I’m starting to feel magpie-esque because my typography examples are coming from objects I took from places. These coasters were taken from Jack Astor’s on two separate occasions. Mind you, despite the fact that my last entry was of a matchbook that I picked up at a bar and it was hideously designed, I’m not in the habit of keeping random items. Now that I am actually thinking of why I chose to keep those coasters let alone pin it up on my bulletin board, I have to conclude that it is a successful bit of design, even for something as insignificant as a coaster. It’s a black circle with two words that form a cryptic, vaguely general message in a font that is rough and grungy (kind of like the restaurant itself). The font has the scratched, handwritten quality to it that relates to Jack Astor’s whole ‘writing on the table with crayons because it’s cool’ deal that they have going on but the design is still clean enough that it stands out from it. The little messages on the coasters reminds me of an eight ball in the sense that you can be in any situation, and the coaster could somehow provide some meaning to some aspect of your life. Really, people know that it has no real relevance or connection but it is still something we like to believe is specific to us and it is a sign of something greater than ourselves. The font gives the messages a genuine, raw feeling because of the roughly scratched quality of the letters. I wonder if there was conscious effort to create the messages so that they could be arranged into longer messages or if it was just a happy coincidence.
Submitted by: Teri Yeung
No comments:
Post a Comment