The beauty of Amsterdam

I often joke with my students that I'm a nightmare to travel with because I'm always taking shots of typography to share with them! In Amsterdam, I was delighted by the gorgeous hand painted script faces:

Idiosyncratic stacking:

Fresh use of Helvetica:

And this... an undeniably gorgeous tweak on Garamond for the signage for the Plantage district, designed by Dijkhuis+Dijkstra. (And is that Eric Spiekermann's ubiquitous Meta typeface there for the text?)

The importance of being kern(est), or goblins no longer welcome

Just as frightening... Either a budget meal, or a budget buster. Depends on which side of the sign you're on.

When in Jersey

Before tomato season officially ends here in New Jersey, an enterprising neighbor has put up a sign for business. (Could use a bit of kerning on that E-S)

Suburban Soccer Tie-Ins

Taking advantage of the Zeitgeist, some locals got in on the World Cup.

Here's the sign in front of the house:

The sign on the street:


And the closeup:

Gas and Goat

Here's some handpainted signage (not by goats) at a nearby Citgo, also sporting some cursive and thick/thins...and some shadows.

Summer Vacation

This type treatment inspires confidence.

Answer (of sorts) To "Use Other Phone"

When signs mislead the user, some helpful, enterprising, and just plain frustrated people take communication into their own hands. The word-processed "THE HAND DRYERS ARE AUTOMATIC" taped onto a machine in Grand Central Terminal begged for the hand-written rejoinders "Doesn't work Get paper" and "Same for other one" and the most succint "Doesn't Fucking Work." The hand-drawn emoticons are my favorite touches.

More on today's not so special

Scary message. The sign you snapped for your perfume post makes the goods look pretty skanky (I just wanted to use that word). In a similar vein, I chuckled at the temporary signage on fancy Mad Ave, not too far from the Vera Wang store (immediately below).

While we're on hand-signage: for the last year, I've been fascinated by the antithesis of strong branding for this neighborhood flower shop. Not too long ago, the hand-made sign changed from 49 to 50.

The sign isn't much to look at, but I admire them for staying in business for a half century—and for having web presence as Primrose Florist.