[fenomas]

> then I believe that they can be freed from the burden of having to ensure that they are using that language in a perfect manner

There's no can/should/must here, it's just a matter of intent - did the author here intend for his logo to not look like gibberish in Japanese? Considering the amount of intention behind everything else, going to the trouble of choosing a title that makes sense in both languages etc., it seems reasonable to guess that he did. In which case he probably should have checked with someone.

If he just wanted to toss in whatever looked nice, then naturally correctness doesn't matter. But do you think that's likely to be the case here?

[gwilkes]

Yes, this is a photography site, what looks nice has a good chance of being more important than what is correct. Also, breaking up a word doesn't make it gibberish, it is a bit less legible surely. We do this all the time though in English, for example on poetic wall posters or logos that look this this:

  LO
  VE

That isn't as easy to read as LOVE, but we understand it and we also understand it was written that way for artistic reasons.

The other point I was making was about intended audience. This isn't a photographer catering specifically to geeks, Japanophiles or Japanese people from what I can tell. He seems to shoot everything if you check out his other galleries.

In ideal world everyone would check that everything that they write is in their non-native language is 100% correct. In the real world, and in Japan where I live, nearly no one cares when English is used incorrectly on garments and other places. The only ones who notice it are the few native English speakers. Some fluent English-speaking Japanese people may notice it, but they generally don't care as it is harmless. Why does Engrish persist? Because it doesn't really matter enough for the intended audience which is regular Japanese people.

It may seem strange but in defending this photographer I am actually defending the use of Engrish in Japan. In this case of Nihon Noir it is the same thing with the languages reversed. Japanese people will clearly notice the mistake but they are unlikely to care much. The intended audience of regular English speakers won't notice the mistake so won't care at all. Us geeks though, we noticed, so what you are saying is that he should have catered to you instead of his intended audience.

[fenomas]

> so what you are saying is that he should have catered to you instead of his intended audience

I said precisely the opposite - that it's down to the designer's intent.

[gwilkes]

Ok fair enough, but it still the same with Engrish. There is plenty that is correct and they clearly are intending to be correct. They could do what you suggested earlier and check with someone, however it still comes down to their intended audience. The photographer knows who he is making this for. The creators of Engrish goods know who they are making their goods for. Both are certainly intending to be correct, but they both know it doesn't matter enough to their intended audience to make a special effort to make 100% sure it correct. This is the assumption in the general case, it may not apply in every case or even to the Nihon Noir in question, but to me it helps explain most cases of Engrish (there are other factors of course) and even cases of reverse Engrish as in this case.