Posts about Public Typography
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Mumbai Taxi Art
Sameer Mistry, artist with a fine blade
In 2009, the magazine Creative Review appeared with a cover that brought sudden attention in the West to an art form that had hitherto remained almost entirely unknown: the ornate typographic embellishments adorning Mumbai’s kaali peeli taxis. A decade later, I set out in search of the artists behind these “Mumbai Typo Taxis,” seeking to discover what, if anything, has endured of their once resplendent decorations.
Vietnamese Newspaper Titles
Colourful roadside finds
A chance discovery not far from the memorial to Thích Quảng Đức—who set himself alight in Saigon on 11 June 1963 in protest against the persecution of Buddhists: at a roadside stall, the colourful newspaper headlines immediately draw attention.
Awnings as Advertising Space
Extreme Scale 3D-Typography
In Ho Chi Minh City, the prolific use of awnings as advertising surfaces is a defining feature of the urban landscape. Smaller shops and restaurants, in particular, make use of these large-format displays to attract attention, often prominently presenting the house number in oversized numerals.
Amsterdam’s Krulletters
Letters and Lager
They belong to Amsterdam much as pubs belong to London: bruin cafés—intimate, traditional establishments frequented by locals and, for the most part, still largely untouched by gentrification and the excesses of tourism. What unites these cafés, beyond their preserved local character, are the often playful letterings at their entrances, known as krulletters.
Kolkata’s hand-painted buses
Pilot!
Kolkata seems to be full of pilots. At least if one follows the inscriptions on its public buses. On the driver’s side door, the word “Pilot” is often painted in bold letters, while the opposite side prominently bears the designation “Emergency Gate.” No two of these meticulously crafted inscriptions are alike. Each is hand-painted, frequently embellished with floral motifs or other decorative elements.
A (virtuell) walk to Vienna’s gilded Signs
Vienna, Gilded
Pallas Athena, the Secession, the Plague Column—Vienna has never been sparing in its use of gilding on architectural landmarks. Far less attention, however, has been paid to the gilded shopfronts and commercial portals that came into vogue around the turn of the twentieth century, and which played a formative role in establishing Vienna’s reputation as a centre of sign painting.
Gmunden Ceramics
Est. 1506
Gmunden, a small town situated in Austria on the shores of Lake Traunsee, is recognised as an important centre of ceramic production. This tradition is visibly embedded within the townscape: ceramic reliefs and typographic elements appear throughout the streets, forming subtle yet characteristic details that attest to a long-standing artisanal practice.
The Verein Stadtschrift in Vienna
The Typographic DNA of the City
Television repair, photographic studios, taverns: not only the design of the lettering itself, but also the services once advertised by these signs now appear curiously antiquated. Yet it is neither nostalgia nor a longing for a “better past” that motivates the association Stadtschrift, which collects, preserves, and reintroduces these Viennese signages into the public realm.
Alone in the Wiener Prater
Lockdown in the Amusement Park
Vienna’s Prater looks back on more than 250 years as a place of recreation on the city’s doorstep. The Wurstelprater in particular, with its array of attractions, has long been a favoured destination for Viennese families and a place of longing for generations of children. In spring, the Prater enters its high season, when tourists and local families alike crowd around its stalls. In April 2020, however, everything was different. During the first lockdown, the deserted Prater revealed itself as both captivating and eerily uncanny.