Tag Archives: font

Fonts Finds in NYC

I kept my eye out for interesting fonts on a recent trip to NYC. I found the tried and true:

Detail: 81st Street Metro Station, American History Museum, Helvetica

The NYC Metro signage was created in the 1960s and while Helvetica was not originally the offical typeface according to the book Helvetica and the New York City Subway System, it became so. Gary Hustwit‘s documentary film Helvetica portrays Helvetica as THE font of the NYC Metro, these days anyway, as well as the face of commerce worldwide.

Despite the pervasiveness of Helvetica in NYC, there are some very interesting deviations. The bold and new:

This “O” looks like the eye of a snake or a cat with a vertical iris. The blue is dazzling. It takes four sets of lines make the shape. I also found a unique font in a printed pasted poster on Kenmare:

This font looks 3 dimensional with the vegetal design appearing in haut relief over the black spaces.

Lastly, this one on Elizabeth or Mott in Nolita is the quietest but upon reflection, my favorite:

Moe's Meat Market by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

This sign blends the reality of a man named Moe in cursive flourish with the commercial efficiency of a san serif font, possibly Helvetica, for the “Meat Market”. Sadly, the sign is in disrepair and the floor space below it is vacant, occupied only by a wooden ladder, one suspended light, and the reflection of a building.

Can You Tell the Difference Between Arial and Helvetica? (theindustry.cc)
I Spy Helvetica (themaxbrettler.wordpress.com)
New Brooklyn Nets Logo Pays Homage to NYC Subway Signage System (smartsign.com)
Film Review: Helvetica (rosslangager.com)
7 Of The Biggest Lies In Graphic Design (fastcodesign.com)
Default “Message font” in Mail changes to Helvetica (discussions.apple.com)
Extensis Font Detective Thomas Phinney Reveals Secrets of Cracking a Forgery at WebVisions NYC and SXSW 2013 (prweb.com)
Another Look at Helvetica (aapatawaran.com)

Ode to a Sketchbook: Excerpts

Building a visual library takes time and practice. This week I finished a sketchbook of experiments, dual coding listening and active learning. Through the process I am realizing that I notice what I notice, and that’s not everything that’s passing through my ears or in front of my eyes. Flipping through the work/play of the last 6 weeks, a few of these sketchnotes resonated with me and held my eyes a little longer. In honor of completely filling a sketchbook, here are some excerpts:

Meet Them Where They Are by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

Unnamed by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

Ampersands by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

VOICE by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

Study: Guy with Hat by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson

Study Copy: Guy with Hat by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson

Imagine by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

Michelin-Like Man by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

Excerpts From My Sketchbook (telauden.wordpress.com)
Sketchbook Project 2012 (maustudio.com)
Sketchbook Project 2013 (lynnsweeneyartandsoul.wordpress.com)
2013 Sketchbook Project – Frogology (hobesoundartist.com)
From My Sketchbook – 3 (candidpresence.wordpress.com)
Traveling with a Sketchbook: Candace Rose Rardon (mappingwords.com)
New Sketchbook Tackles School Reform (kauffman.org)
From the Sketchbook: Swinging on Snowflakes (lifeasgood.com)

Sketchnote Font Find

I’ve hunted for interesting fonts around town to add to my sketchnote “visual library” but I haven’t been finding ANY. So this morning, when out for a jog on one of my usual routes, the red flash of my favorite sign hidden in an apartment complex made me turn on a dime in my Vibram Five Fingers. I smacked my forehead for not thinking of this place earlier and made good use of my iPhone and app HDR3 (High Dynamic Range – 3 exposures) by Christopher Herbon to take a pic.

Sunshine Garden Photo by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013 taken with my iPhone using HDR3, edited in Perfectly Clear, Snapseed, Impressions and iResize

The sign is cheerful, innocent almost, definitely from another time and I love the font. Here’s my rendition using the lovely Tombow dual brush pens for the grays:

Sunshine Gardens, edited in Perfectly Clear and Camera+ by Jennifer Hartnett-Henderson ©2013

I’ve tried looking at a few font identification websites such as What the Font, Adobe Font Finder, and Identifont (my favorite) to see if I can find this but no such luck. If you are in the know and care to share let us know!