I was hoping for your help with something.
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@mwichary there is a very ugly black letter font here in Annaberg-Buchholz #tourist #workation sometimes with perfect usage of German long-s and for the same street with wrong end-s . Gonna try to snatch some pictures.
@grmon Thanks in advance!
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I was hoping for your help with something.
Is there a particular font thatâs instantly recognizable to someone who lives where you do, and appreciated/recognized/hated there, but completely unknown elsewhere? Something on road signs, street names, transit, infrastructure, stuff like that? Iâll share some examples in the thread.
Iâd love to learn more about these. Iâm not afraid of links in languages I donât understand, ha.
(Also please repost for reach if you are willing!)
Thank you!
@mwichary Munich has a regulation about these blue/white house numbers. While it is not exactly defined which font to use, it almost always is this serif one. @Szescstopni
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@grmon Oh shit, I wasnât aware of the extent of all this.
@mwichary I know. Itâs horrible. The font is pretty nice.
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8.
Modern Germany has a specific license plate font that's designed to be hard to mess with. It is also used to mark parking spots.@mwichary yeah, the specific idea is that one cannot easily change a letter into a different letter by adding stuff (like changing a P into an R, or an F into an E). The letter forms have been designed to be unique to make alterations easier to detect.
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Metron by JiĆĂ RathouskĂœ (1973), Prague Metro, Czechia. Digitized by FrantiĆĄek Ć torm.
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8.
Modern Germany has a specific license plate font that's designed to be hard to mess with. It is also used to mark parking spots.9.
I linked to this a while back â more quirky enamel house numbers in the Netherlands. -
I was hoping for your help with something.
Is there a particular font thatâs instantly recognizable to someone who lives where you do, and appreciated/recognized/hated there, but completely unknown elsewhere? Something on road signs, street names, transit, infrastructure, stuff like that? Iâll share some examples in the thread.
Iâd love to learn more about these. Iâm not afraid of links in languages I donât understand, ha.
(Also please repost for reach if you are willing!)
Thank you!
@mwichary DB Neo, corporate typeface of deutsche bahn is quite recognizable for people in Germany. It's not used on station signage or wayfinding, but it is used in advertisements, the app and website and passenger information system on some trains
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8.
Modern Germany has a specific license plate font that's designed to be hard to mess with. It is also used to mark parking spots.@mwichary And unfortunately made easy to read for automatic license plate readers, increasing the surveillance opportunities - while still causing lots of trouble in parking garages using crappy automatic readersâŠ
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@tehabe Ha, yes! Coming right up as an example in a thread, as soon as Mastodon un-rate-limits me.
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7.
East Germany used a particular version of Gill Sans. I love these signs. Very hard to find photos these days.@mwichary This is East Berlin 1984. They still had some Fraktur signage.
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@mwichary david kindersleyâs lettering, designed for motorway road signs, but rejected, and instead relatively popular for street name signs (especially in his home town cambridge)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/albums/72157621886573981/
https://wemadethis.co.uk/blog/2022/02/street-name-fonts/
https://thebeautyoftransport.com/2021/11/03/how-serifs-lost-the-road-war-but-won-the-streets/
@mwichary Kindersley also designed the monumental lettering for the gateway of the new British Library at St Pancras
his wife Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley still runs a stonecutting workshop in Cambridge and they have a distinctive italic style thatâs common in stone plaques around here https://www.kindersleyworkshop.co.uk
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@mwichary This is East Berlin 1984. They still had some Fraktur signage.
đ§@kallekn Wow, this feels much older than 1984.
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@mwichary I know. Itâs horrible. The font is pretty nice.
@grmon This is, weirdly, the only form of Gill Sans I can tolerate. Otherwise why not just go for Futura.
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I was hoping for your help with something.
Is there a particular font thatâs instantly recognizable to someone who lives where you do, and appreciated/recognized/hated there, but completely unknown elsewhere? Something on road signs, street names, transit, infrastructure, stuff like that? Iâll share some examples in the thread.
Iâd love to learn more about these. Iâm not afraid of links in languages I donât understand, ha.
(Also please repost for reach if you are willing!)
Thank you!
@mwichary the numbers on trams in WrocĆaw, especially the "2"
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6.
Also in San Francisco, there are these classic distinctive house numbers.The story is here if you are curious: https://sunnysidehistory.org/2020/07/15/the-little-sculpture-affixed-your-house-anton-fazekas/
@mwichary What is the history of these? I see them *all the time* in SF. There has to be some backstory given their ubiquity.
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@grmon Oh shit, I wasnât aware of the extent of all this.
@mwichary @grmon It was very difficult to locate, but I bought a copy of MacCarthyâs biography about 20 years ago. Itâs probably the seminal work on Gill.
Itâs becoming more common to see the rejection of his type due to his notoriety. I believe there are some wanting his sculptures at 55 Broadway removed as well.
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@grmon This is, weirdly, the only form of Gill Sans I can tolerate. Otherwise why not just go for Futura.
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@chunshek Oh, thank you! I wish I could read this. I might be coming back to Taiwan later this year!
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@mwichary What is the history of these? I see them *all the time* in SF. There has to be some backstory given their ubiquity.
@pcherry I think you missed a link I included.
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@scruss @mwichary @secretasianman There are âunofficialâ versions floating around.
@michaelgemar @scruss @mwichary while the official ones roll and sit around
