typography – Page 3 – Alphabet City Press

13 July 201513 July 2015

Push button for

We were looking for something we had read about: an unlikely shop with a massive collection of fine writing instruments and quality paper supplies. We knew where it was supposed to be (a hop skip and jump from the Iao Theater) but we couldn’t find it. Then we crossed the road and went into a tea shop to see if they could point us in the right direction. And this amazing tea shop turned out to be the pen shop! A couple of hours later we left with our new pens and other bits and pieces in hand, richer from the experience of spending time there, talking with the owner, listening to his music, taking in the aroma of spiced tea, and trying out an array of fountain pens. This crossing sign has nothing to do with that extraordinary shop other than the link in my mind of time and place, and the fact that we had to push the button to cross the road to get there. But I guess that in itself speaks of the impact of signage and typography and how it affects us on a subliminal as well as conscious level.

11 June 201511 June 2015

Hermann Zapf

Hermann Zapf, one of the most significant type designers of the twentieth century, died in Germany this week at the grand age of 96. While some of his typefaces bear his name—Zapf Dingbats, Zapfino, Zapf Chancery—his most famous typefaces are Palatino, Optima and Melior. When he left school in 1933 it was his ambition to be an electrical engineer, but instead he ended up as an apprentice photo retoucher. He became interested in lettering after seeing an exhibition of the work of Rudolph Koch. Using Koch’s book, The art of writing, and Writing and illumination and lettering, a textbook by Edward Johnston, he taught himself calligraphy at home using a broad-edged pen. Print historian Gustav Mori first put him into contact with the D. Stempel AG type foundry and Linotype GmbH in Frankfurt. He designed his first printed type for them in 1938, a fraktur type called Gilgengart. During the course of his career Zapf designed for hot metal, cold type and digital technologies. He was also a cartographer, teacher and book designer.

4 June 201527 May 2015

Pilcrow

The pilcrow is a symbol used to denote a new paragraph. In the Middle Ages, before the convention of starting a paragraph on a new line, it was used to mark a change in the train of thought. It is also known as a paragraph mark or paragraph sign, and in proofreading it indicates where a new paragraph should begin. It is a symbol that appears in many character sets, and in page layout programs such as InDesign, a pilcrow marks every carriage return and can be seen when the invisible type features are made visible.

17 May 201517 May 2015

Eggs

Embossing the word ‘eggs’ into the end of an egg carton strikes me as completely superfluous. Egg cartons are an unmistakable item of packaging and, just in case you need clarification on the contents, they invariably have detailed printed labels stuck on the top. But I’m rather pleased they added the unnecessary touch. ‘Eggs’ is such a typographically pleasing word when it’s displayed large using a serif typeface with a double-bowl g. The yellow is pretty striking too—just the colour egg yolks used to be, and so much sunnier than the usual off-white, beige or greige cartons.

28 April 201528 April 2015

Yogurt

National Frozen Yogurt Day—now there’s a completely made-up thing! I had never tried frozen yogurt, but at the Whalers Village, Ka’anapali, where I happened to be on said fabricated day, there was quite a buzz, and everyone (including me) was making the most of the free yogurt on offer. Quite a canny promotion, I’d say, and while I have not become a convert to this particular confection, I liked their tubs of jaunty typography.

16 April 201516 April 2015

Komoda Store

I can’t believe it. I was so busy admiring the letter shapes of this Komoda Store and Bakery banner above the awning that I neglected to go inside and sample the fare! I hardly want to be reminded of what an oversight that was (and I won’t be making the same mistake next time). I have since discovered that they are famous for their award-winning baked goods: cream puffs, guava malasadas, glazed donuts, Long John donuts with vanilla custard filling, coconut twists, Golden Krust bread and more, much more—all up around thirty varieties, and all produced by hand.

7 April 20157 April 2015

Pink orange green

Pink, Orange and Green were designed by Timothy Donaldson, who says they ‘started life at the same time in my sketchbook in a doctors waiting room’. Donaldson, obsessed with handwriting from a young age, spent hours experimenting with different writing tools and materials. A job as a sign painter was the first step to his career as an award-winning (and prolific) designer and calligrapher, as well as teacher of graphic design, lettering and multimedia in Stafford, England. He has contributed more than two dozen typefaces to the ITC typeface library, including the Humana Sans and Humana Serif font families. Some of his other well-known typefaces include John Handy, Trackpad, Flight and Neo Neo.

4 April 20154 April 2015

Choc banana’s

Along with the livestock and craft, the easter show presents a visual assault of signage. It’s a stretch to call it typography: but then again, typefaces are used to present words in a particular style and manner, so I guess it is typography in the broader sense. Typography like this is rife on easter show food vans and, as if it isn’t loud enough on its own, it is pretty much always accompanied by loud noise from tinny speakers and strong aromas of the deep-fried or sickly sweet variety. The typeface here is Croissant Regular. As for the claim to real fruit, or the placement of the apostrophe …

16 March 201516 March 2015

Another call box

I was pretty excited about revisiting the site of the call box that got me started on this whole blog thing, so it took me completely by surprise that it wasn’t there. On my recent visit to Hawaii we drove the Pali Highway several times: every time I looked out for that original call box, and every time it wasn’t there. Much of the graffiti and painted signage that I have photographed over the last couple of years has disappeared but I didn’t expect a call box to be removed! However it seems that the popularity of cell phones has made many of the Oahu call boxes obsolete—assistance calls dropped from 2634 in 2001 to 361 in 2011—and at least 276 of them have been removed. This one is on the Honoapiilani Highway, Maui, and comes complete with a priority mail sticker. I should have acted fast and added my address—then maybe someone would have posted it to me.

26 February 20154 January 2015

Pies

This tells it like it is, and while the promise of such carbohydrate delights is inviting, the people sitting inside didn’t look like they were especially enjoying their chosen sugary floury treat. You never can tell though: the appeal of the sign (and, yes, this is basic, but I like it, particularly the K of cakes and the scripty and) is not always indicative of the fare on offer. In this case the sign had more appeal than the display in the window, but, hard to believe, I once had an excellent cake from a bakery that used Algerian Condensed!