Friday 6 February 2009

An appropriate message for the day

A lovely, simple poster, recalled here.
But what's the font?
I've been arguing the toss for a couple of days now with fellow typography nerds, and almost had it nailed as a version of Gill Sans, but on closer inspection it clearly isn't . Neither is it Johnston, nor the great P22 Underground typeface.
All I know is that the original commission for the poster stipulated that it should be in a "special and handsome typeface" to make it difficult for the enemy to counterfeit it. As such, it appears to be a 'one-off'. Some unknown graphic designer missed his or her chance to make a mark on history with 'Blenkinsop Sans' or 'Fothergill Futura'.

5 comments:

  1. Indeed it is. I note you have been altering your font also. I think the old fashioned variety is rather more me though, so for the time being I shall stick with it. Serifs are supposed to make blocks of text easier to read by drawing the eye along the line. I don't know how true that is, in reality.

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  2. I like serifs on the page - Adobe Garamond Pro is my font of choice - but on screen I find they get a little pixelated unless you have a large point size. Or perhaps it's just me that's pixelated...

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  3. I wouldn't dare say so - hic!

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  4. It does make you wonder what the enemy was expected to do with a counterfeit version of the typeface? arrive on the Tube in the early hours and post up lots of "surrender now" posters for the morning communters, perhaps.

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  5. Well, it's spurred me on to change me blog to something calm so maybe I'll carry on.

    At least this week; by next I might have changed my mind. (Not a lot of choice with Blogger.)

    When I recall all those lessons with a dip and scratch pen with Miss Crater trying to teach me italics,what a waste. As soon as I was able to have access to a typewriter, that was it.

    It's still two fingers of course.

    My sixth form art prize, however, was Maurice de Sausmarez 'The Dynamics of Visual Form', a classic and still available on Amazon. Decades on, I don't think that there is much that those who followed had to add.

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