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Archive for category: Type I Saw Today

Type samples from the real world

   (2007.03.17)

One of my snobberies concerns true and accurate Palatinos.

Sign reads GEORGIA’S BEAUTY SALON and a phone number in Palatino, with a neon OPEN sign turned off underneath

But really, Zapf has drawn or authorized so many variations that trueness and accuracy are relative terms. This does not mean I have to like the default versions installed on computers.

   (2007.03.16)

I don’t know where to begin with this one, given its mishmash of el-cheapo jumbo Arial, delicate Optima subheds, and extremely superklassy faux-marquee. (Do you really think parking is ever worth $20,000 anywhere outside Japan?)

Storefront completely covered in type for the Star of Downtown ‘townsuites,’ with drawings of light bulbs, like a marquee, at the edges of some signs

This development, by the way, is half a block down the street from the fantastically overdense and troubled St. James Town, and right across from the Food Basics.

   (2007.03.10)
A finger behind a gift card with inscriptions in Urdu, Hindi, and Tamil appears to be connected to a photo of an upturned hennaed hand with bracelets

Apparently it’s actually Urdu.

   (2007.03.05)

And less pretentious than, say, the cheese shop’s.

Shop window in front of closed Venetian blinds reads TRAVEL MEDICAL CLINIC Dr. Doidge, b.a., m.d. in bold and book-weight bank gothics
   (2007.03.04)
Two plaques attached to wall read KEEP ARM IN and EMERGENCY EXIT (with diagram of trapezoidal window)
   (2007.03.03)
Sign face inset into barrel-shaped currgated-steel frame reads Walkway to Charles Street in Eurostyle
   (2007.02.21)
Sign below apartment window reads TRINITY APTS. in letters cut out from a protruding box
   (2007.02.15)

Doing good things with concrete here. (I don’t think the lower portion is granite.)

Two-piece retaining wall – concrete on top, deep-black stone beneath – is inscribed BENTALL CENTRE
   (2007.02.12)

Here I am at the Broadway stop of Vancouver’s SkyTrain, photographing an aberrant sign that uses Meta instead of the unaccountable and perplexing Plantin (also seen at Heathrow Airport, the obvious inspiration).

Just as I lifted my camera, four cops walked by, one of whom stared right at me, as seen here. I took my shot and, with nerves of steel, double-checked it on the LCD. I pocketed my camera and waited for the train.

Try this in Toronto and you get to endure a talking-to by Grandpa Moscoe.

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