Two's Company in the Latest Culture+Typography Despatch

By Better Letters • 29 Aug 2024

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Mounted square sign with a combination of cursive and san-serif lettering.

Tarvers Modern Wheel Alignment in Oklahoma City, from the 'Hand Lettering' chapter of Culture+Typography: Examples in Font Pairings.

Nikki Villagomez's new book, Culture+Typography: Examples in Font Pairings, is grounded in the realm of found public lettering, exploring the myriad ways in which different letterforms are used in combination. She has kindly shared the following introduction to the book, which is available alongside Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography, here on her website.

Book cover with the title an author towards the top, with the bulk of the space given over to an array of photographs of various types of public lettering in the form of signage.

Culture+Typography: Examples in Font Pairings is the sequel to Nikki Villagomez's first book, Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography.

Culture+Typography: Examples in Font Pairings

This publication is a continuation of my first book Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography, with a specific focus on font pairings. I analyze historic signs, manhole covers, ghost signs, neon signs, and hand lettering from my travels to understand how combining different typefaces can either enhance visual impact or, in some instances, detract from it.

Through its practical examples and analysis, this book aims to provide readers with a comprehensive understanding of how to successfully pair fonts to influence design and communication across various contexts.

The following is an excerpt from the introduction.

Introduction

I published my first book, Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography in 2015. It is comprised of a collection of pictures I had up until the time of publication and compares pictures from different parts of the country, organized by the chapters Ghost Signs, Manhole Covers, Graffiti, Hand Lettering, Signage, Neon Signs, Wayfinding and Cultural Observations.

As my research has grown and my travels have expanded, my desire to write another book became a goal of mine. I felt the need to document the pictures I have because, as I learned with my first book, about 80% of the signs have been destroyed, painted over, or removed. My book went from being a way to observe typography in different cities to being a cultural reference through historic documentation.

The corner of a building with a fading painted sign on a portion of the wall. It advertises the Fish Grotto, and the F of 'fish' and the G of 'grotto' are formed from painted fish.

Ghost Sign: Portland, Oregon. The Fish Grotto is one of my favorite finds from my time in Portland. It closed in 2014 but the sign was still there, thankfully. The ghost sign is on the side of the building which is several stories tall. I’m not a fan of objects in place of letters, since when is a fish an F, or a G? That’s a lot of responsibility to put on seafood, not to mention pairing it with script and then an all caps serif directly underneath. While the illustrations add character, it makes for tough legibility.

As I started brainstorming ideas for a second book, I knew right away what I didn’t want: a copy/paste of my first book with new pictures. However, I did want to keep the same topic, ‘Culture+Typography’, but looking through a different lens. I get frustrated when I can’t figure things out right away but I knew that it would come to me.

As I have continued my travels, there have been similarities in the questions I get asked at the end of my talks, like:

“Do you design your own fonts?” “What’s your most hated font?” “What cities have been the most impactful for your research?”

(The answers are No, Curlz, Albuquerque, New Mexico and San Antonio, Texas.)

But there has been one question that has come up often over the years and the topic has stuck in the back of my mind because it is one of the most challenging for my profession:

“Has your research helped your professional work, specifically with font pairings?”

Yes!

When I taught typography, pairing fonts was a struggle for students. Working as a professional, it’s also one of the things that easily trips people up. It’s hard to do, difficult to teach and tough to know if you’ve nailed it or not. What has worked for me is spending time looking at examples and identifying what I like (or don’t like) about font pairings. Over time, I noticed some themes starting to emerge which I then began documenting.

Wide-format hand-painted sign that reads "Rosenfeld's Bagels. Since 1972. Newton Centre, Mass."

Hand Lettering: Newton, Massachusetts. While in Boston, I visited Newton Centre which is a village within the city of Newton. I stopped in Rosenfeld’s Bagels and this hand painted sign was propped up at the coffee station. There is so much happening with the lettering, I had to document it. The beautifully executed script with a drop shadow that’s punctuated by the end of the ‘s’ which turns into a curl and then an ornamental underline. The yellow tightly kerned serif has the same red drop shadow. The detail of the serifs of the ‘B’ lining up with the top and bottom of the ‘s’ to its left is so beautifully done. These small alignment details make a big difference visually. A third type treatment is brought in for ‘Since 1972’, which isn’t centered, and has too much space between the two words. I’m curious about the spacing around the comma and the extra flourish detail in the ‘M.’ There’s a lot of contrasting type treatments going on with this sign but it’s clear a lot of care went into making it. Sometimes lettering styles that cognitively don’t work, actually find visual success. This sign is an example of that.

I realized I had plenty of content to create a book on the topic of font pairings in the hope that it will help others understand this elusive skill. I have identified five main categories to analyze, which are the chapters of this book: Ghost Signs; Manhole Covers; Hand Lettering; Neon Signs; and Building Signs.

In addition to showing font pairings, I also give historical information where I can. Finding typographic gems while I wander back alleys in cities brings me so much joy — I literally lose track of time — but researching the area, the history of a building or learning the date a sign was created gives me more insight into the background and helps me understand some of the decisions that were made at the time. Over the years, these discoveries have been one of my favorite aspects of the project.

In some instances, I’ll just show the pictures to help enable you to draw your own conclusions about the pairings, and I end each chapter by summarizing the key themes that have emerged and evaluating their pros and cons.

Building Signs: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Although it’s tempting to be drawn to the flashy neon signs that many cities have to offer, this small, modest sign in downtown Oklahoma City serves as a reminder to continue walking, exploring, and staying observant. When I arrived there, I knew my first stop was going to be Stonecloud Brewing Company to see the beautiful neon Sunshine Laundry sign (below) on the roof of the building. While walking there from my hotel, I was crossing Main Street and this small Modern Wheel Alignment sign caught my eye. There is something so whimsical yet simple that makes this sign successful. While this book offers numerous examples of pairing a script with an all caps serif in an effective way, this sign demonstrates how an all caps sans serif complements its accompanying type selection. While ‘wheel’ is big, red and bold, it’s the placement of the script and the personality of the letterforms that make this sign successful. The bold red letters offer the visual anchor to balance the flow of the other two words. Tarver’s is the last name of the owner and placed on a red ribbon that subtly overlaps the ‘M’ without impeding its legibility. The slight curve of the baseline that the word ‘Modern’ sits on is exaggerated with the word ‘Alignment’. It’s interesting that the crossbars of the ‘A’ and ‘t’ don’t connect to their neighboring letter like you usually see in scripts. The bottom connection point of the ‘A’ doesn’t align with the closing loop of the ‘l’ and the descender of the ‘g’ doesn’t loop around and connect to the ‘n’. Lastly, the perfectly oversized tittle adds to the personality of this sign.Tar

Portion of a neon sign set within channel letters and mounted onto a metal framwork on the top of a building. Looked at from above, the frame would form a triangle, with the same lettering reproduced on all three sides for visibility from all angles. From what's visible, it reads "Sunshire Dry-Cleaners" and what appears to be "Drive-In Service".

Neon Signs: Sunshine Laundry, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

A sign board in a window that is crudely painted in red cursive ('Brown's') and black san-serif ('Lock & Safe') letters. There is a wiggly border placed around these, and small pictorials of a padlock and a safe flanking the 'Lock & Safe' lettering.

Hand Lettering: Brown's Lock & Safe, Charlottesville, Virginia.

A lozenge-shaped manhole cover with a big cat's head in the middle. Relief lettering reads "Ford Meter Box Co., Inc. Water Meter. Louisiana".

Manhole Cover: Ford Meter Box Co., Inc, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Culture+Typography: Examples in Font Pairings and Culture+Typography: How Culture Affects Typography can be ordered directly from Nikki Villagomez on her website, or by emailing nikkivillagomez@gmail.com.