![]() If that all sounds a bit too technical, don't fret. Conversely, the utility and grooviness of vertically arched letters actually increase in direct proportion to these same factors." In fact, the steeper the curve and the narrower the letters, the sillier radially arched letters will look, and the less legible and space-efficient they become. Uni Watch typography consultant Sara Soskolne (a professional typeface designer who recently helped develop most of these) explains why: "A jersey's spatial constraints necessitate ultra-narrow lettering styles and a steep baseline curvature, and that makes radially arched letters pretty dicey. By contrast, with radial arching each letter is the same no matter where it appears in a player's name, so a team's uniforms can all be done with the same basic stock letters (most of which, incidentally, come from this company).īut VAL is definitely worth the hassle - not just aesthetically, but practically. Each name essentially has to be custom-designed, and you need to keep lots of different versions of each letter on hand. So why don't more of these teams use VAL for player names? Because it's a pain in the butt to execute. Some NCAA teams even up the aesthetic ante by using VAL for the top word of their jersey insignia and negative arching for the bottom word, like Georgia Tech and North Carolina (although UNC's arching is much more subtle these days than it used to be). Teams understand this beauty - that's why so many of them use VAL on the fronts of their jerseys, as you can see here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, and that's just a small sample. ![]() Check out this photo of Ryan Langerhans - see how the "A" near the beginning of his name is different from the "A" towards the end? See how the name holds together as a streamlined, unified whole, instead of spreading out all clunky-like? See how even a really long name can look pretty slick like this, instead of all cluttered like this? That's the beauty of the vertical arch. Ah, but with vertically arched lettering (or VAL, as Uni Watch will henceforth refer to it), each individual letter receives its own distinct degree of "uphill" or "downhill" slant, depending on its place within the player's name. This creates the illusion of curvilinear typography, but in fact none of the letters are curved or slanted - they've just been rotated a bit. The lettering for player names on most jerseys is radially arched, which means the letters are fanned out to form a crescent. ![]() If you're unfamiliar with the concept of vertical arching, here's a quick primer. Uni Watch is referring, of course, to the use of vertically arched lettering for player names on the backs of jerseys, a painstaking process that adds a touch of class to any uni design. No NBA team does it anymore, although several used to. Five NHL teams do it, but the Braves are the only baseball team that does it. ![]()
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