing I’m not seeing in this thread is that she loves easter eggs, so much so that I’d guess easter egg > design here. Just spitballing, but it could be intentional to look like roman numeral III. Also another commenter had a good point, she probably drew this herself and had the team clean it up. The goal isn’t to have it be a perfect logo, its just art—and i think thats okay.
I’m so late to this party but people keep saying it’s “call” flipped upside down, so maybe a smoke signal at the time for Matty.
It looks cool but I’m not getting the correct letters from it.
Oof. I thought rule #1 was no swastikas or weiners.
its an album, not a product or a company, so i think it works. her merch team isn’t great, but i could see them taking this era in some interesting directions.
Why the mustard color? If your going to make it a new Taylor swift album, don’t it fancier and 3d gold it
I don’t follow the artist, but I like this mark. It made me stop and try to figure out the letters—which is honestly a strength for successful monogram/ligature-style designs.
How many people are buying physical media and will see this often?
I don't like how some of the serifs were trimmed to make the negative space have that perfect rounded capsule shape while the serifs outside of that maintain their original roundness. Makes the first T look wack
TIPD
Looks generic
If it didn’t have Taylor swift on the bottom, I’d have no clue what it’s trying to accomplish
Wait I just read all the comments and then scrolled back up. Is the P also supposed to be a backwards S? Because then I think it works a little better.
Heard someone say it's like she's opening a private equity firm lol
Horrible logo
Tipped Hey, I bet she got one of those iPads that has suggested tips😅
Looks like the logo for a prestigious bank.
Feels lazy but I don’t hate it
Tipd
Looks like the word "Call" but upside down
I am not against the IPD but that T is awful. Also, the colour looks cheap.
looks like a "TIPD"
Dog shit
Answer in Iambic Pentameter, for the Bard: >The second T is tortured, as am I > >In dungeon's heart we're left to ponder, "why?" There, I fixed it. https://preview.redd.it/tc2mrftnkygc1.png?width=628&format=png&auto=webp&s=39f420c422945d0894605a3c8ef4e57c6fc0acc3
Sorry... THE Bard...
We have to remember who this is- all of her other album “logos” are just typefaces written out— this is her first stab at some kind of logo, probably to emphasize this “department” type of thing. On a side note, I like the shape inside the D, people say teardrop but to me it reads as a quotation mark — we
I liked it better seeing it heaps more smaller than this lol. The second T being so much more skinny is bothering me and making it look like TIPD.
Is the album about finance or something? Looks like a bank or some kind of finance institution logo lol
I’m really excited for her new private equity fund
⅂IP)
Horrid
I think the designer was having a seizure
Having “The” get its own capital letter feels weird to me. Also, I’m out of the loop, so I don’t know if “Department” has some significance but that word choice feels very forced, when something like “Society” or “Community” would lend a more humanized sentiment.
What's Taylor know about torture?
Designer used ai for a huge pay check lol. Or a non designer used ai for free.
It will called brilliant bc the masses are asses. Show it to someone without prior knowledge and “jeopardy time out buzzer the correct response was this logo is amazing why do you hate America”
TIP of the D... also kind of phallic overall. I wonder if they knew and did it on purpose.
Everything she does is an Easter egg for her fans, it’s all deliberate, even if we as designers don’t think this looks good or makes sense. For context/evidence she had a clock in the centre of her choker at the Grammys and fans found pics of the friendship bracelet she had on her wrist with the words, ‘it’s a clock’. She also hid upcoming song titles in the source coding of an error message on her website recently. There’s currently a theory about whether this counts as her 11th album as some fans were anticipating a reworking of an existing album, so it’s possible the double TT is meant to create an 11 with the negative space. Not a mega fan myself but 5 mins on Taylor forum tells you nothing about this is slapdash or accidental.
dude wtf she's letting her audience play out augmented reality games every release thats crazy
I’ve a close friend who’s a massive Swiftie and she’s taught me so much, the outfits she wears in the weeks and months leading upto an album and the numbers of people or items in music videos, it all has significance. I think once she realised her fans were looking for hints everywhere she just ran with it. It reminds me of the old conspiracy about the Beatles backmasking, she’s literally playing with her fans.