@kerryrm Thought of you: #type #signage #map #trifecta

Niels Shoe Meulman’s collection of typographic topsy-turvy found in the wild.

From the site: “In the 1920s the Viennese government decided to standardize the street signs across the city […] with white-on-blue enamel plates. An [anonymous] typeface was especially constructed for the purpose […] in Heavy and Bold Condensed versions. Since the 1970s, phototypesetting has been used to produce the plates, which allows the enamel producer to also stretch the typeface to the perfect length (and which kind of hurts sometimes). As the years went by, the typeface was adopted and redrawn by several enamel factories. These adaptations lead to [sixteen] variations on the design […] which we found in our research (bastards not included). Henriette is not a digitization of any of those versions; rather, it is influenced by all of them. In the end, it is another approach on the typeface that we love for its uniqueness, in the otherwise slender typographic history of our country. Henriette was developed by Michael Hochleiter, creator of the TDC award winning didone family Ingeborg, and is his second big type family. It consists of 30 styles including 5 weights, Condensed and Compressed widths and accompanying Italics. We also didn’t scimp on OpenType features: All the Romans include a set of Small Caps, the Italics Swash Caps. All weights have ligatures, alternate glyphs, fractions, arrows and several figure styles. [Additionally, there’s a] Frames font [and] we decided to give away Henriette Black for free.”

Triangle Type features interesting typography, signage and lettering from around the Triangle area of North Carolina (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). The site is curated by Michael Lassiter, a graphic designer living in Durham.

From the site: “Der Praktische Schildermaler (The Practical Signmaker), Series 2, by Hans J. Jedlitschka, 1910, printed by Friedrich Wolfrum and Co., of Vienna and Leipzig. This volume is a portfolio of 32 color lithographed plates which are particularly decorative examples of advertising signs from stationery, floral shops, craftsman, photo studios, restaurants and more.”

The story begins in 2006 with a trip down Route 66. Day in, day out, I looked at U.S. traffic signs that were either set in the old, somewhat clumsy “FHWA font series” or the new Clearview HWY typeface. Approaching the signs, I would often test myself: which typeface works best from a distance, and which of its features or details might be responsible for its performance. I had so many more questions than answers. Surely every professional type designer has at least an inkling of how a signage typeface should look: Probably it sports a rather clean sans serif design, open counters and a rather large x-height. But which x-height works best, and why? What is the optimal stroke width? A monocular or binocular g? Should the design be somewhat condensed to permit more information on a sign, or rather should it be relatively wide so that individual letters are more easily differentiated?

The Design of a Signage Typeface

Ralf Herrmann, on the design of his (excellent, to my eyes) signage typeface Wayfinding Sans Pro:

So I set off, driving thousands of miles across Europe to explore the legibility of these signs and typefaces, first hand. Once I even ended up in a holding cell at the border crossing to Norway, because the customs officers just wouldn’t accept that someone would drive all over Europe simply to take photographs of traffic signs.