Guess the typeface

All views expressed here are solely my own and do not represent those of the American Museum of Natural History. 

This week, I had the strange opportunity to take typeface identification from an obscure, seemingly pointless, albeit strangely self-satisfying skill to a matter of design integrity.

Between all the work of designing exhibits and helping visualize content at the American Museum of Natural History, there are odds and ends we take care of in the exhibit graphics department. From time to time, someone will need a sign for this or that, and we'll see about getting it made. Because our visitors at AMNH can get a bit, er, overzealous at times, we end up with signs here and there that have missing letters. (Don't ask me. Your guess is as good as mine.) So the long and short of it is that we have a plaque on the fourth floor in one of the dinosaur halls (come see for yourself!) with a couple of missing letters. My mission: figure out what the typeface is so we can replace the letters.

I started with a photograph, but ended up wanting a much more accurate way to compare the still-existing letters with letterforms from various typefaces. So, in a throwback to my Florence days, I did a charcoal rubbing of the plaque on tracing paper. I used Identifont to help pull out salient features of the typeface. I must admit, I am a bit out of touch with the nitty gritty of type design. Not that I was ever a type designer, mind you, but I learned a thing or two from Paul Bussman back in the day...

I came up with what I think, unfortunately, is not the very same typeface, but an extremely close second that appears to match exactly for the characters we need to reproduce. I didn't have the entire alphabet to examine; just those letters in the words on the sign, and only majuscule at that. I am not going to tell you guys what my answer is right here. Instead, I'm going to show you all the rubbing, and leave you to the fun task of finding the guilty typeface, or at least the prime suspects. Feel free to email me your answers or to find out what mine is.

Really, all of this was a great reminder of how much I really really don't know about type.

Merry investigating!

Self-inquiry and self-healing

I've been doing a lot of mulling lately, not of wine or cider, but of myself. Every time I come to a crossroads, I discover how little reflection I've actually been doing about what I want because I've been so busy...just living, I guess. So the task is quite daunting, sorting through all I've absorbed in the months since the last major choice, and at times I find myself in sympathy with this guy from New Mexico described in The Onion.

Sweating, Shaking Man Never Going to Spend a Little Time with His Thoughts Again

I'm trying to power through the pain. As they come to me, I record small epiphanies about myself. And here is a first attempt to string them together...

Why am I a visual communicator?
I realize it has a lot to do with sharing valuable information in a piecewise, digestible way. In an empathetic way that makes it approachable and applicable. We get information in ways other than reading. I love little step-by-step illustrations. I'm fascinated by cumulative learning, sets, sequences, and multiples. I love facilitating "A-ha!" moments. It's the communicator in me that takes joy in dance (bharata natyam is about storytelling). We all have a natural desire to learn. I'm curious about how we take in knowledge, how learning happens. I think learning together, from peers, through collaboration, is as valuable as having a teacher.

What do I care about?
I gravitate towards certain types of information myself. Mostly, traditional knowledge. I'm quite passionate about sustainable agricultural systems, the preservation of village communities, and traditional Indian medicine as it relates to the modern person. Why are we all grossly out of balance in our minds, bodies, and spirits? I think one of the greatest crimes of the 20th century is the undervaluing of traditional knowledge. I'm reading Vandana Shiva's Violence of the Green Revolution, in which she describes how Americans out to "help" have foisted their short-sighted model on developing nations with 100% ego and 0% respect for the knowledge and potential of the people they were "helping," ultimately creating more scarcity than existed initially. All of these interests falls under this umbrella: the preservation and application of indigenous or traditional knowledge. We need systems that use resources efficiently, in which even waste products are inputs, but we don't need to re-invent them. We can start by looking to traditional societies that were designed based on scarcities. People have been doing this 'living' thing for, like, hundreds of thousands of years. They may have been on to something.

How does this all come together?
Individuals and communities have the latent power to heal and help themselves. Ayurveda, permaculture, and education are all about encouraging this natural process and removing obstacles to self-sufficiency. How can I be a facilitator and not an obstacle?

Type nerds rejoice

Break out the popcorn for this heated conversation about ampersands over at typophile. Seriously, who needs television?

Oh, and I found this, too.
http://ampersand.gosedesign.net/

Happy anniversary!

Made this for my mom today. Happy anniversary, Amma. (Click to enlarge.)

Muah!

For the first time in my life, I had someone special to celebrate the occasion. And the first time since third grade that I've made Valentine's Day cards. My roommate's fabulous girlfriend Maddie (you may have had the pleasure of flying with her as your flight attendant on a Delta flight) hosted a "crafternoon," and, as you might imagine, I got really into it. They all involve some strange recontextualization of luscious magazine lips. Maybe life is just sweeter with someone to love? Click here to see the rest of the selection on Behance!

Vintage lettering from the Ellis Island Immigration Museum

From a September excursion! Swanky travel brochures, and a few informational graphics/charts. Love the type.

Super secret holiday project

is really bad for rest of my life because I can't stop drawing letters instead of, like, paying bills. (Sorry, Time Warner and landlord.) And, I know you can't wait to see what this is all about, Internet, so I promise this is the last teaser. Okay, no I don't, but the unveiling WILL come soon.