typography – Page 10 – Alphabet City Press

26 January 201326 January 2013

Neon hotel

This glowing hotel typeface is very Park Avenue, with its distinctive swishy capital letters – and quite appropriate given its location on the main street of Potts Point, which is a little bit New York. Park Avenue was designed in 1933 by Robert E Smith for American Type Founders. ATF was formed in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, and was the dominant American manufacturer of metal type for many years. Robert E Smith also designed Brush Script.

20 January 201319 January 2013

Ack

I had not been along the entrance side of this building for quite some time, so it is only recently I saw that the old letters had been replaced by bigger newer brighter ones. I don’t know how the A managed to escape removal, but in my mind I have bestowed it with tenacity and strength of character, a letter determined to hang on at any cost. This is far preferable to viewing it as a victim of neglect! The new C is obviously, and admirably, conspiring to help.

17 January 201317 January 2013

Smokes

Here’s something you don’t see much of these health-conscious no-smoking days. This sign hangs outside what must be the most derelict milk bar in Sydney. The lights are never on and I’ve never seen anyone inside (in fact it’s a little scary) but it opens every day and still has the original booths along the wall and lino on the floor, albeit in disrepair. When the cinema next door was demolished the side wall revealed some original painted advertising, and although that has been covered up again, the smokes and sweets sign remains.

11 January 201310 January 2013

Flamenco

There’s a Wai Sing fish cafe in Bristol and a Sing Wai bookstore in Toronto, but I bet this is the only Wai Sing graced with the presence of a flamenco dancer. I like that one cafe name has been painted over the other, and that together they have weathered into a subtly coloured whole, but what I like best is that other partnership: the singing and dancing.

2 January 20131 January 2013

Coffee

I didn’t stay up late to watch the fireworks, but I still needed coffee in the morning. And how could I resist this? Three words, three typefaces (groan), plus an enticing cup of steaming hot liquid. Maybe I’ll have a sandwich too. Happy new year.

27 December 201227 December 2012

Ash

Onomatopoeia is the naming of a thing or action from a sound associated with it. Buzz boom zoom bang crash whippoorwill whisper murmur splash tinkle. I don’t know if there is a word to describe something that looks like itself – a visual onomatopoeia – but I see examples of it everywhere, like this ashy ash. The letters also have a very nice Akzidenz Grotesk feel about them; they’re not a true match to the typeface, but I really like the sound of the name.

24 December 201224 December 2012

Xmas Pi

There is much debate about the origin of the term ‘pi’. Some say it is from the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet and others say it is in reference to printer’s pie, the jumble of disorderly type that has been dropped from a printer’s fingers. The dictionary defines pi variously as: to spill or throw (type or type matter) into disorder; not intended to appear in final printing; capable of being inserted only by hand. These days the pi character or font generally refers to a mathematical or decorative symbol, Xmas Pi being only one collection of many. Pi font, symbol or special character, call it what you will, I’ll be enjoying my christmas pie tomorrow with a glass of good cheer.

21 December 201221 December 2012

Parramatta Road

Parramatta Road is widely considered to be one of the ugliest roads in metropolitan Sydney, but it is the major historical east-west artery, beginning in the east as a continuation of George St and Broadway, and ending at Church St Parramatta. Ugly it might be, but there’s no denying its fascination. As you travel west the dates carved into the building facades reveal the progress of settlement and architectural detail hints at former glory and hidden beauty. In 1883 the steam tram went as far as Annandale, which is where I found this old lettering on a boarded up shopfront.

15 December 201215 December 2012

Stencil

This mess of cracked timber, dripping paint and rust could only have evolved over time, so there is surely a story to its evolution. Whatever it is, the stencilled number 10 must be important enough not to have been covered up, but it is the combined effects of time, weather and neglect that have turned it into something interesting.

12 December 20129 March 2013

Lacklustre

Oh happy day! Typography in action! Early evening, me the designated driver, all of a sudden my passengers exclaiming ‘The u’s dropped! The u’s dropped!’, squeal of tyres, quick u-turn, but oh no – no camera. At least I had my phone, so this momentous event could be recorded and the type tragics could go on their merry way, heads giddy.