Wednesday, November 30, 2011

A weekend of blatant typography abuse.

It's not every year that one, by luck alone, gets to enjoy the long Thanksgiving weekend due to a work scheduling snafu.  Thanks to this fortuitous vacation, a trip was hastily put into action and in no time I found myself relaxing in a little cabin surrounded by old growth forest (near a town that shall remain nameless), eating Tofurky and gorging myself on carbohydrates (beer).
     After Thanksgiving I had a chance to explore the nameless town (let's call it "Town A") for a couple of days.  Now "Town A" is a great place to get away from the big crowded city.  It's a town that allows one to walk a full stride, drive the speed limit, walk right into a restaurant and sit down at any table (except Sunday for breakfast after church, of course).  "Town A"  also has a great local economy that is matched, possibly surpassed, by the friendly laid back attitudes of its local population.  Not to mention the wineries and tap houses are plentiful and among some of the highest quality. 
     Walking around downtown "Town A" also provides a chance for typophiles to see some excellent (sometimes alarming) obvious examples of font abuse and overuse:


Care-less use of Papyrus (this one actually kind of works)...


...nothing says hungry like those finely nibbled edges...


...one more for good measure.  Maybe the posters are actually printed on papyrus paper?


Winer, "We don't like to be associated with you descender types."



    Now we're talkin'!


Classy.
         

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Clown wins battle with alcoholism , finds new life in brain teaser industry.


"Pooter-the-clown...put 'er there!"
Twenty years after Buck Russell made the comical entertainer rethink the drink, Pooter-the-clown has transformed his life and career out of the spotlight of children's birthday parties and into the realm of print publication.  Pooter has made a seemingly miraculous turnaround from being in the gutter (perpetually intoxicated, homeless, living out of his mouse modified Volkswaggen) to gracing the full cover covers of word seek puzzle books across the nation.
 

   A video for those of you born after 1984...

Sunday, November 13, 2011