dive into mark

For the second year in a row, we vacationed in Springs Towers in North Myrtle Beach. It’s an oceanfront condo with a pool and a hot tub. The beach was wonderful, the pool was wonderful, the weather was wonderful (except for a little one-day hurricane). There was only one problem: it was a typographical disaster.

3 signs, 3 fonts (click to zoom, then look at the “G” in each sign)

1 sign, 3 fonts

3 fonts, no waiting

Could it be… Helvetica Bold Condensed? No, looks like a knock-off.

I write like this sometimes, scrunching the last few lines because I’m running out of room. You don’t have to type like this, though.

I’m beginning to think that restricting the web to 6 fonts wasn’t such a bad thing

It’s not the only thing

Bad typography is free

My blood pressure was lower before I watched “Helvetica, the movie”

“diget”

Fail on so many levels

Please place all your fonts in dumpsters

Shallow water, condensed font. There’s a perverse logic here. Perhaps I’m overthinking it.

It’s like typography bingo night

Make it stop

Could it be… Helvetica?

§

Twelve comments here (latest comments)

1. How did I end up on Joe Clark’s website?

   Those maroon signs are fun to see. Watch them flail about as they change from one awkward typeface to another!

   — Mike Mariano 

2. What’s wrong with helvetica? Looks fine to me.

   — helvy 

3. The last one is pretty good.

   — carl 

4. That is really sad! I wonder whose secretary designed those signs.

   — Anonymous 

5. Actually, they look good retro-style to me.

   — Anonymous 

6. Welcome to my daily life in Myrtle Beach!

   — Andre Pope 

7. Not a troll. Honest question: could you point me to a guide that explains what is wrong with these signs (except spelling), without the snark? The snark is only funny when I know the answer myself.

   — wolf550e 

8. I don’t know. I just watched Helvetica and then spent a week at the beach with an honest-to-goodness designer (paints for money, used to work at a newspaper, etc.) talking about typography. I showed her The Scourge of Arial and we spent the week trying to identify all the typefaces around us, much to the annoyance of my wife. I actually know very little about typography (as evidenced by the fact that I actually like Papyrus), but it was the recurring topic of the week.

   I tried identifying some of these fonts with What The Font, but I gave up.

   — Mark 

9. This is what happens when you buy your signs at six different places over 30 years (and in the case of the safety sign, you just bought 20 of them from uline because you had to.)

   — perianwyr 

10. Wolf550e
    Please, read those two books:
    1. The Elements of Typographical Style, by Robert Bringhurst.
    2. The Form of the Book, by Jan Tschischold.
    Please note that those are radical views on typography and design, especially Tschichold’s, but IMHO, they are absolutely correct.

    — Wu Ming 

11. Also worth another link: http://webtypography.net/

    — Mark 

12. Mark, your reference on this comment is excellent. Thanks!

    Off topic, where did the OpenID box go to?

    — David Collantes 

Respond privately

I am no longer accepting public comments on this post, but you can use this form to contact me privately. (Your message will not be published.)

§