Prop license plate S99821

Prop license plates designed for the 2017 science fiction film Blade Runner 2049, directed by Canadian film director Denis Villeneuve, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.

The Japanese (Katakana) text “ロサンゼルス” (“Los Angeles”) uses Checkpoint Font, a retro heavy-duty industrial Japanese typeface inspired from 1930s Japanese poster typefaces made by Yoku Tobanai Tori. The alphanumeric codes placed above on each plate are set in an unidentified sans with similarities to Alternate Gothic and Wearetrippin.

Floor plan map of the Taipei Main Station, an interchange station for the Taiwan Railway, Taiwan High Speed Rail, Taipei Metro, and Taoyuan Metro. It was made by Alexwikix using Checkpoint Font, a retro heavy-duty industrial Japanese typeface inspired from 1930s Japanese poster typefaces made by Yoku Tobanai Tori for Traditional Chinese (Taiwan) text.

City pop is a breezy, mellow mixture of smooth jazz and AOR, often with additional elements of jazz fusion, jazz-funk or boogie. Commonly cited as a facet of the prosperous “bubble economy” era in Japan, city pop is essentially a “mood” or “lifestyle” genre which appealed to an older and more affluent Japanese audience during the 1980s.

Thematically, city pop reflects a life of luxury in a sophisticated urban environment. Albums in this genre were typically produced by pairing a vocalist with a group of talented session musicians in a high-tech studio setting with heavy record label involvement.

I discovered this genre a while ago and became obsessed with it. The biggest source of city pop nowadays is YouTube. That’s why I decided to create this newsletter so I could share the gems I found during my search on YouTube.

While creating the lettering of シティ • ポップ (“city pop”), I took inspiration from the logos and letterings of ’80s Japanese TV shows. They have really bold and unique fonts in Hiragana and Katakana and I wanted to create a mix of all the styles used.

Assorted covers of city pop albums.

TV show logos that provided inspiration.

Each glyph in the logo is taken from a different font.