I remember how incredible it was to have so many different fonts in Windows 3.1, Staccato was one of the favorites in my family
A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
21–30 of 74 posts
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#22How is it that in 2018 with all the decentralised technologies that have been created we don’t have a simple way to mirror nytimes articles... perhaps on some kind of “permanent web”?
We don’t have a legal way.
FTFY
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#23> “There’s an unmistakable energy in all the designs that [Roger Excoffon] does,” said Tobias Frere-Jones, a Brooklyn-based typeface designer. “They project their personality so clearly. And it’s very obviously not Helvetica or not Times or any other generic thing that might be on the awning next door.” Excoffon’s most popular typeface is probably Mistral, which was modeled after his own handwriting. Both this passag…
I like his number handstyles, they look cool! But the letters themselves aren't that recognizable except the "S" (has a graffiti vibe), the rest are just basic marker tags/block letters. I guess that those numbers always appear with those letters in combination (supermarket price tags), and that this is what's associated with authenticity regarding his works.
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#24The article misses the obvious: the font resembles Asian brush strokes, and will be especially used for signage on Asian restaurants which are disproportionately represented in the examples.
Literally from the article:
"This could have to do with what Choc evokes. For some it bears a resemblance to the calligraphic forms of Asian writing systems.
However, it’s disputed as to whether Choc was a direct homage to these styles...There’s no denying that Choc has become a typographical shorthand for Asian-themed restaurants."
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#25Almost all the shops in the sign photos are Asian. Because the font simulates brush strokes, it adds an Asian element, since Western writing doesn't use brush strokes. Brushes may be used in painting letters onto a sign, but only as a tool to fill an area, whereby brush marks are regarded as artifacts to be avoided. The font doesn't look quirky to someone whose native writing system's canonical form is rooted brush s…
Exactly, it's not very mysterious, it looks like kanji and that's why it's used by Asian restaurants. Case solved.
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#26How is it that in 2018 with all the decentralised technologies that have been created we don’t have a simple way to mirror nytimes articles... perhaps on some kind of “permanent web”?
We don’t have a legal way. FTFY
We have a technical method to do so, but the site has not been created, that I know of. For example:
* A domain name like ipfs://nytimesmirror.com that mirrors nytimes articles (at the same relative URLs) * Some kind of crowdsourced process for content curation.
I'm aware that it's not legal, but I wouldn't be against it. Content piracy has been a catalyst for change. I simultaneously would be willing to pay nytimes for access to their content but I'm not willing to sign up to a $15 / month subscription. So if their content was widely pirated using delivery method like IPFS they might be incentivized to problem solve that for me.
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#27After watching "Stranger Things" with my son, we play now Spot-The-Benguiat-Font everywhere.
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#28Almost all the shops in the sign photos are Asian. Because the font simulates brush strokes, it adds an Asian element, since Western writing doesn't use brush strokes. Brushes may be used in painting letters onto a sign, but only as a tool to fill an area, whereby brush marks are regarded as artifacts to be avoided. The font doesn't look quirky to someone whose native writing system's canonical form is rooted brush s…
Exactly, it's not very mysterious, it looks like kanji and that's why it's used by Asian restaurants. Case solved.
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Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#29> “There’s an unmistakable energy in all the designs that [Roger Excoffon] does,” said Tobias Frere-Jones, a Brooklyn-based typeface designer. “They project their personality so clearly. And it’s very obviously not Helvetica or not Times or any other generic thing that might be on the awning next door.” Excoffon’s most popular typeface is probably Mistral, which was modeled after his own handwriting. Both this passag…
“There’s an unmistakable energy in all the designs that [Roger Excoffon] does”
This type of analysis bugs me. Yes, with hindsight you can say it has "energy". Give this font in a controlled experiment with many "energetic" fonts to choose from and you'd not say the same thing. There is probably a word for this type of bias - perhaps confirmation bias?
There is nothing more to read into this. When a font gets popular in local design circles, restaurants end up tangled in the whatever font trend it happens to be because the designers that they hire are from the same circle of influence.
Re: A Mystery Font That Took Over New York
#30This font is also known as Staccato 555.
It was ripped off by Bitstream and included in the Bitstream TrueType Font Pack for Microsoft Windows 3.1
For some information about these fonts see https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.fonts/y3BOdTKSg...