Posts tagged lettering
Gaslight Style | Sheaff : ephemera (via @typegirl)
One pronounced aspect of Victorian design was a great interest in creating the illusion of depth, particularly so with lithographers. Type, vignettes, products and design elements are made to seem multi-layered through the use of shadows, superimposition, dimensional banners and ribbons, turned-up faux page corners and choice of colors. Some have labeled this the “Gaslight Style” approach to design…Questions: How common was this style at the time? An everyday kind of thing? I wonder if it was as beautiful to the Victorian era public as it is to us now.
Ad for Kosca pens, Italy 1951.
From the Epoca archives
Kalmine pain reliever ad, Italy 1951.
“against neuralgia(?), headaches, colds, flu, toothaches”
From the Epoca archives.
The Duke’s Men (c.1987) — an homage to Duke Ellington by Michael Harvey using handmade stencils (via Imprint)
Speaking of Storefront, the 3D samples created by Dado Queiroz are pretty ridiculous and awesome. See more in the Storefront PDF specimen.
Sudtipos is sure to have another hit with the new Storefront typeface, which reminds me a bit of one of my favorite signs: The Berghoff in Chicago. I hope my friend Alejandro Paul won’t mind a little dig, but I think there are some curves here and there that aren’t as smooth as they could be (see the ‘ho’ connection). Still, Ale is in a class of his own with these kinds of novelty script fonts.
Friseur
Berlin, Germany
Pascal Duez
That mark above the ‘u’ is not an umlaut (ü). As Florian Hardwig explains:
The bar or hook is a “courtesy mark” (as Ken Barber calls it) a courtesy to the reader to emphasize that this is a ‘u’ and not an ‘n’. I use the tag “u distinguisher”.
The u hook was a common means in German handwriting and was indispensable with the zigzag style of Kurrentschrift. It has survived in some more contemporary (script) lettering styles.
Related and confusing: the habit of putting a (straight) bar on the ‘n’, to denote a double ‘n’.
(via fleurs-coiffeur-liqueur)
Mid-century signs of the LA area, photographed by Marc Shur.
Marina del Rey, California.
Photo by Corey Holms.
This doesn’t look real.
This photofont is a collection of high resolution (21 x 29,7 cm - 300 dpi - cmyk) photoshop documents. Also available separately or words manually spaced by the Novo Typo designers.
Blumenhaus Wittelsbach
Munich, Germany
Florian HardwigClick the detail shot to see it large. If you have ever bent neon you see more than a nice sign here. You see evidence of painstaking effort from the hands of an experienced craftsman. Those sharp corners (such as in the ‘n’ and ‘u’ or at the end of the ‘t’ crosses where the glass goes back into the metal) are incredibly difficult to make without misshaping the glass. Usually you’ll see a slight dent at these bends. This is a work of honor and pride where no corners were cut. Signs like these were made to last, recognizing that each will be seen by thousands, perhaps millions, over its lifetime.
Precision neon is a wonder to behold, particularly if you’ve stumbled through a bending class like I have.
Roman Rockwell by Ken Barber
Simply perfect.
