Exhibit for the Advancement office space at Bentley University

“They Call me Emma, Plain Emma.”

Emma, Plain Emma is an art object by Rowena Dunlap Burke (poetry) and Eric Hovermale (imagery) installed at the Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island.
Its protagonist is Emma Helmine Caroline Josephine Wagner (1893–1974) who is depicted in a life-size photograph. Superimposed is a poem written like an autobiography and set in Emily In White, a typeface based on the handwriting of Emily Dickinson. The unique balance between verbal, typographic and photographic elements in this artwork is made perfect by translucent background material and soft backlighting.

“My father is a tailor and my mother is a dressmaker. / I excel at both trades.”

“And though I am plain, I make beautiful things.”

Concert ticket from The Cave, Vancouver. Courtesy of Vince Ricci’s vast collection of concert-related ephemera.

The large C is from Coronet Bold, designed by Robert H. Middleton for Ludlow in 1938.

More vintage concert tickets from Vancouver.

http://redbonnyrum.com/

The umlaut dots in Lichte Fette Grotesk are integrated into the cap height.

This German advertising leaflet from the late 1930s shows a wild and unsophisticated mix of typefaces. The sans-serif inline in all caps for ‘Goldfüllfederhalter’ (golden fountain pens) is Jakob Erbar’s Lichte Fette Grotesk (c. 1923), better known as Phosphor. Note the compact umlaut and the use of its two different forms for ‘R’. The heavy script is Energos (1932).

The text serif is the oldest typeface in this smorgasbord: It is Augenheil-Antiqua (with Augenheil-Kursiv), designed by Richard Ludwig, son of foundry owner Carl Jacob Ludwig, and released in 1907 by Ludwig & Mayer [Reichardt]. The name of this idiosyncratic typeface, Augenheil, translates to something like “eye cure”. Futura fett (1928) is used for emphasis — in addition to other means like arrangement, indentation, borders, manicules and letterspacing.

Interestingly, the most recent typeface here is the only blackletter style: It is Deutschmeister schmalfett (1934), a simplified Gotisch in the vein of Element, National or Potsdam. Blackletter was not commonly used for commercial purposes. Only in the mid-1930s, after the Machtergreifung, it had a comeback in this segment, fueled by the release of a number of modernized and striking display faces.

Note the use of the ligatures ‘ch’ in Futura and ‘ſt’ in Deutschmeister, which are maintained even with increased letterspacing.

This is the 50th anniversary yearbook for West High School, my alma mater. I first attended West High a little more than 50 years later, in 1992.

The cover and title page script is very likely hand lettered, but the script font used throughout the book is Quick (sold as Trafton Script in the U.S.). Quick is not too far from Biscotti, used by André Mora to emulate vintage yearbooks for his Beerbook design. The sans used throughout is Vogue, one of the Futura followers that never made it to digital format. The ad section introduces a few other faces, including Corvinus, Ultra Bodoni, Cooper Black, Gillies Gothic, and Copperplate Gothic.

“This house was built with ‘Taylor-Made’ Rules and Borders.”

Advertisement in the Eighth Graphic Arts Production Yearbook, 1948.

Monsieur Lavande provides Berliners with lavender from the Provence.

MMM Drop! Screen printed poster for a cycling themed show.

Sebastien Lordez designed the sleeve of More, the second album by French band Kitchen Tool Set. The compact disk is wrapped in an inner sleeve and then packed as a fine food product with a cardboard adorned by a delicate and fluid script typeface on the front. On the back, information about the band and the tracks are set in Helvetica — just like on food packaging.

Weirding Willows, a new wind lifts storytelling. First imagined as a bedtime tale for his son by Kenneth Grahame in 1908, The Wind in the Willows has remained in the top twenty children’s stories ever since. But things have been getting weird out in the Willows, as the new comic on deviantART, Weirding Willows, will attest to. Badger, Mole, Ratty and Mr. Toad are back… but they’re joined by Alice, Frankenstein’s Monster, Mowgli, The White Rabbit, Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny as they defend the world from the Wicked Witch of the West, Doctor Moreau, the Mad Hatter, Mister Hyde and the Queen of Hearts (not to mention the flying nightmare monkeys from Wizard of Oz.)

Irving & Co was inspired by “Italian Deco” graphics when creating this package for Carluccio’s amaretti (an Italian macaroon cookie). A loosely spaced Gotham adds to the vintage look of this packaging. The logo for the Carluccio’s chain (founded in 1991) uses a modified Commercial Script.

Our vision is an online marketplace that connects curious eaters with America’s best gourmet food purveyors. We are creating an alternative to the food conglomerates and big box retailers that control most of the food world today. By creating an even playing field, we hope to democratize the industry. — goldbely.com

“The Red Squirrel”, Geldersekade 59, Amsterdam

Data on the drinking habits of Americans aged 21–34. The ultra heavy figures from Mostra Nuova Black are probably not the best choice for quickly digesting the numbers, but there are some fun moments in this highly stylized infographic.

Old logo.

The logotype of San Francisco brewery Speakeasy was once set in untouched Horndon. It has since been customized with a more ornamented ‘S’, and a ‘P’ with elongated counter. The supplementary typefaces Storefront and MVB Magnesium were added to the new identity.

New logotype on a bottle box.

Old logo.