You Should Like Type Too » Typography & Lettering

A few letters from Tel Aviv

Rob — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 13:57:50 +0000

I visited Israel for the first time this summer to meet up with my friend Oded Ezer (more on our reasons for this visit later…). It was July, outside was a million degrees with a million percent humidy, but there were unlimited typographical treasures, plentiful air conditioning, and hummous that would blow your mind. Aside from the 10kg of weight I lost through sweating, it was an incredible trip and a great place to visit – maybe you’d like go during the slightly cooler months though.

Museum of Things #2 [UPDATED]

Rob — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:02:02 +0000

Just a few more images from Berlin’s ultra-cool Museum of Things!

You can also see more great objects from the museum in this previous post.

[UPDATE]

You can also help out the museum by becoming a Dingpfleger (a caretaker/sponsor of a thing). For a small donation you can adopt one of their objects! For more information and to learn about becoming a Dingpfleger(in) have a look here (German).

Check out what we are sponsoring for 2010!
(And thanks to Dan Reynolds for the quote!)
(Even if it maybe, possibly, came with the tiniest bit of sarcasm.)

The “Vesper” Bahlsen Keksdose from 1923 over at the Museum der Dinge’s website

The Museum of Things ⇒ WOW

Rob — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 06:49:03 +0000

Oh my god Becky, seriously the Museum of Things (Museum der Dinge) is like totally the most raddest place in Berlin. If you thought the DDR Museum had some cool old stuff, then you will be blown away by all the junk at this place. It is a cross between a natural history museum, the Smithsonian, your grandma’s house, a garage sale, and a dump. It has an extensive collection of “things” from the 1800s through today – roughly sorted chronologically and also a bit categorically.

Its stockpile of ephemeral, everyday objects is amazing. Typoholics will find hours of pleasure simply staring at all the old logos and packaging. I ended up taking about 150 photos while managing to convince my friends I am nuts because of how overly excited I was.

For those of you who are maybe not impressed with *just* nice old type and objects, the museum has more attractions. There are also some big, powerful, loud, Mythbusteresque machines that smash, chop, stomp, and roll/crush/flatten. Visitors are invited to use the hydraulic beasts to annihilate some miscellaneous bric-a-brac. Mechanical thumps, shattering, screaming, and laughing can be heard echoing throughout the museum.

It is a great place. Plus there is a gift shop with some nice designer objects and some other old crap you can buy too!

Vintage German Design & Lettering

Rob — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:58:26 +0000

Following up to the popular GDR packaging/branding post, we present here 20 more great vintage specimens.

More Signs from Rome

Rob — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 21:10:54 +0000

Signs found in Rome – Part 1

Chowda Heads Make Some Wicked Type

Rob — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 07:09:50 +0000

Boston has it all! Well at least typographically speaking. There is everything from truly unique iron work numbers to inscriptions to old fading painted signs. Of course there are the usual standard things too, but here we are focusing on some of the more special bits.

Be sure to also check out the images from some Boston cemeteries here:

Den Haag House Numbers = Diverse and Interesting

Rob — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 16:25:13 +0000

The Netherlands is quite famous its typography and design. Travelling around the country, one will notice how it seems every aspect of life has been controlled and manipulated in some way. My theory is this stems from the basic foundation of the country – how the land is literally man made and reclaimed from the sea. Little is left in its natural or default state giving the place a very special quality.

On my last trip to Den Haag, during the Robothon conference, I was struck by this “ultra designed” feeling everywhere. Avidly enjoying photography, one of my new hobbies is collecting images of house numbers. Den Haag is the 3rd major city in my collection (the first to be posted here, others will follow) and it is incredible. There is such a wide variety of numbers and styles, almost every house or building is unique.

Sit back, enjoy, and get inspired by these Dutch numbers!

Found in Rome

Rob — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 20:44:18 +0000

More signs found in Rome – Part 2

Das Buchstaben (Letter!) Museum

Rob — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 12:53:55 +0000

Last night the city of Berlin offered another special event: their 24th Museum Night – Lange Nacht der Museen. For one small price you get admission to most of the city’s museums from 6pm to 2am. This is a great opportunity to get out and see some of the remarkable collections and galleries here in Berlin.

One of the highlights, and certainly the most anticipated museum I wanted to visit, was the Buchstaben Museum. They are only open sporadically, so it is normally difficult to get an opportunity to stop by.

I was a bit surprised by the small space, but the up side to this was how every square meter was covered with old letters from signs. Large dimensional letters were standing, laying, leaning, hanging, and stacked throughout the two showrooms. The haphazard, jumbled arrangements made it a bit difficult to fully appreciate the signs and the lettering, but they are none-the-less beautiful and interesting. Personally, I am mostly into the nice letters, and less actually the history behind them; but whenever possible, the letters/signs have tags indicating where they came from, the typeface in use, and a little extra info. If you are more interested in some finer details of what is in this collection, Dan Reynolds has some images and font IDs up at his flickr and blog. That guy is crazy, he visited the museum, got home, and blogged about it before I was even there!

On a side note, the Buchstaben Museum reminds me quite a bit of the boneyard in Las Vegas Neon Museum – albeit a smaller, climate controlled, more sanitary version. Someday, we should all make the trek there because it looks incredible. Paul Hunt visited in 2008 and has some great photos in flickr.

Update:

Core 77 has many more great photos of the museum here

NYC Public Library Indic Books

Rob — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 13:41:31 +0000

A few shots from NYC public library’s decent collection of Indian books…

Letters in the 3rd Dimension

Rob — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 10:00:08 +0000

The other day I came across a recent statement by Jimmy Luu, faculty in graphic design at the University of Illinois. In this interview he declared: “Up until the past decade, letters have mainly been presented as flat shapes in printed form.” He continues: “While the notion of giving dimension to letterforms has existed for centuries within the field of typography as smaller pockets of activity, recent advances in digital technology has provided designers greater freedom and ease with which to explore the spatial and temporal qualities of typographic form.” This inspired me to dig through my photo collection to find a few specimens to illustrate some amazing dimensional typography. There is quite a long history and variety of three dimensional letterforms, yet it is rarely recognized.

Clearly, the majority of type and typography we encounter on a daily basis is literally and visually flat and dimensionless. However, contrary to what Luu claims, I would argue dimensional type is no more popular now than in any other point in history. That being said, there is somewhat of a trend for artists to use words and letters in their works, but that is a different topic.

Luu’s singular accurate statement in that quote is that computers make it easier for designers to play with letters in time and space. That is a shallow and throw away comment – computers have completely changed every aspect of how designers work. Simply because digital technology makes work easier and faster says nothing of the quality or quantity of new dimensional type that has come as a result.

The images in this collection are by no means intended to be a complete history, they only acknowledge a fraction of the many fascinating forms that type has taken in the 3rd dimension. There are countless other ways letters have been played with. These include but are not limited to: other flat-faux-dimensional-treatments, more physical 3D embodiments, graffiti, and especially the whole separate genre of motion graphics. Moving type is possibly the only “new” use of dimensional type in the last century.

Descriptions and links:

1st Row:
1) The most common dimensional type we experience daily – shop signs
2) Retired sign letters in a new context
3) Roman inscription, carved letters are some of the oldest existing type specimens
4) Old and new 3D type – the inscribed and the extruded side by side

2nd Row:
5) Modern use of inscribing letters is still commonly found in cemeteries
6) Not all tombstones have carved letters, these beautiful letters are in metal and “float” above the face of the stone
7) 19th C. type exhibiting primitive attempts at added dimension
8) The use of different type styles helps differentiate stories

3rd Row:
9) More ornate and decorative treatments are used to achieve depth
10) Unconventional use of contrasting colors also hint at dimension
11) 19th C. Almanac with letters seemingly standing upright and perpendicular to the page
12) Curved letters peeling away from the paper, others with an odd perspective standing on the page

4th Row:
13) Radical examples of faux type from France
14) Edward Ruscha paintings 1968(both)
images from the National Gallery of Art
15) Edward Ruscha drawings, gunpowder on paper, 1970(left) 1967(right)
images from: Craig F. Starr Gallery
16) Album cover inspired by Ruscha’s work? Mecca for Moderns by The Manhattan Transfer 1986

5th Row:
17) You think Ed Ruscha invented dimensional lettering from ribbons? Here is a beautiful medieval example:
18) Before computers, Ed Benguiat pencil sketches for Budweiser logo. Images from presentation at Typo Berlin 2008, dates unknown ≈1970′s – early 80′s.
19) Ed Benguiat logo for colossus
20) Ed Benguiat logo for Terra Magna