Wired holiday pop-up store 2012

WIRED magazine had its eighth pop-up holiday store in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood this year, featuring gadgets, product demos, tech installations, and live events.

While Typ1451 did a fine job presenting prices and product descriptions throughout the store, the larger all-caps display work showed some of the less-than-ideal qualities of Alfrere Sans (e.g. distractingly wonky characters like the uppercase W). Some of Alfrere’s characters, like the K, R, and Y also seem to evoke more of a hardworking 1940s flavor than a high tech 2012 flavor. One possible alternative would have been Forza, a typeface that was designed specifically for WIRED. Stratum could have also given a similar effect, but with a more pronounced contemporary edge. Or, if the retro vibe was intentional, Refrigerator Deluxe would have offered more versatility than Alfrere Sans, with multiple weights and alternate glyphs, not to mention a better overall design.

Typeface problems aside, it was still refreshing to see such a bold typographic approach to the in-store displays, especially in a retail world blandly awash with Helvetica.