We finally have a full TypEdu Blog! Go ahead and bookmark this sucker. No promises as to how often I'll update this though. And now the commenting function is finally working too; Share your thoughts.
Hannes Famira · Sep 13,’07
TypEdu-News
The typesetting industry of 1947.
Nov 21,’08
The german Robotlab has trained an industrial robot to write a bible of al things...
Nov 18,’08
Letterror is introducing the new and completely reworked ffTrixie with a nice little YouTube video.
Nov 17,’08
Check out Erik van Blokland's teaching tool, the TypeCooker! Make sure to click on all the little text links.
Aug 25,’08
I Love Type has a long post with lots of photographs from the past year at the Type]Media class in Den Haag.
Aug 23,’08
This site has just got its very own email form. So get in touch!
Jul 30,’08
The continuing education department at the Cooper Union is now offering a three-tiered type design program.
Jul 30,’08
I added a new page on writing. There is some text left to write but it's a beginning...
Jul 27,’08
House Industries just released their beautiful family of script typefaces called Studio Lettering
Jul 08,’08
Hoefler&Frere-Jones' own Sara Soskolne is going to teach a one-week class at the Book Arts Center at Wells College Summer Institute.
Jul 07,’08
The masters program in Den Haag has had their final exams. Try the student fonts in the LetterTester and make sure to check out Cabellero!
Jun 24,’08
Letterpress Printing Course at The Cooper Union Wednesday June 4-July 30 2008!
May 13,’08
Even in the same language the rules for the use of quotation marks differs in different countries and I will try to collect these rules for a future blog entry. One thing however is the same all over the planet. Quotation marks are not meant for emphasis. Check this blog out, it's hilarious.
Apr 20,’08
Check out Stephen Fry on Gutenberg in this wonderful BBC documentary.
Apr 17,’08
Summer is almost over and at last I got myself a new USB cable for the digital camera. Look what I discovered when I finally hooked it up to my Mac again. Back in May John Downer had come to Brooklyn all the way from Iowa to work on this beautiful sign.
Two guys in NYC were responsible for John getting the invitation, thanks to Paul Shaw and Matteo Bologna. These days Lewis Drug Store really is an Italian restaurant called Locanda but the owners (husband and wife) wisely decided to keep the historic sign along with most of the interior decoration of this former Brooklyn drug store. We were invited to enjoy the tasting menu and it blew our collective minds. John graciously helped out with these captions.
The assignment was to restore, and to slightly improve, the fascia lettering originally painted in the 1940s. The substrate first had to be replaced. New opaque black glass was installed for the purpose. Note that the name Lewis needed to be smaller than the original, and higher in relation to the other words, in order to be visible above the rollscreen casing. John also italicized the 'i' in Lewis to make it conform. The few surviving letters in DRUG STORE were traced before the old fascia was removed to make way for the new. Saved were the D, R, S, T, O. The U, G and E had to be recreated from photographic evidence and existing letter parts.
The fascia lettering originally painted in the 1940s
John's Sidewalk Laboratory.
The fascia was black glass, recently installed. The glass still had residual adhesive on
it from the protective paper covering that was put on it at the factory. Before lettering the
fascia, John had to give the glass several cleanings.
- Once with mineral spirits
- Once with Bon Ami and water
- Once with ammonia & baking soda
- Once with vinegar & baking soda
- Once with pure water alone
Rinsing the lettering brush in mineral spirits cleans the bristles before use. The brush is called an angle fitch. An aluminum can is cut down and a lip is fashioned to keep the sharp edge of the can from scraping the brush.
A nice shot of the angle fitch. The pointed end allows relatively crisp corners of letters to be formed. (Surely good enough for work that's high up, away from close scrutiny.)
Left: The name Lewis has been pounced onto the fascia.
Right: The pounce pattern in position for the word DRUG.
A close-up of the white dotted outlines for the name Lewis.
The pounce bag is made from an old sweat sock. Inside it is talc (in this case, baby powder). Any kind of nontoxic white dust will suffice.
Transferring the word DRUG to the black glass surface
by beating the perforations in the pattern with a pounce
bag. The powder from the bag passes through the tiny
holes in the paper pattern. This transfer method has been
in commercial use since the Italian Renaissance.
Lettering White, straight from the can.
John begins with the top of the L in Lewis, using a brush that's exactly the right size for the job.
Lewis looks clean!
Scotch tape aids in masking straight edges quickly & easily.
Removing a piece of Scotch tape from the intersection of the crossbar and the stem of the T while the paint is still wet.
The two parts of the letter blend together better when they're done in
quick succession. Doing so helps hide the seam and keeps the buildup
of overlapping paint to a bare minimum.
The finished job. Located at
129 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn.
The assignment was to restore, and to slightly improve, the fascia lettering originally painted in the 1940s. The substrate first had to be replaced. New opaque black glass was installed for the purpose. Note that the name Lewis needed to be smaller than the original, and higher in relation to the other words, in order to be visible above the rollscreen casing. John also italicized the 'i' in Lewis to make it conform. The few surviving letters in DRUG STORE were traced before the old fascia was removed to make way for the new. Saved were the D, R, S, T, O. The U, G and E had to be recreated from photographic evidence and existing letter parts.
The fascia lettering originally painted in the 1940s
John's Sidewalk Laboratory.
The fascia was black glass, recently installed. The glass still had residual adhesive on
it from the protective paper covering that was put on it at the factory. Before lettering the
fascia, John had to give the glass several cleanings.- Once with mineral spirits
- Once with Bon Ami and water
- Once with ammonia & baking soda
- Once with vinegar & baking soda
- Once with pure water alone
Rinsing the lettering brush in mineral spirits cleans the bristles before use. The brush is called an angle fitch. An aluminum can is cut down and a lip is fashioned to keep the sharp edge of the can from scraping the brush.
A nice shot of the angle fitch. The pointed end allows relatively crisp corners of letters to be formed. (Surely good enough for work that's high up, away from close scrutiny.)
Left: The name Lewis has been pounced onto the fascia.Right: The pounce pattern in position for the word DRUG.
A close-up of the white dotted outlines for the name Lewis.
The pounce bag is made from an old sweat sock. Inside it is talc (in this case, baby powder). Any kind of nontoxic white dust will suffice.
Transferring the word DRUG to the black glass surface
by beating the perforations in the pattern with a pounce
bag. The powder from the bag passes through the tiny
holes in the paper pattern. This transfer method has been
in commercial use since the Italian Renaissance.
Lettering White, straight from the can.
John begins with the top of the L in Lewis, using a brush that's exactly the right size for the job.
Lewis looks clean!
Scotch tape aids in masking straight edges quickly & easily.
Removing a piece of Scotch tape from the intersection of the crossbar and the stem of the T while the paint is still wet.
The two parts of the letter blend together better when they're done in
quick succession. Doing so helps hide the seam and keeps the buildup
of overlapping paint to a bare minimum.
The finished job. Located at
129 Gates Avenue, Brooklyn.
- To learn more about John Downer check out the links on his typophile page.
- The restaurant with the new sign is called Locanda.
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5 current guests
26230 hits for this page
page rendered in 0.7543 sec.
Powered by ExpressionEngine v.1.6.4Made on a Mac
Coded in Bare Bones' BBedit
