Deck the Halls with typographical designs

Found this on Tumblr via some place called Scoutie Girl, and it is a very interesting compilation of various fonts. I would totally not mind having this hanging in my apartment. I have no problem displaying my inner nerd / geek out in the open for all to see.

Futura is of course my favorite. Love that font. I think I have been using it entirely too much lately. Like when I was younger and used Comic Sans for everything, and now I see all these jokes about it and laugh because people really do HATE Comic Sans. But I get it I guess - it's not a very regal font.

I think I have also been over-using Verdana in web design of late. I used to always use Arial, but I think Verdana does look better and is easier to read when rather small, but then again - that's what it was designed for!

I can't remember where I have seen Univers before, but I like it. Though I don't think I have it on my computer.

an historical Danny Boy

This is an historical newspaper. I found it in a book that I bought years ago when I lived in London, to write a research paper about the Irish Revolution: Ireland: A History (new edition), by Robert Kee. I saved this scan larger than I normally would for the web, so that you can click on it and see the details.

There is more going on that just the type, but my focus was  of course the typography in the newspaper clipping in the top right of the image. This is a London paper from 1916. They have a logotype as what I believe is called a "mastheading" on newspapers. They have used both serif and san-serif. I have to say, compared to the types of contemporary typography designs I've seen, even on newspapers, I think this looks kind of sloppy. The headlines look oddly justified on the left. On the right, the bigger column that says "Sir Roger..." just looks like a big old mess to me. I definitely think newspapers are design much better these days, both in the layout and the typography. Granted, we have years of technology helping us along now...

I Love the business side of Rock N' Roll

This was found on the side of a building in Portland, Oregon. I had absolutely no idea what it was when I found it. I just thought it looked really cool, how the 'u' is all surrounded by the squarish object.

I had been thinking about using this as a logotype awhile back, but decided against it and went with something else. So I decided to Google 'Unitus Plaza' since I had the photo edited already. Turns out it is a bank! Which conveniently happens to be another type of typography we could find.

I really like how they've used two different kinds of type here - both sans serif, but the one is all lowercase and the other is all uppercase. I think it is interesting how the 'i' does not have a dot on it. No idea what the reason is for that, but I think it turned out quite aesthetically pleasing, at least to me.

I Think I'm Turning Japanese

I'm not precisely sure where I found this, either through Google image search or on deviantART.com. Since the CAPCAM logo is in the bottom corner, I'm thinking this is probably an official image, and therefor came from a random Google image search at some point in time...

Okami is one of my absolute most favorite video games of all time. It originally came out on the Playstation 2 and then was re-released for the Wii some time ago. The controls on the Wii are awesome - you paint your way through the game. I chose this as an "Asian" typography because it's kind of out of the ordinary. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be finding actual characters from a language (i.e. Japanese, Chinese, Korean) or something influenced by the type of characters that they have.

I went with this typography because it is anglicized, because you can read what it says, but it is reminiscent of the brush strokes of Japanese characters. The video game is essentially set in Japan, though arguably a different type period - the land is called Nippon. There are a lot of plays on Japanese history and mythology and it all ties in to the essential part of the game - the brush strokes. I.e. how the "typography" is formed. Although, arguably, Japanese characters like Kanji are probably more like calligraphy than typography. I'm actually not sure what calligraphy would be considered.

A Lack of Color treatment is not seen with this text type

A couple weeks ago I got a fountain soda at Royal Farms for the first time in ages and was astounded and delighted by the design of their new cups (though I'm not sure exactly how new they really are, they could have been out for two or more years now and I wouldn't be the wiser). I had a sprite in it, so I really got to see the popping colors. I went earlier today after looking through to see what other types of type I could capture for this assignment and thought it would be a great example of the text type with interesting color treatment.

The words are all jumbled together, but they are still distinctly different simply because of the color treatment. They've used bright, vibrant colors that still kind of stand out even when filled with a dark soda (like my Dr. Pepper from earlier). I washed the cup out and put water in it though, so that I could really show the colors when I photographed it. Definitely one of the coolest cups I've ever seen. They should have gotten the same designer to work on redoing their hideous coffee cups, too.

Knockin' on Heaven's Door historically in a contemporary design

This historical type reused in a contemporary design was found on my desk via the local Royal Farms store via possibly Virginia, as that is where the tobacco might come from, but I'm not entirely sure. It could be somewhere else. When the idea first struck me that this might be a neat typography example to use, I Googled Camel and got to the wikipedia page where they had an image of an advertisement for Camel cigarettes from 1915. Back then, this was still the typeface they used for their logo.

While one could argue that Camel has been using the same design forever, and therefore it makes it not contemporary, these cigarettes, the Camel Crush, have only recently come out. I believe it was sometime in 2008. I think it's interesting that they are mixing their historical logo/type in with their contemporary design. "Crush" is written in a san serif that looks almost space-like. I was thinking just the other day that this is one of the prettiest cigarette box designs I have ever seen. 

The Digital Type Revolution: A Swedish Scandal

One could say that modern is digital. Most people are completely surrounded by technology everyday; few people can set foot out their door without a cell phone and computers are frequented both at work and at home. And while technologies are not limited to being digital, the majority of technologies we consider modern have some kind of digital aspect to them. Even the field of design can be split up into two groups – print and digital. When designing for these two groups, there are different rules that apply, varying standards, and even specific elements that can, or at least should, be used for one but not the other. Such is the case with the element of typography. Just as there has been a digital revolution in culture, there has been a digital revolution in the design and use of typography, an example of which can be seen in the case of the Swedish home goods store IKEA.

Among Robin Nichols typography designs is one with “specially drawn weights of a geometric sans face,” called IKEA Sans (Ascender Corporation). This IKEA Sans font is a variant of the Futura font designed by German designer Paul Renner in the 1920s (Garfield). Though Futura is over 80 years old, many consider the font to still look modern (Garfield). In the summer of 2009, IKEA released the 2010 edition of their yearly catalog. As fans of the store opened up their mailboxes and logged onto the website to view the digital version, they were met with a great change that brought shock and anger to many. The 2010 IKEA catalog was filled not with their specially designed font, IKEA Sans, not even with the original version, Futura, but with the overly used and common place Verdana.

The Verdana type face was designed by Matthew Carter in 1993, specifically for use as a screen font on the computer. It has wide letterforms with generous spacing to allow for optimum legibility at the smallest of sizes (Abend). It could be said that Verdana is the go-to font for when one does not care “how their work looks to others” (Garfield).

Great controversy arose from what some might consider a minor change. Angry comments and rants flooded the social media Twitter and an online petition was created by one designer (Abend). Discussions ensued regarding the failing of IKEA’s branding and with it their reputation in the field of design. Many designers felt betrayed (Abend).

When asked why the need for change, Monika Cocic, an IKEA spokeswoman, stated, “It’s more efficient and cost-effective…. Plus, it’s a simple, modern-looking typeface” (Abend).

But what, one might ask, does any of this have to do with the digital type revolution? For starters, the most obvious and simple answer is the pure fact that IKEA switched from an historically grounded type face to a more modern one designed specifically for digital use. With web presence being such a significant tool in commerce these days, one could say IKEA was just moving to the next level; however, the fact remains that they have had a website for years and yet never changed their catalog font in the past.

One of the most important issues regarding the IKEA font change is what it means for the impact of digital type design on print design in the 21st century. IKEA is well-known; upon landing on their website, one can enter through over 30 countries. If such a well-known and well-branded company can get away with changing their entire image, will others try to follow suit? Will other companies start to use web fonts in their print pieces in order to save money and time on design? Will the aesthetics of design be brushed aside for ease of commerce, for what some consider modernity, for simplicity?

These are questions that are not easily answered, but well worth asking. Centuries of training and thought have gone into creating the aesthetics of design. With the digital revolution in culture, one could say the daily lives of humans have been made easier. But with the digital revolution of type, is it possible that instead of improving upon the past, we have actually destroyed one of the oldest aspects of culture, our art.

Pictured:
(from first to last)
Futura type face
Verdana type face
IKEA 2010 catalog online
IKEA Sans type face


Bibliography:

Abend, Lisa. “The Font War: Ikea Fans Fume Over Verdana.” TIME. 2009 Aug. 28. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919127,00.html. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

Ascender Corporation. “Robin Nichols.” 2009. http://www.ascendercorp.com/designers/robin-nicholas/. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

Bauhaus-archiv Museum of Design. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.bauhaus.de/english/index.htm>.

Garfield, Simon. “Verdana: Ikea's flat-pack font: Ikea is changing its font to Verdana - causing outrage among typomaniacs. Should the rest of us care? Absolutely.” Guardian.co.uk. 2009 Sept. 2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/sep/02/ikea-verdana-font. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

IKEA. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.ikea.com/>.

Microsoft. “Verdana.” 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://www.microsoft.com/typography/fonts/family.aspx?FID=1>.

MyFonts.com. 2009. 2 Dec. 2009. <http://new.myfonts.com/>.

Stockholm Design Lab. “Ikea Sans.” 2009. http://www.stockholmdesignlab.se/#/1112/projects/clients/ikea/ikea/. (accessed Dec. 2, 2009).

Think Twice about typographical errors

Some of you may recognize this as a homepage ad from the main landing page of the Towson University website. I work in the University Relations department at TU, and one of the things I do is make homepage ad banners like this one. I happened to make this one. And it got past me, my boss, other web people, and made it onto the website... with this very obvious (at least now that it has been pointed out to me) typographical error in it! I went to take a screenshot of it on the website, but thankfully it had already been taken down when I went to do it.

Another one of my job duties is to manage the website feedback that comes in through the comment form. I forward it to whoever it is supposed to go to or respond if I can, or fix it if I have access. Well, this came in as a feedback submission, and thankfully, too. Otherwise this spelling error would have stayed on the website for another week... and having a spelling error on the website of an institution of higher education is NEVER a good thing. I read through department websites sometimes and find them rife with errors, and it really aggravates me! How hard is it to do a simple spell check? It takes an extra minute before you publish the page.

At TU I use Contribute to edit webpages, and I ALWAYS hit the spell check on every page before publishing, even if I know I was the last person to edit it, and already did a spell check. Unfortunately, I have to say when working on things at home in Dreamweaver, I have a tendency to forget about doing a spell check, and have gone and looked at my pages after uploading and found errors. Browsers and Word and TextEdit with their automatic spell checks and underlining in red have spoiled me so.

So lesson learned: always double, triple, quadruple check the way you spell things when making graphics with text in Photoshop. Hey, maybe even just paste the word in from a spell checked capable application. That could never hurt (and I have totally done that before, too).

Zip it, zip it good

Stumbled upon this great typography video on YouTube from the "Zip it" quotes found in one of those Austin Powers movies, though I forget which one exactly, since it's been so long since I have seen any of them.

If I Were A Rich Girl

Found via Twitter, from Smashing Mag:

Rich Typography on the Web: Techniques and Tools

Information regarding dynamic text replacement, which I've never heard of before. Though it still says not to use this for large portions of body content, just for something like headlines, pull quotes, etc.

Rain Drops Keep Falling on my head in the u.s.

This photo was taken in Portland, Oregon (yes, again, and no, I do not live there, sadly). I was on the southbound yellow line train going into the city from out where my hotel was near the Expo Center.

I took this photo because, well, I remain fascinated by the old west to this day, especially it's very distinct type face that I feel should be on a wanted poster below a drawing or photo of a man with a mustache that curls up and a dusty, old Stetson hat. As much of a stereotype as it is, America, i.e. the U.S., is the land of the cowboy (oddly enough, if you ever learn anything about several South American countries, they are, too). Think Tombstone AZ, and that's how I think of the old America, even though it's despairingly un-encompassing of the great variety of cultures America has been home to.

And so, my find for the U.S. typography is a classic reuse of what I define to be the "old west" font. I especially enjoy the type on the lower part of the building, surrounded by all those dots. I can't really distinctly tell if that is another font or not, but either way you look at it, it's pretty darn cool. I do however, find the use of the san serif after the comma for the word "unlimited" to be a little odd and very out of place. I would have preferred they used the same dotted font from the lower part of the building.

Either way, looking at this photo, at this type of font, makes me think of the old west. Hey, I even edited the photo and made it into sepia! The building is actually red, though in the original photo I took, the building came out kind of mauve-ish because it was a really grey and gloomy day.

On a side note, I decided to look for an old west Wanted poster, and I found one for The Sundance Kid (i.e. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - great film, if you've never seen it, do it now) at the Historical Documents Company website.

I absolutely love this poster! It's got this deep, bold font that makes it blazingly obvious what the reward is and who it is for, which are the two most important things you would want on a wanted poster, now aren't they?

Also, if you happened to have seen the movie, then I hope you get the reference in the title to this blog!

urban Freebird

For some reason, when I think of urban typography, I most often think of graffiti. But since graffiti happened to be its own category of type to find, I went a little literal in my finding of "urban" typography.

This type can be found on the TriMet MAX train stop in Portland, Oregon on the southbound side. This is the PSU Urban Center & SW 5th & Mill Street. This stop is one of the many servicing Portland State University.

I figured how more urban can you get than a public transportation sign? Granted, the green line, I believe it is, was recently added and runs out into the suburbs.

But when I think public transportation, I think city, I think clean, I think concise, I think simple (and yet oh so complex). I think business, I think commerce, I think travel. I think street signs and lamp posts, the random tree planted in a slab of cement. I think bold (colors) yet the classic black suit. These are the ideas and images that I relate to the idea of urbanity, and therefore, to urban typography.

Stuck in the Middle With You logotype

Hotel Modera is located in Portland, Oregon. I snapped this shot while strolling along 5th Avenue on my first day of vacation. I rather enjoyed how the "O" in Modera reminded me of some kind of logo, and I assumed that this could be the actual logo for the hotel, turned into the name on the side of their building.

I didn't get a chance to actually go inside the hotel, but from the outside it looks rather "modern" in a sense. The building itself is very geometric. The panes on the windows kind of remind me a bit of the Golden Rectangle, which I learned about in another IAMD class last semester. I'm not sure if you can tell from this photo, but the hotel is in a cross shape rather than the normal square of a usual building. If you visit the website for the hotel and watch the slideshow of images on the landing page, you can see a better shot of the the hotel is shaped. As well as see the how the interior design could also be classified as very "modern".

Granted, none of the above really has much to do with speaking about the actual type, but all of these things in line with the typography of the logo make me think it all very modern, though arguably there are a number of ways in which one could define what "modern" actually is. I think the hotel and it's branding has a sort of 1960s feel to it, and it actually reminds me of something you would see on "Mad Men." And of course, 1960s is not very modern at all.

 I checked out their website to see if this was so, and while I'm still not entirely positive this is logo / brandmark, this "logo" was also found on the hotel's website. The website also has a modern feel to it. It is very clean and crisp. I'm sure it depends on the resolution and size of your monitor, but you shouldn't have to scroll to view the website at larger; they keep the scrolly bits to a small column on the right side of the site. They even have a link to Facebook and Twitter; how more "modern" can you get than social media?!

Stop Draggin' My Graffiti Heart Around

I've always had a weird love for graffiti. When I was younger I used to sign my name in a neat, legible manner. But towards the end of high school, once I started getting out in the world more and seeing more instances of graffiti, I changed the way I signed my name so that it looked more like graffiti, because I thought it was cool. And I still sign that way today! I thought it might be interesting to post a scan of my signature on here as well, but then my signature would be all over the internet. I don't think that's so safe with the fear and threat of identity theft and all...

This sample of graffiti was found on a wooden post, on the hiking trail at Multnomah Falls in Oregon. If I recall correctly, these falls are the second highest year-round falls in the United States, possibly the entire continent, and they are located maybe 30 minutes outside of Portland, off I-84, on part of the Historic Oregon Trail loop.

If you can't tell from the size of the photo, the graffiti was found on what looks to be a name tag someone stuck on this poor inanimate wooden post. I think the writing either says "Susan" or maybe "Sudan"; the first letter is an "S" for sure.  The second letter might be either an "O" or a "U" but I'm not positive. I really like the bright blue they used to write the letters because of the how well it stands out.

The top of the sticker probably used to say "VISIT" and looks to be a basic sans serif, maybe in a bold.

It's Five O'Clock Somewhere Neon

My brief time in Portland allowed me to conclude that it is the land of Neon signs. They were absolutely everywhere! But unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of time for nighttime photography, so the majority of my photos of signs are not actually lit up. Portland has a big sign by the waterfront of the Willamette River that says "Made in Oregon" that I found all over town on postcards and other touristy memorabilia. I found this great night shot of the "Made in Oregon" sign on Flickr that you should totally check out.

To the right is perhaps my favorite Neon sign that I saw. It was even better at night, but we were on the train back to our hotel and I didn't get a chance to get a good shot of it all lit up. I really like that they have used two different fonts in their sign, both a script and a sans serif. This sign reminds me of something one might see on the Vegas strip in the 1960s. If I remember correctly, I believe the arrow on the sign was blinking when we rode past it on the train.

I had to edit this photo to make the neon type stand out more since I took this during the day and it was rather bright outside. This sign I found inside "The Man Store" in Seaside on Oregon's coast. The font used for the words looks very familiar, but I can't place exactly what it is. Again, the neon was not very vibrant because I took this during the day time, but at least this one was turned on. I think the numbers used in this font are a little weird though, because they are so much wider, and I wonder if it is the same typography as the words.

I found this sign particularly appropriate for my blog, as it is the title of a Jimmy Buffet song, "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere."

Hand-Paint it Black

I am currently visiting Portland, Oregon and have found an abundance of interesting typographies plastered throughout the streets. I have two examples of hand-painted typography to post. The first, and quite possibly my more favorite of the two as well, is a hand-painted sign: "Cajun Creole The Swamp Shack That a way."

This sandwich board sign was lingering on the corner of a block of street food booths in Portland, Oregon. When I rounded the corner, there was little cute little street food-ery constructed to literally look like a swamp shack with a small deck on the front with a few tables. However, the intrigue of Czech food, which I'd never seen nor had before, won out over my love of creole.

This was an actual hand-painted sign - made with real arms!

The second example of hand-painted typography I found is one that looks like it is hand-painted / written, but is actually a printed type on a print design piece. I found this print piece in the Portland Welcome Center, downtown in Pioneer Square.

I like this type because I think it's fun and realistic, but at the same time I'm not a fan because of the weird letters randomly being larger than others. Yes, that is how people write sometimes; yes, that's how I actually write most of the time; but I think the largeness of certain letters is TOO big / TOO extreme.

Having only spent a week in Portland, (as I finish this, I'm long past my plane ride how unfortunately) I don't know the culture / people that well, but from what I gathered, I think this type is very appropriate for the laid-back / casual culture that is the great city of Portland, Oregon.

Take On Fonts

Another article via Twitter, where apparently all my information and news comes from these days...

font-face and Webfonts: How to Use Them

I especially enjoy the "Good typography/bad typography" advert they've got posted.

Carry On Wayward Fonts

The other day I found some tweets of interest with links to some great blog posts about typography and web design.

7 Rules for Mixing Multiple Fonts in Good Web Design

This blog post has some interesting ideas about having multiple fonts in a blog or website, and gives some links to some great looking sites. I especially enjoy the look of the Carsonified website.

31 Websites Using Huge Type

This blog has links to a bunch websites using huge fonts, pretty self-explanatory. Some of them look pretty cool.

I stumbled across tumblr this weekend as well. I'm a little confused by it, even though I took a look around trying to figure it out. Somewhere on the site micro-blogging was mentioned, but then when I took a look at some of the "blogs" I found posts much longer than what I would consider to be micro-blogging. So we'll see. I'm rather intrigued by the customization available on tumblr, but I like the fact that blogger has integration with other accounts I already hold.

Stairway to Blog Heaven

A quick post for the evening with a link to another tutorial I found on Twitter about designing a blog, and there is a specific section regarding typography (section no. 6) with a bunch of resources listed. Haven't gotten to check out the resources yet, though.

9 Things You Can't Forget When Designing a Blogs

One Is Not the Loneliest Number

Keeping this blog for ART610 Graduate Typography at Towson University, one of the classes in the Interactive Media Design Post-Baccalaureate Certificate that I am currently completing. I'm not really sure yet what this blog is supposed to entail, but figured I'd at least get started with it so it's not empty like my other blog I recently created (with an aim for photo blogging, but I've been preoccupied with other things).

It's been awhile since I've really "blogged" in the traditional sense. I used to keep a personal blog for a number of years, read by local friends and fandom friends (people interested in similar television shows, movies, books, music, etc.) but Facebook took that over at first, and now following others on twitter with the micro-blogging has taken over second. It will be interesting to keep a blog about only one thing, which I've read is kind of what you're supposed to do. Not be all over the place. That will definitely be difficult for me. I love tangents.

Looking forward to learning more about typography and it's use in design this semester. I've always had a weird thing for fonts - always had my favorites, though they've drastically changed over the years. Comic sans used to be a favorite of mine and now I shudder every time I see it! Currently I'm in love with Myriad Pro and Frutiger. We'll see how long those last.

Back in high school I used to fashion my handwriting into something that reminded me of typography, and I always wanted to turn it into a font, but never knew how.