Sign Painter Documentary

Directors: Faythe Levine & Sam Macon

There was a time, as recently as the 1980s, when storefronts, murals, banners, barn signs, billboards, and even street signs were all hand-lettered with brush and paint. But, like many skilled trades, the sign industry has been overrun by the techno-fueled promise of quicker and cheaper. The resulting proliferation of computer-designed, die-cut vinyl lettering and inkjet printers has ushered a creeping sameness into our landscape. Fortunately, there is a growing trend to seek out traditional sign painters and a renaissance in the trade.

In 2010 filmmakers Faythe Levine and Sam Macon began documenting these dedicated practitioners, their time-honored methods, and their appreciation for quality and craftsmanship. Sign Painters, the first anecdotal history of the craft, features the stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the United States. The documentary and book profiles sign painters young and old, from the new vanguard working solo to collaborative shops such as San Francisco’s New Bohemia Signs and New York’s Colossal Media’s Sky High Murals.

The book published by Princeton Architectural Press in November 2012 features a foreword by legendary artist (and former sign painter) Ed Ruscha.

All Photos © Signpainter Movie

More Information

http://signpaintermovie.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/signpaintermovie/

Press inquiries: signpaintermovie@gmail.com

LetterScapes

A Global Survey of Typographic Installations

Anna Saccani

Fans of vernacular typography and ‘SuperGraphics’ will love ‘Letterscapes’ by Anna Saccani, A fantastic photographic survey – featuring some of the best large scale typographic installations from around the world

Press Release info

LetterScapes is a tribute to the power of type writ large. 
A global survey of one of the most creative areas of public art – 
large-scale typographic installations – featuring work by 
nearly forty practitioners.

Today we are bombarded with words – public spaces are saturated with a discordant mix of messages. But sometimes a sentence, a word or even a single letter can stop us in our tracks. LetterScapes features thirty-seven such works from all over the world, by artists and designers with large international followings.

Photographs, maps and diagrams explore each project in detail, and an introduction highlights the cultural importance and common themes of the works featured. Interviews with key designers provide a personal insight into why they chose words over images to transmit their message, how the locations for their work are chosen, how they selected the material and the typeface, and how they think their work connects with its particular landscape or setting.

Includes work by Ahn Sang-soo • Ashton Raggatt McDougall • BBPR • Joan Brossa 
Cardozo Kindersley Workshop • Paul Carter • Caruso St John
 Chermayeff & Geismar • Estudio SIC & Buj+Colón • FA+ • Ian Hamilton Finlay
 • Catherine Griffiths • Rudolph de Harak • Robert Indiana
 • Intégral Ruedi Baur • Ilya Kabakov • Richard Kindersley • René Knip
 Attila F. Kovács • Maya Lin • Karel Martens • Anton Parsons
 • Michael Bierut / Pentagram • Paula Scher / Pentagram • 
Roberto Behar & Rosario Marquardt • Maarten de Reus • Pierre di Sciullo
 • Smith-Miller+Hawkinson

Anna Saccani studied Visual Communications and Multimedia Design at IUAV, Venice. She has worked as a graphic designer and writes for such architecture and design magazines as Casabella.

More Info

http://www.thamesandhudson.com/LetterScapes/9780500241431

The Photographers Gallery Identity | North

The new identity for The Photographers’ Gallery is constructed around the idea of framing. In designing the identity we knew we had to find a graphic device that could offer flexibility whilst holding the overall look of the gallery and and it’s communication together. We were inspired by the way sections of the new architectural scheme frame the building, the role of artists framing images and in turn The Photographers’ Gallery reframing the work.

The strength of the graphic meant we needed an equally strong choice of typeface. We settled upon Akzidenz Grotesk Extra Bold Condensed, set in all caps. It’s a well crafted classic typeface and lends itself perfectly to being the new headline font for The Photographers’ Gallery.

North design

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More Information

http://www.northdesign.co.uk/

http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/

Thanks to North design for the Photographs / information

Admit it, you’ve always wanted a giant ampersand for the downstairs toilet and now you can have one, courtesy of signsforhomes.co.uk, an British online shop with a range of own brand and vintage signs available to purchase for the home.

Helvetica and the New York City Subway System
The True (Maybe) Story
Paul Shaw

Type aficionados are well aware of this book / study but I felt it was worthy of further TT exposure.

Buy the book here

More Information here

Thanks to Paul Shaw and Display for some exclusive images and information

Further research / info

Triborough’s New York City Transit Authority Graphics Standards Manual Flickr set

Thanks to Paul Soulellis for the use of his images for this feature —Re-creations of the cover and a few pages from Unimark’s 1970 masterpiece

London Typographica – Creating the typographic map of London

London Typographica is a project aimed at type enthusiasts in London. It is both a smartphone app and website, enabling type fans to photograph their favourite publicly accessible samples of type and lettering.

The smartphone app will upload photos to the website, and record the location automagically. Text and tags can be added to each ‘typograph’, to give it some context.

London is rich in both historic and new sources of public type and lettering. Much of it is either being replaced, or lost. Our aim is to record type as it changes.

www.londontypographica.co.uk

@LDNTypographica

Thanks to David Bennett | OPX for the images and information.

Signage system and interior design adidas Laces 2011

Thanks to büro uebele visuelle kommunikation for submitting their recent project for adidas

büro uebele press release info :

The name “laces” has a metaphorical value, capturing what the building says about the networked communications of a globally active corporation – a market leader in the development of sports goods and apparel. Movement is the essence of sport – and movement also defines the design language: turbocharged typography runs through the new adidas design centre. It is also reflected in the typeface of the signage system: fast and light, it leaps and bounds across walls and balustrades, its form vibrating and altering in the process.

Words identify places, become coloured surfaces, reliefs and sculptures. Laces is dedicated to development and design. It is a functional place, in black and white, offering employees a neutral space for the company’s colourful products. In the meeting areas on the upper floors the white lettering appears to have been frozen in mid-movement, forming a mural relief. On the glass balustrades of the high walkways that criss-cross the interior of the building, the letters look as if they have been stamped into super-fine, transparent gauze. The outlines are made of highly reflective film, creating a shimmering effect. In certain locations the letter forms solidify into abstract surfaces or create a screen, a reception desk, a staff entrance. On the lower levels the relief-style mural images of the meeting areas – named after various company products, giving each space its own distinctive identity – take two-dimensional form, in contrasting colour tones. Also, walls with a wayfinding function are signalled with the colours blue, red, yellow, green and black.

Signage system

The building forms a loop. Suspended walkways cross the atrium space, “lacing” the building’s structure together like the laces of a sports shoe. The walkways connect individual departments within the building complex, making for greater proximity and preventing the disruptive effect of people walking through offices. The signage system supports this concept, providing directions at hubs and intersections. The names of the meeting areas are displayed on the glass balustrades, creating a subtly mobile effect as visitors look across the atrium, helping them find their way. The corporate typeface, a variation on FF DIN, is dynamically varied here. The outlines of letters and arrows are shifted vertically and repeated rhythmically, creating a dynamic, sporty effect. The shimmering characters – for all the world as if frozen in time-lapse photography – are combined in varying patterns, offering the viewer a varied and distinctive echo on the “laces” theme. To ensure good legibility, one letter and one arrow in each sequence is highlighted with a thick outline. To identify destinations an alphabetical code is displayed at the entrances of the departments. At ground level and in the atrium these destination identifiers are outsized, and incorporated within a screen-style facade made of thin steel tubes. They can be seen from all points in the atrium, providing a self-explanatory wayfinding aid. the motif of living letters creates interesting, intricate patterns – “lace-like”, in the other sense of the word. Though abstract at first glance, these patterns clearly identify the various different spaces, such as conference room, restaurant, Athlete Services and Brand Archive.

Interior design

The lounges which serve as meeting rooms, with adjoining kitchenettes, are important informal zones for the product design process their significance is underlined with bold, economical wall designs. The reliefs with the names of iconic products give these open spaces not only their name but also a distinctive identity and wayfinding aid. All the kitchenette surfaces are brightly coloured, for example: the colour shines through the serving hatch into the white space of the meeting area, assisting orientation on a subconscious level. The curtains in the meeting rooms are also coloured on the inside and white on the outside; if the colour is felt to be intrusive it can be pushed aside. The bold colours express an intrinsic principle of sport. The extremely sparing use of colour adds a touch of freshness to the black-grey-white variations. The vibrant energy of the colours communicates the company’s core purpose: sport.

www.uebele.com

Nice little piece of industrial deign by Jack Curry. Great for all designers young and old with many books.

Using some off-the-shelf black bookends as a reference, I began figuring out how each letter would begin to look if used in the given framework. Letterforms with open counters – such as A, H, K, et al – lent themselves easily to this system; however, characters with closed bottoms – such as B, C, D, E, et al – proved to be trickier to manage. After several different directions – including a foray into making the entire set proportional as opposed to monospaced (a development which did not last long) – I came to the conclusion that the best solution would be to simply have the foundation of these forms contain both sides of the base, which would swing out in opposite directions; not unlike a gymnast doing forward splits. Using this dual-system of base formation, the letterforms could remain the same width, and the weight-bearing ability of the bookend would not be compromised.

A test batch of letters (spelling out “READ”) were then cut from 16 gauge stainless steel and powder-coated in classic library orange – just like dad used to have.

I’m happy to report that my books have ceased falling over unexpectedly.

You can see the whole thing here

Beautiful Neon letterforms feature throughout Kirsten Hively’s Project Neon which documents the best of New York City’s neon signs.

Each week she updates her Tumblr with a new shot and some backstory. Here’s how she describes the project:

Follow a girl as she follows the glow in search of New York’s best neon signs. Every week I’ll visit another of New York City’s neon-clad establishments and post a photo & story, and tell you more about why I’m traipsing around this metropolis in the cold & dark to visit pharmacies, shoe repair stores, and bars with good neon signs to buy cough syrup, get my shoes repaired or just have a drink.

After a successfully funded Kickstarter appeal,  Kirsten is now working on an iPhone app of the best signs in NYC.

Find out more about Project Neon

www.projectneon.tumblr.com

Flickr

@heyprojectneon

Jun Kwon has been awarded a ‘commendation’ for his ‘Cycling Cities’ design entry in this years ISTD International Typographic Awards.

The brief of this competition was to create a typographic / information system for cyclists to find their way around cities with fresh thinking on what cycling in the city can offer and how the city can expand the potential for residents and visitors to cycle.

Jun’s solution was to give cyclists a direction code with four colour schemes that they can immediately recognise the direction of where they are heading. The nearest points like underground stations or landmarks are shown with the direction code to help cyclists draw a mental map in their mind making cycling more predictable, efficient and enjoyable.

Jun Kwon is a Graphic Designer from Korea and Ravensbourne final year graduate of BA Graphic Design

The ISTD International Typographic Awards 2011

The Awards are held as an appraisal of current standards in typographic design and are judged by some of today’s leading graphic, interactive and typographic design specialists.

Photographers James and Karla Murray spent eight years documenting the generations-old store fronts of New York’s neighbourhoods featured in their book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York.

The images featured tell a powerful story of the spirit and warmth of New York’s early immigrant population from as far back as a century ago. Sadly, this unique cultural heritage is fast disappearing, with more than a third of the shops featured closing in the time it took to create the book.

The book is published by Ginko Press and available to buy now.

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Purchase the book on Amazon
View the Store Front Flickr photoset
Visit James and Karla Murray’s website

All photos taken from the book Store Front: The Disappearing face of New York by James and Karla Murray.

These photos by Ramiro Chaves document the removal of vintage signage from the side of a building in an unidentified city. If any reader knows more about the location or background of the signage or building, please leave a comment below.

[Edit 09/06/2011] Typetoken reader, Mayra Lidice, kindly pointed out the building is in Mexico City. I managed to find it on Google Maps street view. If you follow the link you’ll see the new signage, which, to my eyes, looks utterly insipid by comparison – a sad loss.

chavesphoto.com

Vernacular Typography hosts an assortment of lettering images from a selection of countries across the world. The photography isn’t bad either — Lovely viewing.