Lizzie Wa Design

How does typography affect a place ?

Letters surround us and they have become an integral part of how we live our lives. But more than that, they express identity and individuality. 

“Words have meaning and type has spirit and the combination is spectacular”

Paula Scher

The invention of movable type revolutionised type and printing making it much more accessible and flexible. Now typography is available to everyone with access to a computer, making it easy to use as well as allowing for many poor examples of typography to be used. 

During the industrial revolution bigger and bolder typefaces started to be used to cut through all the other type that was bombarding the viewer. 

“The average consumer is exposed to over 5,000 marketing messages a day”

Cohen Ted X

Lettering is needed to allow us to move around cities and find our way, but many cities use this necessary lettering to also show something about the identity of that place. Venice for example, uses beautiful but not particularly readable type, reflecting the romance and beauty of the city. 

As cities expanded and got busier, the messaging that allowed people to travel through them become more important and had to be careful crafted to allow it to be clear, concise and stand out amongst all the advertising. This pushed cities to develop a unique brand for the first time. 

Paris carefully chose a decorative type for its metropolitan system to show it as an artistic not industrial city. 

London used Johnson Sans, a readable, reassuring and simple font that confidently shows people the way around the tube. 

Phil Bains agrees that lettering or typeface can reinforce the identity of a place. He thinks wayfinding and public lettering can contribute to how we identify with and respond to a location. To asses it, you have to look at LETTERFORM, PLACEMENT, SCALE AND MATERIAL. Any of these factors can completely transform the identity. (Baines and Dixon 2008)

The balance of these factors works best when it is unnoticed and only the message of the sign comes across. 

“They contribute to the visual texture of our public environment”

Phil Bains  (Baines and Dixon 2008)

‘Ghost signs’ still adorn many buildings today, left over from when sign writers would paint the brand name or call to action of a business directly onto the building. This is done much less today due to the speed in which companies move and change. 

Edward Fella talks about how ‘signs carry a lot of other baggage besides their overt message’. When you look past what the sign is trying to overtly tell you, there is a lot more to the message in the font, size, location and material that makes up the letterforms. Fella found these parts of typography more interesting than the message itself. 

 He believed when you look at it like that, ‘we are touched by the person who made the sign’. (Wild and Blackwell 2000)

Signs are not supposed to be lingered on. They are designed to take out thoughts elsewhere, either promoting desire for something or answering a need. Lingering on the lettering and what makes them is not how they are meant to be seen so adds an interesting new perspective. 

Bristol’s History 

Bristol is a historic seaport and commercial centre. During the later 17th and the 18th centuries Bristol prospered as a processing centre for sugar and tobacco imported from Britain’s colonies in the Americas. The destruction of a large part of the city centre during World War II provided an opportunity for replanning

(Encyclopaedia Britannica 2021)

The city’s involvement with Transatlantic slavery peaked between 1730 and 1745, when it became the leading slaving port. There are at least 45 religions, at least 187 countries of birth and at least 91 main languages spoken in Bristol.

(Visit Bristol 2021)

Workshop Challenge 

• Analyse how effective the examples of type design communicate place and the identity of that area, and write a short (one hundred word) description for each letterform. Please consider its material make up, role, use and application, with regard to its location eg a weathered sign over a disused shop, which would suggest the changing fortunes of the high street, or the industrial letterforms in a new bar, which suggest gentrification.

Letterforms are everywhere when you start to look. We are really bombarded with them all the time and a lot of it simply becomes white noise. What makes it way through is not necessarily the most beautiful and well crafted. Walking around Bristol you see multiple examples of traditional letterforms showing the cities history. Many are carved into buildings, leftover from their past occupants. Many are left to decay and crumble, making them almost unnoticeable to the average passer by, but a few are kept clean and pristine, showing how beautiful they really are. The simplicity in design and muted stone colour of these letterforms show how previously unnecessary it was to grab the viewers attention in the way that is required now. They had much less to contend with then. As a result of this, these beautiful old letterforms are now often overlooked amongst the colour and noise of the other letterforms vying for our attention. 

Bristol is full of hand drawn letterforms, many in the form of the graffiti that covers pretty much every available surface. Most of this lettering is unreadable however, often layered on top of other writing. This hand drawn influence permeates through to vernacular lettering as well. Many shops choose to show their brand name by painting it onto the side of the building and beautiful hand lettering is often seen in shop windows to show temporary messages. 

Many streets have a big contrast in letterforms from one building to the next. Carefully designed artistic lettering is newly adorned on a building next to a faded and peeling simple sign from a corner shop or similar. This striking contrast in lettering highlights the gentrification of many areas of Bristol that is currently in progress.

The lettering I came across was very varied, but a lot of it did draw into what I believe is the identity of Bristol. There are a lot of artistic and confident lettering styles, the font choices have been carefully considered and executed showing an appreciation for design and artistry. Despite the frequency of modern signs, the links back to traditional letterforms and traditional lettering methods is also a theme that comes up, showing the cities appreciation for craft. This is mixed in and often side by side with cheap basic signage and a lot of hand lettering that ranges from skilled to scribbled. This shows the class gap within Bristol and the in progress gentrification of many areas. 

“The typography I find on the streets walking around a city varies mainly depending on the economic status of the city. If it’s a wealthy city, I see more neon signs, murals painted from commissioned artists, newer signs advertising businesses. It’s harder to find interesting historic typography in the revitalized areas (typically the downtown areas) because it’s been covered up or removed. It’s easier to find interesting typography in the cities that don’t have as much money or where revitalization hasn’t occurred…unless the city really celebrates their history”

(Hogrebe 2017)

I tried sketching some of the letterforms to get a greater feel for the shapes of them and the similarities and differences.

Edward Everard Printing Works

36 Broad Street, Bristol BS1 2EQ. Latitude: 51.4558 / 51°27’20″N Longitude: -2.5946 / 2°35’40”W 

Now a quiet street with a couple of restaurants. The building is half boarded up, soon to be transformed into a new hotel but the facade is being protected.  

The beautiful swirling Art Nouveau letterforms designed by Everard himself, in this sign show a dedication and care in design. They seem to represent the importance of artistry and craft. Created at the beginning of the 20th century when technology was taking big steps forward, the ornamental style of these letterforms make them more like patterns than letters. The letterforms are asymmetrical and made up of nature inspired lines. This lettering shows Bristol’s 20th century identity as a centre for industry and craft and the artistic nature of printing at the time. 

The lettering is tiled directly on the building, and has survived multiple occupancies. The careful preservation of this lettering shows an appreciation for art and craft that is integral to the identity of Bristol as a city. 

(Encyclopedia Britannica 2019)

Bristol Turnpike Trust Milestone

1 Summers Road, St Werburgs, Bristol, BS2 9RT

Sat on the side of a path as you pop out from an underpass under the M32. The surrounding walls are covered in colourful graffiti and  this little milestone marker is almost unnoticeable alongside everything else. 

Traditional serif letterforms are cast in raised metal on this Turnpike Trust milestone marker, reflective of the style of type in the 19th century when this was created. The text is painted white to help it stand out from the black marker, but it is still quite small, low to the ground and not easily visible at a distance, as it wouldn’t have needed to be read at speed like road signs today. It shows Bristols historical importance as a location to pass through, but its degregated and graffitied current state also shows a lack of interest in its historical value in this area. 

Arnolfini Art Gallery

63-93 Narrow Quay, Hotwells, Bristol.

This sign looks out over the water and is hard to get close to. Which is good as its more readable from far away. Its is a modern area of the city, full of nice cafes and restaurants. 

These modern letterforms are created purely from vertical metal rectangles. Separately and from many angles they are meaningless. But placed together in this way and viewed from the side they  display the name of the museum clearly. These letterforms are relying on the position of the viewer to create the type. They are also influenced by the sunlight as the shadows cast affect the look of the letterforms. This type communicates Bristols bold and artistic nature which is so integral to the cities identity in its non-conformist lettering. The cultural combination of metal and wooden cladding seem to reflect the coming together off Bristol’s industrial past and artistic present. 

The Print Hall

74 Old Market Street, St Phillips, Bristol BS2 0EJ.

Situated at the end of the cities old market street and right onto a busy roundabout. Is surprisingly unnoticeable for such a large sign, maybe due to how busy the area is, people only  see it when trying to cross a large busy roundabout. 

This lettering is a modern twist on traditional letterforms. The curved serif lettering is elegant and the deep serifs seem to look back to 18th century lettering. The large dominating size of the letters however give them a very modern feel, as does the positioning of the letterforms at the bottom of their shiny copper backdrop. The letterforms are each placed on a sheet of copper, making them look reminiscent of a printing press. This lettering shows Bristol as as a bold city that is appreciative of its creative and artistic history, and wants to honour these craft focused ways of working in the current day. The sign is preserving the buildings history as a newspaper print works, whilst it is in its new use as student accommodation.  

Rawnsley Park

Beaumont Street, Bristol, BS5 

This area of Bristol is ‘up and coming’ but still quite run down. There are a lot of tower blocks, unkempt houses and rubbish around. A lot of families are packed into a small area and this tiny park services them all, situated right by a busy main road. 

The letterforms on this park signage are almost like handwriting, whilst some letters seem to have quite a traditional old style serif font look, such as the W, other letters are more playful and modern such as the curvey E. The letterforms look to be cut from sheets of metal. They have quite a friendly and welcoming look, almost unprofessionally made. This tiny park surrounded by tower blocks and busy roads has been given a lot of attention in its signage. I think this reflects Bristols identity as a welcoming, community focused city that is interested in regeneration in its poorer areas and cultivating artistic passion within the city.

Reflection

Looking at letterforms around me this week has shown just how frequently we are exposed to vernacular letterforms in our day to day lives. This overwhelming amount of typography means that signs have to work very hard to capture our attention. They seem to do this in one of two main ways, either being as loud and eye-catching as possible to snatch our eyes towards them, or by being as clear and incongruous that a glance over them tells us the information we need to carry on our days quickly and easily. 

Looking closer at the decisions each designer made when making these letterforms gives us a deeper insight into their world and the message they are trying to portray. 

The lettering that surrounds us adds to and in a way even creates the identity of a place. The designers decision to use or make a particular style of font is influenced by their surroundings, the kind of people they expect to read the type and the message of that area they are trying to portray. The letterforms of Bristol I have seen fit with and cement its identity as creative, bold and interested in traditional craft as well as its diverse history, gentrification and idea that it’s a city that is constantly evolving. 

Reference list

BAINES, Phil and Catherine DIXON. 2008. Signs : Lettering in the Environment. London: Laurence King Pub.

DE FRANCESCHI, Riccardo. 2021. “Letterforms: From Pen to Screen.” The British Library [online]. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/letterforms-from-pen-to-screen# [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA. 2021. “Bristol | History, Points of Interest, & County.” Encyclopedia Britannica [online]. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/place/Bristol-England [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA. 2019. “Art Nouveau | History, Characteristics, Artists, & Facts.” Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/art/Art-Nouveau [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

HOGREBE, Ulrik. 2017. “Cities, Manholes and Typography: Exploring Culture through Letters.” Medium [online]. Available at: https://medium.com/type-thursday/cities-manholes-and-typography-exploring-culture-through-letters-b5f99e9f98fa [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

HUSTWIT, Gary. 2015. “A Rare Interview with Graphic Design Legend Massimo Vignelli.” Fast Company [online]. Available at: https://www.fastcompany.com/3044133/a-rare-interview-with-graphic-design-legend-massimo-vignelli [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

R ALEXANDER BENTLEY, Michael J O’BRIEN and John MAEDA. 2017. The Acceleration of Cultural Change : From Ancestors to Algorithms. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Mit Press.

STRIZVER, Ilene. 2015. “TypeTalk: Type Classifications.” CreativePro.com [online]. Available at: https://creativepro.com/typetalk-type-classifications/ [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

TEDX TALKS. 2016. “Hiding in Plain Sight: Uncovering History through Ghost Signs | Matt Cohen | TEDxWinnipeg.” YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkX4-994bPg [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

VISIT BRISTOL. 2021. “History of Bristol – VisitBristol.co.uk.” Visit Bristol [online]. Available at: https://visitbristol.co.uk/inspire/all-about-bristol/history [accessed 27 Jan 2021].

WILD, Lorraine and Lewis BLACKWELL. 2000. Edward Fella : Letters on America : Photographs and Lettering. London: Laurence King.

MANCO, Jean. 2007. “Edward Everard’s Art Nouveau Printing Works.” http://www.buildinghistory.org [online]. Available at: http://www.buildinghistory.org/bristol/everards.shtml [accessed 27 Jan 2021].