: What kind of character/personality is expressed by fonts that mix capitals and lowercase letters? I'm trying to guage the purpose of using fonts that have random capitals where there should be

@Holmes874

It's called a Unicase typeface

As for the purpose of using them? There is no answer to this. Or rather, the answers are infinite. People use them for the particular project when it meets the needs of the particular project. While typefaces certainly have personalities, a big part of the personality comes from the context of their use.

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@Connie430

You may find this answer slightly off-topic, but let's look at what the case mixing means in that particular example rather than in general. To get some context, it's helpful to look at the other varieties of peanut butter offered by this brand.





In this context, I think it's clear that each design is trying to convey something about the product's taste or texture through the typography. For example, the smooth type has a flowing hand-written style, to convey how smooth the product is. The choc-a-nut font choice conveys a similar texture, but perhaps with more focus on softness instead of smoothness.

In the crunchy variety, the goal seems to be to squeeze everything between the baseline and the median line. Even the y, which you would expect to either ascend above the median line, if it was upper-case, or descend below the baseline, if it was lower-case. This, I think, is to convey that the product is compact, while the individual letters may allude to the individual peanut chunks in the product, unique to the crunchy variety. The design choice for each letter, and the y in particular, is carefully made so that each letter is as compact and "chunky" as it can be.

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@Harper654

Can I just point out that the use of a combination of both have a long history? They are half-uncials)

They were rather common in days of yore. You can see them for example in these kind of fonts:


I know of places where people write capital R in a regular handwriting, otherwise consisting of lowercase. This I found in Ireland particularly, and maybe that has something to do with a long history of Irish half-uncials? (maybe @Jenna can shed some light on this?)

When used in the olden days, I assume it was saving line-heights (vellum and paper wildly expensive).

Imagine that the development of letters went from uppercase to lowercase-ish script (faster writing) cursive. There is also the consideration that larger variation in lettershapes in tiny text might make it easier to read. Lowercase n m u, d a etc. can be very similar.

To differ lower and uppercase was not really important.

Today it might be seen as "childish" and "playful" and might be used for brand-buidling as there is a subtle difference in using a lowercase in an uppercase text. It is a simple subtle difference.

Personally, I think we should play more with this. The "rules" of upper- and lowercase deserves to be shaken a little.


Edit:
And here is an interesting evolution of this:


(from this Wikipedia article)

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@Kevin459

At first this is a very interesting question, but I don't know of an accurate reason why they choose that type of mixed case typography they used.

In my opinion, when both lower & upper case letters in a font have the same x-height:


it can make a chore out of reading
it can offer a creative look
it can create a playful look
it’s different enough that it’s also unique and instantly recognizable


Sumer, LLC’s package logos below



Reference:- ndrichardson.com/blog/2012/03/13/to-cap-or-not-to-cap/

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