old subway advertisements

so i had the pleasure of riding a 1940's subway yesterday. and aside from the smell of the grease, the childlike looks on peoples faces, and my excellent flask drinking and well dressed company, the absolute joy that i experienced looking at these old ads will last a lifetime.

i had been to the transit museum before, in fact, not too long ago. but i never saw one of these trains in context, i never got to ride one.

i do apologize for the quality, they're a little crooked or ill cropped, or blurry even in some spots. but you get to see some great examples of early to mid 20th century typographic advertising and lettering.

anyway, i'll leave this post here and just put up the damn pics already.

my favorite i think is the grape nuts ad.
what's yours?

enjoy!

>n

bar signs

here are a couple of shots of some of my favorite nyc dive bars. like my friend marcus and i were talking about the other day, they have that old times square neon sign vibe that i miss about the disneyfied, too crowded, too clean, too corporate, non prostitute and xxx thearter new times square.

that subway inn sign is really cool though. it's got such style! it makes almost no sense. the word subway is on a slight arch, that s is a different style completely, and the inn is in italic. but somehow, SOMEHOW, it all works out beautifully.

and the old town sign. it's just so... to the point! its no frills style fits the charecter of the place just perfectly.

one more note of interest, i went to old town the other day, and noticed that the sign was no longer up. i freaked! but i asked around, and well, it's out for repairs.

hopefully they won't screw it up!

>n

ancient roman graff

i used to be one of those graffiti kids way back when. i did some crazy shit, from freight trains to subway shit, some real nutso stuff... things that i'd never have the sack for today.

in fact, it's what got me interested in typography and design. there's such a great correlation there, that i've always been fascinated with, and to be perfectly honest, have been quite shocked that there's never been [to my knowledge at least] a proper, academic or "literary" investigation of.

in fact, if i ever get to grad school, it's probably going to end up in my thesis somehow.

in any case, here are some quite recent shots of ancient roman graff. that sentance reads funny. i shot these shots of ancient roman graff pretty recently. there... a LITTLE better. these pics are from a church oddly enough. they had this collection on their facade.

not only is the type beautiful in its quirks and eccentricities, but i'm sure it's somewhat political in nature. not to mention the best part for me is just picturing some guy [or girl? think there were any lady pinks or claws back then?] chisiling away in the middle of the night on this piece of stone wall saying something like "caesar is an ass!", [dump bush!] or "stay out of germania!" [leave iraq now!].

can anyone read latin?

so if anyone else out there has any shots of some other old assed graff, i'd love to see and post it.

and i'm sure i'll get around to doing a proper graffiti posting as well at some point. so if you want to send any of that in, i'd love to see that as well.

>n

coney island

i took these pics a long, long time ago in coney island. coney has a special place in my heart. i grew up in brooklyn, and for a long, long time in my youth, coney island was off limits. it was a shithole where if you went to visit, you weren't coming back.

be it the subway gangs or the gangs on the boardwalk [yes, they were different turfs] or the rotten clams from the food stalls on the boardwalk, something was going to get you. and you weren't going home.

but in the last decade and a half or so, like most places in ny, walking through coney island is no longer an extreme sport, a place to risk your life. [unless you want it to be. the cyclone is still amazing and dangerous.]

i think its really cool that coney island has kind become noted for its typography and signage. there was that project a few years ago where the dreamland artists club [http://creativetime.org/programs/archive/2005/dreamland/index.php] did some typographic restorations on the cyclone and some of the game stalls in and around astroland and dinos.

and they did a really spectacular job!

but all i all, i feel like there's a lot more to see and document out there, before they tear it down i mean. i've done a few "typographic walks" and seen some cool crap, but i'd love to see what you all have in the way of coney island type shots, or any other great circus or freakshow or great american carnival typography shots.

>n

UPDATE
my friend marcus sent along these REALLY dope shots:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/utensil-ed/sets/72157603535942742/

thanks marcus!!!