Great use of type on this flyer for the London International Documentary Festival. I was handed it at the Curzon Soho on Friday. It’s brilliant the way the type reverse disintegrates (is there a word for that?). It reminds me of tuning into an overheard conversation.
Derelict buildings are usually quickly scavenged for lovely old lettering like these. The fact that these are right at the top of the building has probably meant that some of the letters have stayed put.
Having just done a quick web search as I was curious what the sign read before some of the letters fell off I discovered there was a major fire in this building last Monday.
“The fire caused significant damage to Hargreen House which has been empty since plumbers’ merchants TA Harris Ltd moved out in 2005.”
You can read about the fire here.
Big thanks to Chris Perry for the photo. I didn’t have a camera with a zoom with me.
I spent the day at Yes Way festival. Yes Way is a two day music and art festival at Auto Italia in London. There were some interesting uses of type around the venue - which is a disused car showroom. Each of the two stages, which weren’t really stages as they were at the same level as the crowd, were labelled. One with YES and the other with WAY in a simple but strong hand drawn 3D sans serif typeface.
Yesterday I visited my favourite shop in all the land, Magma in Clerkenwell (more on them later). I picked up a few books and magazines as normal but as I was leaving I spotted these and had to buy them instantly. I spent hundreds of playground hours playing top trumps at school. And now what do I see but two loves combined.
They are designed by Rick Banks and are utterly beautiful. Each card is a different typeface with statistics just like the original top trumps. What makes them even better is that the whole card is designed using only the typeface they represent. Frankly, it’s a genius idea executed brilliantly.
And while I’m playing with them I’m also learning - I expect my ability to identify typefaces on sight will improve after a few games with these.
As you might probably expect from an international art gallery like the Tate Modern, their use of typography and overall brand identity is brilliant. This is part of a block of text on the mirrored walls of the entranceway to the gallery. I think this is Helvetica Rounded Bold.
This oversize arrow directs people to the entrance of the gallery while some building work is in progress. It’s very strong visually and I think it complements the text in the surrounding area very well.
What I really like about the Tate group’s graphic design is that they don’t just stick to one corporate typeface like some companies. They use quite a wide range of type but they all fit together really well, without looking confused or overpowering. Check out their website to see what I mean. http://www.tate.org.uk/modern
Above is a beautiful video by Olivier Beaudoin, a designer based in Quebec, Montreal. He made the video in 2007 but it still looks just as fresh now.
I think the typeface in the animation is Base Nine from the Emigre Foundry. I’ll write more about Emigre soon as they’re a really interesting foundry.
The music in the video is a track called Nostrand, recorded by Ratatat.
The German version of FontShop recently announced what they think are the best 100 fonts of all time. They judged them on sales through their shop (40%), historical importance (30%) and aesthetic value (30%). Jacob Cass has blogged about the list better than I can and it is from his blog I have taken the graphic of the the top 33.
Lists like this should probably be taken with a pinch of salt but I think its a pretty useful resource, especially for younger designers like myself. I like the balance of subjective and objective in the judging criteria too.
Thanks to Jacob Cass, here are the top 33 in their corresponding typefaces and the full 100 are listed below in Georgia. Georgia didn’t make the list itself because ‘system’ fonts were excluded. Microsoft reworked Times New Roman to be more readable by increasing its x-height and they called the new font Georgia. Times New Roman is also considered a system font so it didn’t make the list either but it’s relative Times is there at number 6.
1. Helvetica [1957 - Max Miedinger]
2. Garamond [1530 - Claude Garamond]
3. Frutiger [1977 - Adrian Frutiger]
4. Bodoni [1790 - Giambattista Bodoni]
5. Futura [1927 - Paul Renner]
6. Times [1931 - Stanley Morison]
7. Akzidenz Grotesk [1966 - G nter Gerhard Lange]
8. Officina [1990 - Erik Spiekermann]
9. Gill Sans [1930 - Eric Gill]
10. Univers [1954 - Adrian Frutiger]
11. Optima [1954 - Hermann Zapf]
12. Franklin Gothic [1903 - Morris Fuller Benton]
13. Bembo [1496 - Francesco Griffo]
14. Interstate [1993 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
15. Thesis [1994 - Lucas de Groot]
16. Rockwell [1934 - Frank H. Pierpont]
17. Walbaum [1800 - Justus Walbaum]
18. Meta [1991 - Erik Spiekermann]
19. Trinit [1982 - Bram De Does]
20. Din [1926 - Ludwig Goller]
21. Matrix [1986 - Zuzana Licko]
22. OCR [1965 - American Type Founders]
23. Avant Garde [1968 - Herb Lubalin]
24. Lucida [1985 - Chris Holmes / Charles Bigelow]
25. Sabon [1964 - Jan Tschichold]
26. Zapfino [1998 - Hermann Zapf]
27. Letter Gothic [1956 - Roger Roberson]
28. Stone [1987 - Summer Stone]
29. Arnhem [1998 - Fred Smeijers]
30. Minion [1990 - Robert Slimbach]
31. Myriad [1992 - Twombly & Slimbach]
32. Rotis [1988 - Olt Aicher]
33. Eurostile [1962 - Aldo Novarese]
34. Scala [1991 - Martin Majoor]
35. Syntax [1968 - Hans Eduard Meier]
36. Joanna [1930 - Eric Gill]
37. Fleishmann [1997 - Erhard Kaiser]
38. Palatino [1950 - Hermann Zapf]
39. Baskerville [1754 - John Baskerville]
40. Fedra [2002 - Peter Bil’ak]
41. Gotham [2000 - Tobias Frere-Jones]
42. Lexicon [1992 - Bram De Does]
43. Hands [1991 - Letterror]
44. Metro [1929 - W. A. Dwiggins]
45. Didot [1799 - Firmin Didot]
46. Formata [1984 - Bernd M llenst dt]
47. Caslon [1725 - William Caslon]
48. Cooper Black [1920 - Oswald B. Cooper]
49. Peignot [1937 - A. M. Cassandre]
50. Bell Gothic [1938 - Chauncey H. Griffith]
51. Antique Olive [1962 - Roger Excoffon]
52. Wilhelm Klngspor Gotisch [1926 - Rudolf Koch]
53. Info [1996 - Erik Spiekermann]
54. Dax [1995 - Hans Reichel]
55. Proforma [1988 - Petr van Blokland]
56. Today Sans [1988 - Volker K ster]
57. Prokyon [2002 - Erhard Kaiser]
58. Trade Gothic [1948 - Jackson Burke]
59. Swift [1987 - Gerald Unger]
60. Copperplate Gothic [1901 - Frederic W. Goudy]
61. Blur [1992 - Neville Brody]
62. Base [1995 - Zuzana Licko]
63. Bell Centennial [1978 - Matthew Carter]
64. News Gothic [1908 - Morris Fuller Benton]
65. Avenir [1988 - Adrian Frutiger]
66. Bernhard Modern [1937 - Lucian Bernhard]
67. Amplitude [2003 - Christian Schwartz]
68. Trixie [1991 - Erik van Blokland]
69. Quadraat [1992 - Fred Smeijers]
70. Neutraface [2002 - Christian Schwartz]
71. Nobel [1929 - Sjoerd de Roos]
72. Industria [1990 - Neville Brody]
73. Bickham Script [1997 - Richard Lipton]
74. Bank Gothic [1930 - Morris Fuller Benton]
75. Corporate ASE [1989 - Kurt Weidemann]
76. Fago [2000 - Ole Schafer]
77. Trajan [1989 - Carol Twombly]
78. Kabel [1927 - Rudolf Koch]
79. House Gothic 23 [1995 - Tal Leming]
80. Kosmik [1993 - Letterror]
81. Caecilia [1990 - Peter Matthias Noordzij]
82. Mrs Eaves [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
83. Corpid [1997 - Lucas de Groot]
84. Miller [1997 - Matthew Carter]
85. Souvenir [1914 - Morris Fuller Benton]
86. Instant Types [1992 - Just van Rossum]
87. Clarendon [1845 - Benjamin Fox]
88. Triplex [1989 - Zuzana Licko]
89. Benguiat [1989 - Ed Benguiat]
90. Zapf Renaissance [1984 - Hermann Zapf]
91. Filosofia [1996 - Zuzana Licko]
92. Chalet [1996 - House Industries]
93. Quay Sans [1990 - David Quay]
94. C zanne [1995 - Michael Want, James Grieshaber]
95. Reporter [1938 - Carlos Winkow]
96. Legacy [1992 - Ronald Arnholm]
97. Agenda [1993 - Greg Thompson]
98. Bello [2004 - Underware]
99. Dalliance [2000 - Frank Heine]
100. Mistral [1953 - Roger Excoffon]
This photo is by Chris Perry and I like it.
I used the Indentifont tool to identify this typeface as Anzeigen Grotesk Regular and it seems about right. The sign designer seems to have increased the tracking too which lets the typeface breath a bit more.
I’m working towards being able to identify typefaces without using the tool. It has become a slightly obsessive hobby - walking down high streets and looking at all the signs can be a bit tiring but fun too. Here’s some info from the Linotype website about Anziegen Grotesk.
Anziegen Grotesk
Anzeigen Grotesk was created in 1943 by the Haas Type Foundry. It is a heavy, condensed sans serif face drawn in the style of typefaces popular during the early 20th Century. It was originally intended for use in advertising design, a field for which it is still well suited. Anzeigen Grotesk (which means “advertising sans serif” in German) is best used in larger point sizes.
A big wall of type I photographed in Copenhagen in October last year. Each poster was A1 size. Club night posters pasted over and over again in a grid is a pretty effective way to catch the eye.
Graffiti probably can’t be considered type but I like the contrast with the calm of the black wall and the logo printed on the light fitting.
Postmark was on a parcel from Hong Kong.
It’s pretty common to see a ‘Y’ in the trees that line London’s streets like this one.
The CAFE OPEN sign in the background in green is pretty special. I recognise the typeface but at the moment I can’t identify it (maybe Madrone or Inflex?). Serif typefaces are starting to come back into fashion after the resurgence and subsequent dominance of sans-serifs like Helvetica.
I think the trend for sans-serifs had a lot to do with low quality computer screens being unable to cope with displaying serifed fonts online well enough for easy reading. Now that screens are improving I think we’ll see a lot more serifed type. But I don’t expect to see a lot of use of this particular one, which I think just feels too “roaring twenties” for most uses.
My partner Cate and I bought our flat almost two years ago, in that time the people who own the communal areas have never managed to label the buzzer for the eight flats in our block.
Seeing as we can’t access the inside of the panel, we and our neighbours have stuck our own paper labels on the buzzer with sellotape to indicate which button corresponds to our flats. Our label has long since fallen off but enough people’s labels have remained to help people work out which of the eight flats they need to buzz.
Being the graphic design geek that I am, I find the different typefaces people choose interesting. Everyone has their favourite fonts they like to use. And some of our neighbours have added embelishments too - Flat 6 has a box and Flat 2 has bullet marks either side. Some neighbours have never added a label and some have added labels that have fallen down and haven’t been replaced.
What I also find interesting is that no-one hand wrote their labels. They were all typed up on a computer and printed out. I’ve been thinking about why that is. I think it probably has something to do with wanting to appear ordered, tidy and perhaps overall a good neighbour. People tend to think hand written signs can be scruffy and careless.
Also although the labels are home-printed on paper (and not professionally on card, plastic, glass or metal) they do appear more permanent than hand written ones. A big part of making a home, for me at least, is establishing a sort of permanent residency.
And just in case you were wondering - our label was in Rockwell with the kerning tightened up. I was a big fan a the time. I think I wanted to make ours stand out from the others by using a slab-serif instead of a sans-serif. Oh dear… what does that say about me?
Walking home tonight thinking about starting this blog, I was on the lookout for natural occurences of typefaces. I think I can see a ‘K’ formed by the mattress and the wall. Or am I looking too hard because as I said, I started a typography blog today? :P
Hiya! My name is Sam and I am a graphic designer living and working in London. I’ve kept blogs and websites before but they have been wide-ranging and pretty random in content. I thought it would be fun to start a blog that covers typography exclusively.
I work in-house and I also do individual freelance commissions. This means I am often working in isolation from the design community. Coupled with the fact that I am almost entirely self-taught, I’m really keen to get to know other designers to have a conversation about design and ultimately swap ideas and inspiration. I’ll be adding the ability to leave comments very soon. I’m still very much learning how to be a good graphic designer and I’m hoping this blog will help me learn even more.
At the moment, I design for print and the web. I think the spaces the two disciplines occupy are merging or perhaps have already merged into one. That topic is something I’ll hopefully be touching on over the coming months.
So that’s about it other than to say I love type, I hope you enjoy this blog and I also hope you’re having a nice day.
