Archive for category: Type I Saw Today

Type samples from the real world

Machine-set or hand-drawn?    (2004.08.22)

Which do you prefer – the spindly, letterspaced original Frutiger Light or the fetter hand-drawn facsimile?

A youth misspent?    (2004.08.22)

I spent a lot of time around auto dealers and repair shops as a young fella. While this fails to explain my inability to drive, it may explain my interest in type.

Can I get snacks straight up, in a dirty glass, &c?    (2004.08.22)

Car    (2004.08.22)

Text on Things: Car

Measuring tape    (2004.08.21)

Text on Things: Measuring tape

¬867-5309    (2004.08.15)

In previous years, every bus and eetcarstray stop in the city had its own phone number. (In practice, some adjacent stops shared a number.) An automated voice (a human recording) would announce “Route… 501. Queen. Next vehicle in… 5 minutes. Following vehicle in… 13 minutes,” that sort of thing. Later, advertisements were embedded: “Pizza Pizza time is 6:38.” (Isn’t it always time for “tantilizing” Pizza Pizza?) At the time, virtually the entire 539-XXXX exchange was taken over for this purpose. (It was always odd to meet someone with a 539 phone number.)

The system was eventually shut down because it was not Y2K-compatible. Additionally, eating up the better part of 10,000 combinations contributed to number exhaust, which to this day is nothing remotely the problem we were warned it would be. (Rather like Y2K, but for different reasons.) Trust me, the online schedules are a flat-out disaster. There is no easy way to check a schedule anymore.

So: Quelle surprise to run across a bus stop with this cœlecanth of a decal still attached. Yes, the fonts are Souvenir and Quorum.

Copy-editing in our time    (2004.08.15)

Yeah, man. “Tantilizing.”

Videocassette label    (2004.08.06)

Text on Things: Videocassette label

Videocassette label    (2004.08.05)

Text on Things: Videocassette label