Once upon a time, Michael Stout, the other half of VisuaLingual, designed a family of typefaces based on The Image of the City by Kevin Lynch. Entitled Imageability, the family includes Paths [above], Edges, Districts, Nodes, and Landmarks — five ways in which the city is experienced and understood.
Four years ago, the project was accepted into the group exhibit Alphabet, organized by Baltimorean design studio PostTypography. It was initially exhibited as part of ArtScape, Baltimore’s annual arts celebration. From there, it traveled across the US and is now back in Baltimore for its homecoming exhibit at current gallery, up through the end of this week.
The exhibit features more than 60 varied alphabets, each presented in a stark, b/w A-Z format. I’ve featured the work of my friend Arjen Noordeman and the talented Andrew Byrom, who are both in the exhibit. The exhibit catalog includes all the alphabets and is a veritable bargain at $7, post-paid.
Awesome sidenote: the members of PostTypography are also in a band called Double Dagger which, if you’re a designer, is pretty funny. Check out their song “Luxury Condos for the Poor.”
Sweet. I recognize a few names on the list of participants. I love the way everything looks in the black and white photos of the installation, especially the metal title sign.
Comment by Ben C. — April 24, 2009 @ 9:55 am
It’s a great show. I was a bit skeptical about the effect of the presentation — each b/w print is the same size and has the same format, with each piece framed the same way. But, it’s really dramatic in a gallery setting.
The one thing that’s always bugged me about the premise of the exhibit is that, typically, typefaces are designed to be used, e.g. read. The A-to-Z format disregards the intended utility of all this work. But, okay, at least all the submissions are on an equal footing in that regard.
Comment by visualingual — April 24, 2009 @ 2:05 pm
Hi, I caught this exhibit and it was great, really eye-opening to see so many interpretations of the 26 same letters we take for granted.
Comment by JP — May 6, 2009 @ 9:08 am
[...] my humble book shares the page with the exhibit catalog for Alphabet, in which my partner Michael participated. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)New [...]
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[...] Alphabet: An Exhibition of Hand-Drawn Lettering & Experimental Typography, which includes a type family designed by my partner and better half, Michael Stout, and which has been traveling across the US [...]
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