U.S.

This is the cap of the new Michael Kors fragrance "Very Hollywood", and the exact same typography is also used in the advertising and packaging. I think it's a very effective use of type, as it immediately conjures old Hollywood, the glitz and glamour of vintage starlets. What could be more representative of the U.S. than the legend of Hollwood? The type is reminiscent of those used in old advertisements from the 50s and 60s, back when even cars and bathtubs and toilet paper came in pink.

Distressed/Fatigued

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.

Suburban

Few things scream "suburbs" to me like recreational vehicles/motor homes/campers. Traveling the open road in your very own home away from home is just such a big part of the classic "American Dream". My friend's father has a vintage airstream trailer that he's lovingly restored, and the family has actually taken it along for camping trips. The simple, blocky letters, silver on a blue background, remind me of airline logos from the same era, an association which I don't think is a coincidence. The shape, and name, of these campers was all about being aerodynamic, like a B-52, or a cadillac car, or a bullet-shaped bra.

Local

The Berger cookie box! I didn't realize Berger cookies were a local treat until fairly recently...I just assumed that everyone had access to these decadent fudge-slab cookies. I'm assuming that the typography of the label, like the cookies, is original to the mid-century. With different letters, I could see this being the packaging for all sorts of household products, or even the title card to an early gameshow. The colors obviously mirror the chocolate, and even the white ovals remind me a bit of the wafer cookies. There's also something vaguely German-craftsy about this, almost like the design on a painted wooden Easter egg.

Neon

This is a sign from a local restaurant chain. I just love how vintage it looks, from the quirky oversized blue "A", "M", and "F" to the giant sans-serif, all caps "EL SALTO". The color of course helps too, and works well with the neon cactus. All of this in a cute little circle just give the sign a campy, cute quality.

Grotesque: The Cultural Background of Three Sans-Serif Typefaces (Graduate Research Paper)

Cultural anthropologists acknowledge that language often hints at a culture's values (Schultz 103). The rise in usage of sans-serif typefaces in the early 20th century went against tradition, and the name “sans-serif”, literally “without serif”, defines this entire class of typefaces not by what it is, but by what it lacks. The serifs have been removed, a maiming of traditional form. Another common term for sans-serif typefaces is “Grotesque”, a name theorized to have “…stemmed from the belief that serifs prevented the letterform looking awkward and unappealing” (Dodd 127). Throughout the last century, designers of sans-serif typefaces moved against tradition, reducing letters to their most basic forms for purposes of function, aesthetics, and idealistic principles.

Underground Type by
Edward Johnston (Blackwell 31)

If there is sometimes cultural meaning behind a name, it may not be surprising that the first widely-used sans-serif face had no official name at all. The original version of this typeface is alternatively referred to as Underground, Johnston’s Railway Type, Johnston, and the succinct, "typeface designed for the London Underground” (Blackwell 31). This geometric sans-serif was commissioned by Frank Pick for the London Underground in 1915, and designed by calligrapher and teacher Edward Johnston. The typeface was created with the understanding that,"…lighting levels, distance, location, and readers' mobility need consideration for signage…Pick concluded that sans-serif forms were more legible for signage than serif forms, having tested this for himself by sitting in a moving underground (subway) train” (Dodd 158). Johnston's background as an artist and skilled calligrapher helped him to create a typeface with a "...combination of immense calligraphic style and a new typographic sensibility..." (Blackwell 30) that fit well into the ideals of the new era. While the initial purpose of Johnston's Underground was purely utilitarian, the typeface was born out of the new concept of graphic design as a unification of craft and art. Johnston’s design "...broke with Victorian sans serif precedents by applying a strict classical awareness of forms to the letters, involving an integration of geometric thinking that anticipated the work to be produced in the 1920s.....it soon had an influence on other seminal faces, such as Futura..." (Blackwell 31).

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

Blackwell, Lewis. 20th Century Type. Corte Madera: Gingko Press Inc., 1998.

Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. Point Roberts: Hartley & Marks,
2008.

Carter, Sebastian. Twentieth Century Type Designers. Hampshire: Lund Humphries,
2002.

Dodd, Robin. From Guttenberg to Opentype. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks Publishers,
2006.

Lupton, Ellen. Thinking With Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, and
Students. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.

Shultz, Emily A. and Robert H. Lavenda. Cultural Anthropology: A Perspective on the
Human Condition. Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1995.