Local Flavor Type

Taken in the Sydney Airport in Australia

My lacrosse team went to Australia this summer and right when we got out of customs, this large, rotating picture was on the wall, welcoming us to Sydney. The lines in the picture are actually long, thin, rectagular panels that had three different sides and when the panels flipped in unison, a new picture appeared. I felt this was local flavor typography because the Opera House and the city of Sydney is formed out of letters, which shapes the buildings of the city. The Sydney airport was actually  filled with different graphics like this one, each was a different picture made of flowing typography that reflected the Australian culture. This local flavor typography is much like my earlier post (Psychedelic Type), but this style of type pretty much retains its shape and isn't distorted very much, just arranged in different angles and different colors to form the picture as a whole.

Asian Type

Taken from Kyodai on Pennsylvania Avenue, Towson

 

The Asian typeface is exemplified at this well-known Towson sushi bar, located at 1 Pennsylvania Avenue in Towson, MD. The Asian type is clearly identified in the restaurant's name and is reflects the culture that the business represents. The type mimics the Asian style in a calligraphic manner--the arms and legs of the letters become increasingly thinner or increasingly thicker with each stroke. The acute terminals of the letters, most clearly shown in the "I" of "KYODAI", gives the letters a jagged look, along with the sans-serif typeface, which Asian characters are known for. 

If you're interested in using this style of typography in the future, Dafont.com has Asian fonts can be downloaded for free at: http://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=201.

Historical Typography (used in a contemporary design)

Album art from http://blog.albumartexchange.com/2009/06/close-encounters-with-third-eye-blind.html

My favorite band of all time is Third Eye Blind and as I was looking online for some band memorabilia, I found this album cover that was an idea for their most recent album, Ursa Major. I noticed that in the background there is historical typeface, "We therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America...," which is of course, The Declaration of Independence. Even if someone were to not know who Third Eye Blind is, the distressed style to this historical typeface on the antiqued parchment-like surface and the fact that the font is in a sense, speaking the words from the time period it originated, conveys to the viewer that this band is not just another pop, hip-hop group.

Distressed Type

Taken from my 2008-2009 Towson Women's Lacrosse practice pinnie

Now to be honest, I was pissed when my coaches gave us these reversible mesh jerseys to practice in. At first, I thought that maybe our equipment manager had gotten us defective pinnies and Towson was too cheap to get us properly printed issued gear. I then thought, gosh, just my luck, I bet no one else on my team has a misprinted jersey, but as I looked around at the confusion that was also on my teammate's faces, I realized...all of our jerseys has the same fatigued type. I came to the conclusion that either Towson hired the wrong people to print out clothes, or maybe that's how the letters and numbers were supposed to look. I came to find out that our coaches  had picked the distressed look because it looked "badass" and every since then, I've always thought of this particular style of typeface as just that. Since distressed typography appears to have a bold, rugged quality, I've noticed that it's often used as an attention-getter on posters and usually only used for short sentences that are meant to evoke strong emotions and meaning.

The DesignM.ag site has more examples of distressed typography that I thought was really interesting and you can visit it here: http://designm.ag/inspiration/textured-typography/.

Historical Type

 Ayd Hardware logo from http://aydhardware.net/

Ayd Hardware is a hardware store located at 6801 York Road, Baltimore MD, 21212, which I pass frequently since it's less than a half mile away from my apartment. I have always enjoyed their typeface choice that appears to be reminiscent of the historical US. This historical font gives the store a family-owned, trustworthy appeal. Since this historical typeface reflects a hardware store, I believe that the typographical design is extremely successful, rather than if it had been used to represent a trendy, hip boutique for young women. In my opinion, historical fonts should not be thought of as antiquated just because today's world is moving into a more contemporary direction. When used for the right design, the subtle simplicity of historical typefaces can visually convey credibility and appeal.