Punctu@t!on Matters!

National Punctuation Day sort of escaped me yesterday, but I didn't want to 

let it go by entirely unnoticed here at Letterology. To put a finer point on it...

visual communication relies on punctuation. It reminds us when to breath, 

when to stop, when to pepper our speech with enthusiasm, and when to 

question. It behaves as signposts and wayfinders to help us navigate language, 

and signal action. Punctuation characters are the supporting cast for all the 

other 26 letters of our alphabet. Without them, words fail and language has no 

texture. 

     Learning when and where to apply punctuation is a perennial challenge at 

times—certainly for me that is! Then there are the diverse styles of marks—

each with various features, which we seldom see as we are too busy paying 

dues to 26 U&lc letters. By comparison, the marks may seem inconsequential, 

but enlarge them 800% and you will discover they all have distinct features. 

One of the best graphic examples I've seen of this is Heidi Neilson's 2003 book, 

Typography of the Period. It is a visual information guide examining the 

diversity of the period. Delightful, and one I always saved to show my type 

students in the past.

In the page spreads above you see a Jenson period and a Papyrus period.
     The many exclamation marks at top are in order of appearance from left to right: Avenir Regular; Bank Gothic Medium; Bodoni Book; Centaur Regular; Century Schoolbook Bold; Cooper Black Regular; Eurostile Bold; Agenda Bold; Gotham Bold; Optima Bold; Grand Central Bold; Adobe Jenson Pro Bold; Stone Sans Semi; Franklin Gothic Med Regular; and Whitney HTF Bold.

And a few punctuation haikus from National Punctuation Day:

Alas my text friend
Punctuation's gone again
How do I read this?
- Larry McGee

Exclamation point
means "I am so excited!"
CAPS LOCK is just loud
- Morgan O'Brien

I love the em dash.
It's a lot easier than
The 50-yard one.
- Lex Friedman

Carnival Type Gone Bad

Kerning people! That C is ready to fall off the cliff. 
Spotted at the Lakefair midway in Olympia, Washington.
::Via the Letterology archives.

The F UN SLIDE.
::Via Wired Magazine online by K. Maziarz. 

The Zipper needs to zip up its kerning as well.
::Via Matt Marshall's Flickrstream.

You can fly a plane right through this Super Sizz ler signage in Bowie, MD.
::Via Bowie Living.

Is it that hard to come up with another font aside from Souvenir for the word SouvenirS? Perhaps one with true small caps even? Seen at the souvenir stand at the Lakefair Midway in Olympia, Washington. 
::Via the Letterology archives. Todays Summer rewind originally appeared on 8.3.2011. 

Boy Are We Having Fun Now!

You can't make this crap up. This is No. 6 in the series It's Fun To Live In America aimed at pipe-smoking white guys working in huge factories for the man. And the man should show a little more respect for Futura too! 
:: From the Letterology Crap Collection 

Who Killed Smith Corona?

Second year design student Ryan Anderson did some forensic undercover investigations of his own this quarter in the creation of his experimental type assignment. What he uncovered has all the makings of a crime scene whodunit-type drama with twenty-six extremely suspect characters. In true type crime noir fashion, he cast himself in the part of Weegee, the NY crime scene photographer, taking many blown-out flash photos of the mayhem that occurred. Also typecast as a forensic specialist, he carefully examined all the evidence to solve a puzzle only a type sleuth could reveal.
      Lying in a pool of parts in a friend's garage, this broke-down, Smith Corona Super Sterling typewriter (1965-2012) suffered a bitter end. Ryan's friend was quickly vindicated of the murder when he claimed he had no clue how it even landed there. It just appeared one day. Ryan admits he then tampered with the evidence by removing the typewriter and parts and re-staging the entire crime scene in front of an old Royal typewriter he owned. To solve the mystery, he tinkered with every arm, leg and lever of the typewriter until he found a key to each character of the alphabet. In the process of uncovering the case and unravelling the inked ribbon, he found fingerprints all over the case. "Holy crap! I'll never solve this mystery now!" he said to himself as he carried the remains of the Smith Corona, smeared black with fingerprints, to the trash. As it goes, he never completely solved the murder case, but he documented each suspect character of this hardboiled mystery and got a grade A for his efforts. His appropriately titled, "Dead Type" poster, as seen below, may be hanging in a post office near you soon.  

Sign Spotting

As seen in the hood recently and posted on FB by an apparel design student. Gotta love the telephone pole dialog prompted by one bad ass type crime. Thanks for sharing Dorothy! 

The First iRapture

Photo by Amy Rolph/seattlepi.com

I'm backkkk. No it wasn't the rapture. It's been a week of grading, business, travel and service interruptions, but I've saved up a few things to post soon. With another anticipated judgement day just a week away, I thought I would share a local sighting of a billboard on Aurora Avenue, one of our finest corridors of signage proliferation in North Seattle. I think if anyone is judged on judgement day, it will be the marketing department of the WeCanKnow.org, the official site of the Family Radio group predicting the end of times next Saturday, May 21st. Don't they know how ridiculous their signage looks with the random alignment and such a goofy layout? And witness their traveling Noah Knew bus and billboard below with the nod to the 2008 Obama campaign and the period in the headline. What's most interesting is that this may be the first iRapture ever. The WeCanKnow people want to encourage the use of technology for witnessing on the 21st. You can download books for the Kindle, organize scriptures and audio commentaries on your iPod Touch and "use internet radio to play the Family Radio from anywhere". Meaning you can listen from heaven or hell? No, I'm afraid that would just be called hell. Sorry class—homework will still be due on the following week.

Built to Chill

Ephemeral ice typography by Vancouver BC artist, Nicole Dextras who takes words to the frozen North and exposes them to the cold elements. Over time, guess what? They melt and disappear, just like the ephemeral words vanish into thin air as we speak them. The photographs at least freeze the words in time and insulate them from the elements. Each 7' tall letter is created with wooden forms and they are transported to locations and set out on frozen rivers or lakes. Holes were augered into the 2 to 4' deep ice and water pumped into the forms. Words are left to freeze and the wooden forms are later released to reveal the fragile and frozen letters of ice. According to Dextras, "Legacy refers to the landscape as being the heritage of the inhabitants of this (Yukon) region. The gold that was found here a hundred years ago is what attracted people to come to this remote area. Now the inherited legacy of this pristine landscape is theirs to protect and pass on." Other installations include smaller frozen words with tints of color which fade with time. You can see a video of one of Dextra's icy word installations here and view photos of her Frozen Typography here.

America Needs Typography 101

Aside from all of the tedium and negativity during this long election season, there is one thing that has become crystal clear to me: America needs to learn how to make their own signage. It's like learning how to make a good thought bubble, except without Comic Sans. The comic relief on the other hand, displayed at the Sanity/Fear Rally in DC a couple days ago, was a welcomed pleasure to see. America still does have a great sense of humor. Well, most of us do. Those that have learned how to use their indoor voice instead of shouting that is. And this is what gives me great hope – and graphic designers job security – so long as people can still read I guess. Here are just a few out takes of Stewart and Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in DC on Saturday to bear witness. See many more great signs here and here and here.

Going Rogue

Going Rogue - An Experimental Typeface from Ryan Ogborn on Vimeo.

For someone who has serious contempt for firearms, I find it ironic that my last 3 posts all have a gun-related theme. This one comes from my student, Ryan Ogborn, who took to a shooting gallery to "design" his experimental font this quarter. He claims it is inspired by the font, Bernhardt Medium and Sarah Palin. I admit I was very reluctant to give him my blessing on this production, but I think it is quite mavericky–and in that case–experimental. I'm rather offended however when I see the bullet-riddled face of Bernhardt, (Cheney could have done better), but sometimes one has to take a hit for art's sake. Frankly, I think Ryan scored a big hit with his Palin-inspired tribute. However the winking emoticon on his poster (click to enlarge) got a big zero.

xType Culture Show

The rules of engagement for my experimental typography class were an "about face" from classwork of the previous quarter teaching the fine typography skills required of book design. Here are just a few of the 37 great examples currently on exhibit in our school's art gallery through end of April.

From the top: Emi Buckmaster: Ephemeral (Suminagashi) | Shinya Iwaki: Cityscape (Handmade letterforms of architecture) | Sean Fischer: Dance Team (video of dancing girls, a pirate and a cat) | Adam Curtis: InterAction (Flash animation and lots of coffee) | Atticus Waller: Dreamgasm (Handmade letterforms) | Reis O'Brien: Toypography (cheap plastic toys) | Jordan Dailey: Micron Font (100s of Micron pens) | Mike Holm: ABC Gum (26 pieces of gum) | Anna Goldstein: Typuccino (26 lattes) | Jen Pearce: Rind (Oranges).