This is the logo for the hair styling product line "Bed Head". The typography works perfectly with the concept of the brand, a sort of controlled messiness...just distressed enough to look perfect, like a worn-in pair of jeans. The letter form have an appearance of being generated by a type-writer, with extra ink gathered in the "E" and "A" and feathering about the edges. The color here is black and inky, but the type works just as well on other labels in turquoise, pink, silver, etc.
This is the cover of a Daniel Clowes comic/graphic novel (he's also the creator of "Ghost World"). The typography works with the cover art to convey a sense of industrial labeling, with maybe a touch of radioactive warning. The letters are sans-serif, a perfect choice for creating an industrial label or signage, made extra boxy by stretching.
Underground Type by
Futura by Edward Paul Renner (Blackwell 47)
Designed in Germany in 1924-26, Paul Renner's Futura is a geometric Modernist typeface. "Futura, issued in 1927 by the Bauer typefoundry, became the favorite and best-known of the first geometric san-serif typefaces that symbolize the aesthetics of early modernism. Its very name evokes a kind of positive expectation" (Dodd 102). After WWI, the German government and economy were unstable, and "…many people in Germany sought reassurance in strong, dynamic visions of the future...there was considerable enthusiasm for, and hope in, Modernism" (Dodd 102). At the center of this movement towards Modernism was the Bauhaus school, advocating for form that derived from function and "... the universal acceptance of sans-serif types" (Carter 61). In uniting architecture, design, typography, and fine arts, the Bauhaus “…projected a philosophy that expressed and expanded the emerging Modernist sensibility, in which the integration of art and technology and the development of a mass-production aesthetic were vital” (Blackwell 34). Unlike Johnston’s Underground, Futura was both utilitarian and designed for popular use, and the design was soon copied by various designers. The geometric and graceful Futura “…embodied the obsessions of the avant garde in a multipurpose, commercially available typeface” (Lupton 25).
Meta by Erik Spiekermann (Blackwell 156)
The ubiquity of computer screens and digital printing encouraged a massive amount of typeface design in the last two decades of the 20th century. One of the first digital sans-serif designs was Meta. "The long quest for a universal typeface did not disappear in the 1990s, but the precise objectives varied. Erik Spiekermann's Meta, 1993...addressed the need for a highly durable and adaptable text font for wide use across differing print and screen environments" (Blackwell 157). Meta was initially commissioned for the German post office, but ultimately rejected. Meta is reminiscent of another widely-used sans-serif, both in its utilitarian beginnings and in the design itself, the "…double-storey 'g,' and the 'l' is terminated by a sharp turn to the right creating a foot; both features recall Edward Johnston's Underground type of 1916" (Dodd 179). Meta was issued with a number of variations, making it adaptable, "…extremely popular, and…responsible for a trend in sans-serifs" (Dodd 179).
More than just skeletal versions of older, ornate typefaces, sans-serifs can be seen as highly adaptable designs, with uses ranging from public signs to print advertising to computer screens. In a full circle, Edward Johnston’s geometric sans-serif was finally released for public use in the 1990s as P22 Johnston Underground by the P22 Type Foundry. “In its new digital form, it still exists in use as the identity typeface of the London underground system..." (Blackwell 31).
Works Cited
Another post that could fit under a few different categories, this time "Graffiti" and "Logo". This is an image taken from a LeSportsac bag, with a pattern designed by the French grafitti artist Fafi. The story behind this bag is sort of the opposite of the "Luxe" idea behind my blog. Rather than taking high art/design and making it available to the masses, the brand of designer bags LeSportsac took street art and made it palatable and available to those willing to spend over $75 for a fabric purse (or to find one on sale for less than half of that at Filene's Basement, like yours truly). I think her signature here sums up the relationship well, it's handwritten, a little scrawled and messy, but also has an element of being fancy, ornate, and pretty. The cursive letters also work well with Fafi's imagery, which tends to be a combination of frilly but tough girls, soft lazy monsters, and fairy tale plants and backdrops...all of which come to mind for me when looking at her loopy, delicate, messy, expressive writing.
This is a section of Australian street art from 2003 by the artist Dmote, from an anti-war piece. The artist started working in the streets, then was embraced by the underground art scene. This image comes from a calender purchased in the U.S., and the artist actually lives in California now, puts on exhibits, and even designs for corporations, but still is a part of underground graffiti culture. I like the pure abstract beauty of this piece. It totally changes the way I look at the letter forms of my own language, in a way that few things have, outside of studying Middle English (my ninth grade history class read a big chunk of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales", and it took a while to adjust your eyes to seeing the shapes as English letters). I actually had better luck with Chaucer, as I've haven't been able to figure out what this piece says. It's like a subculture has been slowly developing this alternate language, starting with the puffy or angular graffiti letters in the 80s, and growing into these massive, amorphous, beautiful, secret words today. These letters have a sense of being 3-dimensional, overlapping with each other, sprawling out in all directions, growing arrows. I also think the colors are gorgeous.
This image comes from a reusable shopping bag made by the company Blue-Q. They have a great assortment of products, mostly makeup and toiletries, but all distinguished and covetable for their exquisitely detailed packaging. They seem to create a whole new, very twee world for each new brand/theme they come up with. This bag is no exception. It was part of a tongue-in-cheek, vintage Asian-inspired line, which includes Chinese characters in the design. I think the scale and colors do a good job of making the typography part of the design, giving a somewhat more authentic look to the images (some of which remind me of vintage Chinese propaganda posters in terms of color and image choices). Seeing the characters/alphabet from a language I don't read or speak makes it so much more obvious how much typography can be integrated into and contribute to a design, without the distraction of reading the words, and the words in English seem quite bland in comparison. Though I do wonder what the bag says when I carry it around.
This is the logo from a Pennsylvania beer called milk stout (yes, milk is somehow involved in the brewing process. I don't know how, I just know it's delicious). I love the type here, bold and strong, just a little rough and rugged, filling the space, no fancy serifs or loops, dark brown and cream colors that are a mirror of the stout and its head, when poured correctly. It actually reminds me a little of those fruit crates from my last post, and yes, this is also from a box scavanged for the move that I couldn't bear to throw away. Oh, and how can you not love the crazy cow head forming the center the "O"? It's not a ridiculously expensive beer, but I think they did a great job of getting across the feeling of being a "stout" microbrew, and a definite original.
This is an image on a cardboard box scavenged from the grocery store for my last move, but I've kept it around because I just love the design. My mother had a friend who used to collect antique fruit crates and their labels. If you look on ebay or even do an image search on Google you can find some gorgeous examples, all of which are far more pricey than my free box. This one reminds me of 1940s Florida, the pretty orange blossoms to the right, the swanky concept and typography of "Pure Gold", and the big slice of orange. Actually, the big slice brings a bit of pop art into the mix, which makes sense since Warhol was openly inspired by commercialism and logos. The designer Todd Oldham has a collection of HUGE prints of ice cream which apparently were once used to advertise at soda counters and are now worth loads of money....supposedly having influenced Warhol and Wayne Thiebaud. Ah, I could do an entire blog on food in art and advertising.
This post could also have fallen under the "Industrial" and "Logo" categories of our assignment, but I thought "Historical" was the best fit. This is the logo and description on an old vacuum. It's not quite quite as old as my grandparents' Hoover "Constellation" model, which was actually round and shaped like something between a satellite and a ringed planet, bringing the ideals of the space age right into your living room. I've also seen an older Electrolux logo from the late 50s that used a kicky loose script which emphasized the "Lux" part of the brand's image. I think this image has more to do with the "electro" portion, it just seems clean and "modern" (for the time), especially with the added utilitarian, sans serif "POWER NOZZLE" beneath the logo.
