pink sign

pink hair salon
South Congress
I find myself attracted to signs that have a sort of tactile quality to them. This one even lights up. Bonus!

Nubian makeover

The Design Police

If you commit a design crime there are design police that will put a stop to it with these visual enforcement kit.

http://www.design-police.org/

Shopper Xing

I captured this beautiful specimen at the ghetteaux fabulous Domain shopping center/village/T.A.Z. Don't call us pedestrians, civilians, students, asians - we are finally all united in the spirit of road safety and consumerism! I love how the mother figure (or scotsman) is dragging the slow daughter, exposing the child's lack of veracity towards consumption, and her thin and undeveloped black oval legs. The text could be more exciting. Which font would you choose to capture exclusivity and entitlement?

Milk+Honey=Spa?

This spa is located at S. Congress and 5th st. It had caught my eye because when I first read milk and honey I automatically thought that it was a place where tea, or other beverages were sold. However, it turned out to be a spa instead. Now that I have looked at it closer I realize that the kerning was done very well and overall the sign looks good.

Spanglish

I came across this small sign while I was walking around campus. What drew my attention to it was the spanish translation and grammar. I couldn't believe how there could be such a careless mistake on a professional sign that is used around campus. The error is ridiculous and it was probably done by someone who is ignorant to the fact that english is not the only spoken language in the U.S and the spanish translation is just as necessary. I guess their reasoning was to replace the last two letters of the word chemical and replace them with OS to make it spanish. There are English to Spanish dictionaries now a days!

Dealin' wit yo' corpses since 1901!

Sign is over off of east 12th. Check the website for some more info.
www.king-tearsmortuary.com

Potbelly's is tastier.

The first store is located on the Drag; the second, in The Triangle complex. It's interesting how some locations choose to spell the restaurant out in one line and others in a stacker form. This seems to be purely out of economic spacial reasons, where more space is allocated for the sign in the Drag location. I really adore the bright yellow color of the logo, but the typeface and kerning is a bit iffy for me. The sandwich is a nice touch, but it is in an awkward position on the "W".

Kelsey's photo

I found this sign at Hut's Hamburgers on 6th St. The typeface in blue is what drew my attention because it is so peculiar. I think it will be interesting to see what it will do to the sign's character when written in different typefaces.

No Zapatos means No Tacos!

This sign is located on South Lamar. It is located on the door of a Mexican restaurant that specializes in tacos. The bright colors was what first grabbed my attention, but what it reads makes it one of my favorites: "NO Shoes, NO Tacos...(NO Pants, NO Problem!") The typeface and colors used makes the policy of wearing shoes, usually taken very seriously in most restaurants, a joke. I really would like to see how the sign will read when it is written in Helvetica, and how much of its context will be lost.

freeze warning

I found this sign at the Champions Crossing apartment entrance in north Austin. The typeface is bold and easy to read and I like how they made it playful by adding ice/snow to the letters.

Home Slice

This sign is from Home Slice and is on South Congress, near Riverside.

Jennifer Kim's Sign

This sign is from a mall in Houston, Texas. It's a machine with a claw that picks up toys after you insert coins. What drew me to it was just it's gaudy colors and eye catching typeface. It's just in your face and I couldn't help but take a picture. It obviously wants to catch kid's attention and does a good job at it. However, I think it can also be overwhelming to the point where it's repulsive.

Nick's Sign

What drew me to this sign was the mixture of two typefaces that worked well with each other. I also thought that the graphic that the text was placed on was appropriate for what the words meant. The text is bold, easy to understand; the company's logo works because it's simple and isn't overly complicated.

Useful (reputable) resource: DesignMuseum (London)

The Design Museum site has an entry on Dimitri Bruni and Manuel Krebs of Norm (appeared at the end of Helvetica), as well as Saul Bass, et al

Whose History of Helvetica?

I'm cheating here, by revising a test post: Following up on David's comment about finding alternative trajectories through Helvetica's history, I checked in Meggs' book (see reading list..it was once the "official" graphic design history book) to see how Helvetica was attributed; the story is a little different from Hustwit's film. Meggs states that Edouard Hoffman collaborated with Max Miedinger to upgrade Akzidenz Grotesk, resulting in a sans serif with a larger x-height than Univers, which was named Neue Haas Grotesk. "When this design was produced in Germany by D Stempel AG in 1961," writes Meggs, "the Germans shocked Hoffman by naming the face Helvetica, which is the traditional Latin name for Switzerland that appears on its postage stamps." Didn't Hoffman's son say that it was named Helvetica by the Swiss, meaning "the Swiss typeface"?
To come back to David's point, the typeface has an even deeper history, going back to William Caslon's mysterious inclusion of what we'd now call a sans serif, in a specimen book in 1816. Maybe this is the next Hustwit movie? Warring type families in gritty London amid the Industrial Revolution duke it out to outwit each other?