Downtown

In my opinion, downtown is the best place in the city to see how type interacts with its surroundings and with one another. After seeing all the presentations of the history of the western alphabet, I can really see how type has evolved from wall carvings to computer typing. As I walked past union square, of course the only thing I can see are typefaces. In this picture, you can see Barneys in the background, Crate & Barrel in the middle ground, and FIDM in the foreground.

Barneys is in the typeface, Augustus, which draws inspiration from classical and roman styles.

Crate and Barrel is in the ever so popular sans serif, Helvetica.

I could not find the typeface for FIDM, but I get the feeling this type was created in the era of computer innovations. The "D" lacks natural curves, so I assume it might have been a pixel based font.

Although I can't get into the technicalities, I would like to think these typefaces represent the past, present, and future.

Bell Jarring

As I embarrassingly dozed off in my literature class, one thing starred right back at me and caught my attention at once. There it was, "THE BELL JAR", in a beautiful and decorative typeface. After searching the web, I found out that the typeface is called, DAVIDA BOLD. It was created by Louis Minott in 1965. There was not too much information on the this typeface or the designer, but I can tell that the style is very indicative of the time. It was created in the sixties, which was an era of political and social upraising, this book took place right before this era, where people were meant to conform (especially women who were domesticated). The main character (Esther) in the Bell Jar, was a girl in her late teens, who refused to be confined by societies expectations. After thinking about the plot and the era in which this typeface was created, I can see why this was chosen for the cover design. Esther's thoughts foreshadow a revolt against conformity and Davida Bold represents the revolution and darkness that would come later in her life.

Typo-O-Lantern

I've got Halloween on my mind, and while browsing around looking for creative stencils for my personal jack-o-lantern, I stumbled upon a competition from the blog, Typophile. Here are the intructions:

Rules

1- Carve, cut, etch, &c., your typographic design, letterform or mark into a pumpkin or other gourd.

2- Post a photograph (600 x 400 please) of your entry in this thread. Feel free to inform us about your method, inspiration, &c. but the best entries will speak for themselves.

3- As with other type battles, this starts on a Monday and ends this Friday (which happens to be 2 days after Halloween, no points will be reduced with November entries).

Judging & Prizes
As with any street battle, there is no panel of judges and no prize — only the ability to call yourself the best on the block.

Here is photo of my favorite carving, Century Gothic. Along with the skeleton on the side that uses only shapes that can be found in the typeface. Genius.

Böcklin-ized

Art nouveau was a key concept during the late 19th century and essentially paved the way for typography to expand into more creative styles. While researching art nouveau and the typefaces that branched from it, the typeface that stands out is Arnold Böcklin. It was designed by Otto Weisert and named after a swiss painter. Its flowing lines and "whiplash" curves are very indicative of the time. After being introduced, I could help but notice how many stores and cafés in the Western addition/NOPA district of SF use this typeface. A part of town that is very hip and progressive. This is a picture of the Mojo Bicycle Café logo on Divisidero, which clearly uses Böcklin. It's only a couple blocks away from campus and has a mean Le Croque-Mojo baguette sandwich.

Wanted

For project one, I investigated the 19th century. Industrialization brought a very static and mechanic way of designing type. Purely based on legibility and readability, typography had become industrialized. As result, designers such as William Morris wanted to bring art back to Typography. With this, we finally see how type becomes a design element. A brilliant example of type as design is this 1865 wanted ad for John Wilkes Booth, after his assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. The ad also uses perfect use of hierarchy as "THE MURDERER" headline in a sans serif is obviously the most important message for the receiver. This ad has about nine levels of type, and that seems like a huge amount, which in other circumstances would be way to heavy. However, in this image all the typefaces, the sizes, the positioning, and the balance of think and thin, really brings a cohesive message for the masses.