Jayeblog

I’ve been in the city for three weeks now, and I’ve discovered that one of my favorite things about this place is the sheer volume of signage around me. Because signage means typography, and looking at others’ typography is fascinating.

Seriously, type is everywhere. A type geek who keeps his eyes open around here can learn a ton just by observation. Face selection, placement & positioning, integration with the overall design—examples are abundant, both good and bad.

The MTA information posters in the Metro trains (in my experience, posted frequently in the first car of a train) are laid out with an uncompromising, textbook commitment to grid and alignment. I should point out that I’m talking about the posters found inside the trains, with messages like “Don’t litter on trains” and “Riding the metro is good for the environment”, not the hideous “change of service” posters found on the platforms.

On the other hand, the ad-campaign being run by the Freelancer’s Union on the Metro is a typographical nightmare. If you’ve seen any of their posters (I’ve seen three: a yellow, a red, and a blue), you know what I mean. The typeface is horrible (it’s this one), the type-positioning might as well be random, and they’ve decided to highlight the first letter of certain words without rhyme or reason. The posters certainly catch attention, but it’s hard to count that as a success when that attention is followed quickly by nausea. But at least we can learn from their mistakes.

Sidebar: Seriously, a freelancer’s union? Doesn’t that kind of defeat the purpose of being a freelancer? A discussion for another time, perhaps.

While we’re on the topic of bad type, let’s talk about my least favorite typeface ever: Copperplate Gothic. I’m not hating on the font—it’s a decent face, and it certainly has its uses. My beef with it is its horrendous overuse, which becomes readily apparent when looking around the streets of New York City. I don’t have any hard data to back this up, but I’m pretty sure it’s the second-most used typeface in the city. I’ve only been here for 22 days, and I’ve seen the dreaded CPG used in nineteen different instances, ranging from cafes to diners to antique stores. I even saw it on a giant cologne ad for a well-known company (whose name I’ve unfortunately forgotten).

The lesson to be learned from these is that even though there are an awful lot of typefaces out there these days, there’s not a single one that hasn’t been used before. And whether you like it or not, its prior use (by yourself or by others) defines a viewer’s perception of its current use. So when choosing a face, ask yourself: “where has my audience seen this type before? Have they been exposed to it enough that I encounter run-off or overlap from those other messages if I use it in my design?” I think it’s safe to say Copperplate Gothic has moved dangerously far into this territory.

Full disclosure: I work for, and occasionally design for, a coffeeshop that uses CPG in its logo. My shame knows no bounds.

I love that there’s so much to learn about typography, both good and bad, in New York City. The sheer volume of signage in a city guarantees you’ll see some typography to love and some typography to revile. Just look at the type on a sign or poster and ask yourself “why did the designer do that? Do I agree with that decision? How else could it have been done?” Signs are everywhere! Type-geeks, keep your eyes open.