Street Typography: Let's Get Vertical

First off, if you've been to Japan you've seen this style of signage everywhere. The buildings have a different commercial business on every floor and need to advertise it with vertical billboards. Here in Toronto, on Front Street, this low rise has just gone vertical for style points. Perhaps this is a band aid for whatever lies behind. I think it is eye catching to the passerby and gives an older building a contemporary touch. Futura Extra Bold.

Street Typography: The 59 that started it all

For the past year I have been learning to love type and hate type, to love Helvetica and hate Comic Sans. It was this month that I recognized a use of typography that often goes neglected by passers by. On a trip to visit my girlfriend's relatives, both architects by profession, I was confronted by a garage door scarred by spray paint. The house was in the later stages of construction and not yet painted. To make sure everyone could find the newly built house, the owner sprayed a giant 59 on the garage door. It wasn't a stencil. It was free hand or some could argue custom type. It reminded me of a great use of painted address numbers I'd been shown in Vancouver. It might be a future consideration for this house when ready for its real paint job.