May 4, 2009 | Experimental Lettering
What you can do with lighter fluid when you are young and crazy and in love with the alphabet…
This image comes to me from Philip Kelly, font designer extraordinaire from Heath England. He included these notes:
"1972, 35 seconds exposure at F1.4, Nikon F, 35mm Kodachrome 2, rated 25 ASA
Why I took it: I was working in the type design studio at Letraset, aged 20.Experimenting with photography and liking letters, I did it to light up my life. With no digital cameras then, I had to wait for the slides to be processed before I knew if it would work. It was a surprise that it did. It was an evening in November, and you can just see my "ghost" sitting on the right as I moved a cigarette lighter through the shapes of the letters, which I also had to 'write' backwards. The very slow speed of the film and the low light level combined to give me the time to 'write' the letters."
There is a definite geek factor in font design, but I think this shows that disciplined attention to The Just Shaping of Letters can lead to moments of unexpected transcendence.
May 4, 2009 | Signs I Like
One of the great authentically ethnic signs of Seattle's Fremont neighborhood.
This sign is purported to have started life as Helvetica, and only late in life under the influence of sun and rain and the steam of thousands of plates of Hom Bow did it discover its Orientalist roots. Like many of the tall tales that originate in a neighborhood presided over by a statue of Lenin and a Troll this rumor cannot be substantiated and is typographically dubious.
Image sent to me by Wynia, of Rhuby Architectural Glass, a place of astonishing wonders in glass design and …. beetles transformed into translucent art.
May 4, 2009 | Found Alphabets & Street Poetry
What I love about walking in the city is looking down at the ground. That trance-state when your eyes lead you forward and then stop you in stillness under the shadow of a telephone pole and its coiled yarn or in front of a dumpster lid on which years of abrasion have carved electric z's.
May 3, 2009 | Signs I Like
Some wonderful legibility issues here–or is it a case of "weather re-branding"?
This really DID start out as Helvetica or a close cousin. Just a reminder that vinyl is not archival.
Sent to me by Dan Shafer, a designer, educator and book artist living in Seattle. Long obsessed with deteriorating found type, he often comes home from vacation with more pictures of letters than people. His use of letterforms in posters and advertising is brilliant, check it out!
May 3, 2009 | Found Alphabets & Street Poetry
Thank you Brian Eno….
Designer, calligrapher, lettering artist. 