day off...

so i took a well deserved day off from the grind the other day, with a very special lady friend. and whilst we were strolling through our fair city, there were many neighborhoods and enclaves that we came across. from the diamond district, to the east village, and everything in between.

all sorts of socio-economic groups were represented on that walk, and you can see SOME of it in the signage and typography, but it's something that certainly needs a deeper look.

it's something i've always been curious about, money, typography, power, marketing, etc. it's evident on the city streets, in the magazines we read, everyone one cares to train their eye to tell the truth.

but, another day for that whole piece.
because for this post, it's about some cool fucking pics.

i love, love, LOVE this black letter R. i'm sorry that i couldn't get a better pic of it. as you can see, it's mirrored, and therefore was unbelievably difficult to shoot. but, you get the gist of it.

the old west neon looking letters are just so beautiful as well.
and anyone that's ever looked at this blog knows that i've got such a hard-on for neon.

yeah, take a look at these, and hopefully you'll enjoy.

all the best,
>n

no vegas shots

i'm terribly sorry.
i know i promised the sign graveyard the next time i was out here, but, sadly, i've been deathly ill for the entirety of my trip out here.

so, it's with a heavy heart that i say next time, i'll get em.

i've just got to ask this, has any of my 2 loyal readers ever been to the sign graveyard?
if so, can you send me some pics?

best,
>n

old coffee place on smith street

this shot is pretty rad.
i've lived off smith street for a couple of years now, and really haven't done a lot of sign inspection there, so hopefully there's more! but i love the script. it's so heavy and authoritative!

so if there's more, i'll post it soon.
but probably not until next week.
[i'm off to las vegas again on monday! sign graveyard...here i come!!!]

>n

las vegas 2

i thought i had more shots than this.
hopefully i'll get more next time.

in any case, i do love the classic ones.
and i'll make sure that i get more of them on the next trip.

word.

>n

las vegas

ok, so this is part 1 of my vegas posting.
as i stated a moment ago, vegas is one messed up place.

but it's spectacular!
well, the signage is spectacular.

it's legendary for good reason.
seriously.

i only caught a small portion of the strip, and didn't even head downtown where i think the older, cruddier places are. [with the dope, old crazy signs]

there are also legends of sort of the eldorado of sign geeks... the sign graveyard. it's where all of the old places that are part of a bygone era, rest in typography in the desert.

so, hopefully, next time, i'll be able to check that one out.

in the mean time, i wanted to say that i don;t know if i was stupid for not knowing this, but the old west style of typography is still pretty evident out there. a lot of familiar fonts, like ponderossa and rosewood.

also, that amazing flamingo script. i always thought house industries did such an amazing job with their interpretation of vegas fonts.

but please check back over the course of the next few days, because there are plenty more pics for me to go through.

enjoy!

>n

cheap and easy

this is actually a food product.
and i took this pic in a place called "terribles". it was a gas station and mini-mart. and they also have a casino.

i think it's some sort of dulce du leche product.

vegas is one messed up place.
even the foods are whores.

>n

um... sorry.

yeah, it's been a minute since i've done any posting, and i'm really sorry for that. my internet's been acting up again, and i was out of town on business for a few days as well [las vegas!]. but fear not! i will be back with at least 2 new posts after saturday [the cable guy is coming then]. so please check back soon!

thanks,
>neil

old [neil] new york

so i've got this archive of weird typographic shots i've taken over the years. it's not huge by any stretch of the imagination. nor is it any good to be perfecly honest. well, maybe a couple of shots here and there aren't that bad. so i'm going to post those in the coming days.

these particular shots are as folows:
the gothic mosaic "R" is in my local subway station. it's a sign for something something the redeamer church. and while the church has never held my attention, that R is just sublime.

the bayer milk truck is just an old, not so well done script. which, i love.

that last R was taken many years ago out at floyd bennett field in brooklyn. it's painted on the side of an old airplane hangar. the site itself is amazing. it's this old, decomissioned airfield from WWII, and is just sick with history. but this R is one of my favorite images from the decay there.

i'm sure there's more to say about all of this, but i'm trying to set up a 401k and it's confusing the shit out of me, so i should try and get back to that.

>n

Casa D'Ice Restaurant

again, this post is not in the realm of fine or innovative typography, but more of a cultural observation i think. i got these in my email today from my sister, but i think it must be some sort of popular forward. though, i must tell, for those of you that have seen all of the photos in this forward, that i will not now, nor will i ever publish some of them, due to their horribly racist, ignorant content, but the ones that i did choose to show are kind of neat, not knowing that this guy is such a prick.

these shots were taken by someone that i don't know. so if it's you, then i'm sorry for "stealing" them.

FYI, the restaurant is located 10 miles southeast of Pittsburgh in North Versailles, PA. it's called Casa D'Ice Restaurant

sonoma

i like this 2.
it was painted on the side of a building in sonoma, california.

>n

from the archive... san francisco

i went to san francisco. once. years ago. and it was amazing. in fact, it made me want to move there. and i tried, for a long time to move to SF. but somehow, fate always put the kibosh on it. i probably spelled kibosh wrong.

in any case, enough about my west coast lovefest and spelling errors. lets just take a look at these really excellent SF signs. from the archives.

california is so cool for some things...
[but i hear portugal might be even better!]

>n

ugh... sorry

i'm so sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks. my internet at home has been out and it's always a stretch to do anything at work.

so i know that this isn't exactly an example of fine typography, but it's damn funny.

once my internet is up and regular, i've got at least 3 posts to drop. so check back soon!

>n

LA

LA is a wonderland for a typegeek. no joke. almost everywhere you look, there is some prime example of amazing typography and/or signage. be it manufactured, hand drawn, whatever. it's a magical thing really.

it took me 31 years to finally get to there. and sadly, the 2 times that i've been, it's been for business. so i haven't had the chance to really dig deeper and explore the areas that i'd like to and to take a minute to take a great pic. most of my shots here, and from the san antonio post as well, are taken from a car.

it was a really amazing treat for me to see where some of the greatness and influence on a generation of designers and typographers had their roots... the cal arts crowd, emigre... god, emigre had such an influence on me as a designer and just on how i see and think about the space around me.

i could write volumes here, on the subject of influences, and how my thought process has grown, etc., but that's for another blog i think.

so what i'm getting at about LA is that i guess i'll just have to take a minute to get there one day and really take the time to get some great shots and truly see everything that i can of so much of this spectacular stuff.

>n

moving truck

cool script!
i love dramatic scripts like this.
i went on a jag a few years ago where i was drawing all these scripts like 24/7. i was so into the hand feel of some of them. it was actually right before house industries came out with their vegas set, which is very well done.

anyway, another cool truck.

>n

american legion

what is it with my new fixation on neon?

>n

shoe shine/repair

the logo is sort of interesting, but i really like the simple condensed type of the word "shoe". yeah, it's boring as sin, but i like it's usage. as an old mentor of mine once said, put it on an angle, and it looks good.

i also really like the sheer volume of things this guy does! is he going to come to my house and unclog my sink too?

i admit, this isn't the best post ever.
but cut me some slack, jack, i've got the flu.

san antonio

i was in san antonio on business for a few days. it's a lovely town. nice folks, some cool signs, etc. but i'm kind of pissed off at myself for the quality of photos. because i have numerous others, but these are the best. you believe that? these are the best quality!

i don't know, maybe i need a better camera?

there was one that i did not get though. it was a really rad design for some gas station/bodega in a really rough part of town. i think it was called "pinks"? i did not get it because i thought i would get stabbed if i tried. but all in all, it was a cute little city. and being from new york, that possibility of being stabbed feeling was a constant at one time in the cities history, so though i'd go far from saying that it was a welcome thrill, it was almost like an old friend.

does any of that make sense?

in any case, here are some shots from san antonio. yes, they are all restaurants oddly enough. and no, i didn't eat at any of them. but maybe if i ever go back?

as far as the type goes, i especially like the little details on the hand done stuff. like the almost copperplate-ish semi serifs on the las dos naciones sign, and the weird 3-d... it's quite the pair. and i really like how that mando's sign type kind of looks like the emigre font "los felitz", which is based on hand painted signage in the los felize area of los angeles. but i prattle on.

enjoy!

>n

cool neon arabic type

i took this in my neighborhood.
it's pretty cool, right?

>n

lawrence weiner show

wow... i've been thinking about this post for quite some time now, hence the delay. it's about the lawrence weiner show at the whitney museum, here in nyc.

in fact, i TRIED to go last weekend, but ended up just getting drunk on a saturday afternoon.

and after seeing the show today, i regretted that decision.

i've been a fan of mr. weiners for a number of years now, and was so excited to learn of the show at the whitney, which, if i'm not mistaken, is his first major american retrospective, EVER.

in any case, this posting has a weird place in the admittedly brief history of this blog. as in, how does it fit in? how does, what basically amounts to a sort of art criticism fit into a geeky type blog?

well, it just does, ok?

but seriously, as i said earlier, i've been a fan for years now, but for the life of me, i seriously don't get this art work.

i love it because of his design approach, how he puts certain words on angles, his color and typeface selections, his sense of spacing... all very graphic design-ey types of things for a fine artist.

but again, in all seriousness, i do not get his work. i wish for the life of me that i did. but i don't.

so that's why the works of lawrence weiner fit on this type geek blog so well. because i'm not approaching it from an art criticism sort of base, i'm just looking at it from a graphic, type geek sensability.

but even beyond that, i don't know, i feel like this work speaks to me. it's on a primal level or something. perhaps it's my time in the publishing industry, that better part of a decade spent working with words and images in such close quarters. i feel like this work is the distillation of a lot of lesser artists and speakers and poets, etc. i feel like it's filtering out a lot of crap, and just giving you the good.

there was a show many years ago, i think it was on comedy central, many, many years ago now. but they basically took some lame 2 hour movie, cut out all the crap, amd made it like 25 minutes long. it's a genius idea. one that's ripe for another visit i think actually.

but that's what lawrence weiners work reminds me of.

i'll fess up though, i read the pamphlet that accompanied the show, and i even bought the catalog. so after a brief skim of each, while i still can't say that i get mr. weiners works, i do have a better understanding, even greater than the graphic sort of agreement.

one cool point that i think i picked up was that the works that i sweat so hard, are merely vehicles to deliver a message. the work is actually the idea, or so to paraphrase the shows pamphlet.

cool, right?

most of the photos in this posting are from the catalog that i bought from the whitney. so if the publisher of the book, or some other chump has a beef, let me know, and i'll take them down.

the other photos are of things that i own.

and i do apologize for the quality of the photos.
though it seems like i say that a lot.

anyway, enjoy!

>n

ps, now if i can only find a mark lombardi retrospective close by, i'll be set!