Tazo Tea

Today, I have officially been working at Starbucks for one year so to mark the day, I have decided to do an entry on the typographic treatment of the tea packaging that we sell in the store. I’ve always been attracted to the design for the Tazo Tea Company because of it’s otherwordly, ancient feel and the romanticized little stories on the side of the box. The typography treatment is very elegant and somehow combines what is hip and modern with romantic antiquity. The logo of the company name ‘TAZO’ is clearly a tailored font where the letterforms are made to resemble religious symbols that cannot be pinned to one country or another on a background that makes the letters appear to be carved into woodcut. The packaging is so well done that while doing research I discovered that companies decided to carry the tea brand without even trying out the tea. I also discovered that the whole romantic history of Tazo tea being found on a ‘tazo stone’ (that their identity design is supposedly based on) and being blended with ingredients found all over the world is as manufactured as the packaging. I find it interesting that usually if something is being advertised then when finding out that what you’re being sold is false in some way, that is a deal breaker and you usually stop buying the product but with Tazo tea, even when presented with the truth, the packaging and type treatment some how convinces you otherwise. Even the company name ‘Tazo’ has an elaborate history and the site claims the word to mean ‘river of life’ that sounds so believable but is in fact completely manufactured. The handwritten script on the tea bags along with the woodcut texture, the symbolic font choice and other ancient motifs that have been infused into the packaging of Tazo Tea creates a convincing identity for the company that persuades clients to believe their truth.

Submitted by: Teri Yeung

This was taken in an small village in Mexico. Next to the sea, a large outcropping was made accessible with a paved path, allowing people to stroll through. One of the walls had this message: Dirty places don't exist .. we make them. I suppose the writer means to say that dirty places don't exist naturally. The graffiti was limited to man-made structures leaving the surrounding nature unscathed. I had some idea of what this meant - the word existe evokes a philosophical ideology that made the message seem somehow profound - text found in the absence of any other linguistic message becomes that much more profound. It's the presence of text in a place where you expect to find none that inspired me to take this photo, the linguistic message was secondary in its importance.

Graff Ally / Tagg

I spotted this while walking in graffiti ally (Spadina & Richmond / Queen). Between all the tags, these few on the yellow posts stood out to me. Compositionally wise, there spread out, very simple and clean, and so far dominate in perspective, behind in front of the actual wall. The color pallet is interesting, yellow and a vibrant blue, which I really am attracted to. It’s boggling who wrote those, what their style is and where their influences and inspirations came from.

The above is an embossed/engraving of the word “SPOON.” It is an engraving on curved aluminum surface for one of PHAIDON books about industrial design.
The typeface is a squarish and relatively narrow-set sans-serif. It is tracked very far apart and takes a very strong pressence on the plane as it is the only element present on the front cover panel. The stem of the P and the two O’s form a ‘100’, denoting the book’s contents of the 100 best examples of Industrial Design works. Most of the content inside, as well as the typography is minimalistic and heavily ladened with modernist influences since a great deal of the work featured in the book are derived from the era. Hence we have a cold, sterile, sparse aluminum cover.
The seemingly ambiguous title, it’s “designy” look connote that the treatment of the cover, title and it’s name serve the book’s purpose not only as a showcase of work, but as a conversation piece found atop coffee tables. The word spoon, its lustrous surroundings are screaming for attention amidst it’s minimalist aesthetics.

—Brian Gerard Elicierto

Joncheres Lexicon

This is from a French-Swedish dictionary from 1809 that I found in my family's storage space. It's format is 4"x4"x1.5" and is printed on very thin bible paper. Its now falling apart, so I thought I'd document a part of it for people to see. The title is set in what was the traditional way of setting headlines back then which is in a larger size and tracked out to a large degree. This was before bold faces took over as the primary way of showing something of importance. You also have a decorative ornament which is something you only see nowadays when someone is (perhaps) ironically referencing this period of typography.

I noticed immediately the crudeness of the typesetting, as it was obviously set by hand. The mechanical straightness of the machine isn't shown, but this makes it a more interesting thing to behold, because all the inconsistencies make it charming. Notice how the French words are set in a garaldic serif face and those in Swedish are set in a fraktur font. These days the gothic typeface would probably be replaced with a legible sans serif instead. But its also funny because it says something about the differing cultures. French, with its own Garamond, and Swedish with a more northern European style like the blackletter.

-Colin

ICH KONSUIMIERE ALSO BINICH!?!

ICH KONSUIMIERE ALSO BINICH!?!

While I don't understand what this says, it seems vaguely profane. Whoever wrote it probably used a boat and planned out the vandalism beforehand. The letters follow some of the geometrics of the stones behind them, giving the type a more rigid feel despite its execution being fairly rushed and sloppy. The type juxtaposes itself with its surroundings – the words feel as if they’re relatively new whereas the wall and the buildings behind it seem more dated and typically European.

Displaying type like this normally connotes messages that might not be published through other means – often they are counter-culture statements that are not normally accepted by mainstream society. The artists are forced to rely on other means to convey their feelings, and are often very creative when doing so.

Bulthaup

Bulthaup is a modern kitchen cabinet manufacturer located on king east. They are simple beautiful designs and are tailored towards different individuals. Designs are geared towards the needs of a changing society and architecture. The image being displayed is their brand logo glazed on the front entrance doors of their retail store, it is a typeface tailored to meet their brand, a very simple sans serif. The context bulthaup applies to their branding on the front door is very slick and sheik, you are able to see through the panel of glass but the bright white brand controls your eye and really controls the segway into the store.

- m kingsborough

Bus signs

I was on the bus and took a picture. I thought it was quite funny the way they treated the typography: “move to the back PLEASE” and “Thank you for moving back”. The change in type size and weight makes the first one comical, especially when the viewer knows the actual purpose of it is to make the reader obey. It actually comes across sounding desperate and urgent which can be effective in a way. As for the other one, it’s also quite amusing because the abrupt change from sans serif ‘for moving back‘ to the script font for ‘thank you’. Such a change is unnatural in tone and the overstatement of the obvious makes it sound cheesy and even insincere. Its like the word ‘Thank you’ itself doesn’t cut it, but it must be stated in script for people to appreciate its meaning.

- Sally

This is a scan of a hand-rendered “F-01” I sketched.
Medium: pencil and marker on grid paper.

I wanted to mix the styles of illuminated manuscripts and flourished capitals with my graffiti style. The idea first occurred to me by seeing black letter type and how it is used a lot in Hip Hop culture especially in the west coast and in Breakin' (break dance) culture. The qualities that inspired me the most about flourished capitals are the quality lines and shapes you can get. The grid helped me getting some nice vertical and horizontal lines. I also felt being too strict with the grid restricted the style I wanted to achieve. This is a dominant funky f.

The above is a scan of a Japanese Newspaper: Asahi Shimbum. This piece of typography was chosen specifically because of its relation to readings from Week 4. Not knowing how to read the characters on the page, the message behind the text is almost meaningless had it not been for the juxtaposition with photography, advertisements at the bottom and the familiarity with the look and feel of newspapers.

Rhythms that exist on the page seem predominantly vertical reading from top-down assuming you are seeing this from western eyes. Stories or segments of text are divided and seperated by thin rules making the reading feel like modular boxes that fit into a jig-saw puzzle. The busy layout and volumn of information makes little distinctions to hierarchy and pacing. The density of characers and tight (leading?) has allusions to primitive engravings on the rosetta stone.

The very alien feeling that a westerner gets from reading a text such as this is one of overwhelming, confusion, and fascination.

—Brian Gerard Elicierto

Wes Wilson & the Psychdelic Poster Movement

During the 1960s, a poster craze emerged due to the climate of social activism that was occurring. Posters were more often hung on apartment walls that outdoors as ways of stating one’s political views. The media and the general public associated the posters that emerged at the time with antiestablishment values, rock music and drugs therefore the posters were labeled psychedelic posters. Many of the artists that were involved in the poster movement were largely self-taught and had clients that were rock-and-roll dance promoters. Thus the posters reflected the dances that they advertised in terms of the swirling letterforms that were warped to the point of illegibility and done in bright contrasting colours. I chose to highlight Robert ‘Wes’ Wilson as he has been referred to as the godfather of psychedelic poster art and is considered the innovator of the style. I find that I have to really focus if I want to read the actual text in the poster but I’m very drawn to the graphic treatment of the text. The way the text has been set, it becomes part of the visual, the pictures so that you can appreciate the poster as a whole with the swirls and colours. It seems that the lettering is very true to the times in the sense that if a person were to take some psychedelic drugs, that’s what the wording would look like. The time is also one of rebellion against government and conventions that restrict. The lettering defies the legibility rule of typography completely and is more focused on the aesthetic quality.

Submitted by: Teri Yeung

Black Orchid

This typographic illustration was found in a July/August 2005 copy of Tokion, which was called the Do It Yourself issue. The typeface is seen throughout the issue but in this case appears to be customized. There is no information given about the font or its designer, and to my knowledge it was only used in this issue. The title "Black Orchid" is given to the fashion spread that proceeds it, which is made up of b&w photographs of a model wearing black and white clothing. The connotation is obviously goth. The type is very ornamental complete with flourishes and repeating loops. It has an embroidery feel but is much too clean and mechanical to be akin to the Arts & Crafts movement. It is placed at the centre of the page which gives a feeling that it speaks for itself and doesn't need to be part of an over-designed composition. Probably because it is over-designed itself, anything added to it would ruin it's delicateness. The uses of crosses are abundant in this typeface, even the lowercase "i" is dotted with one, so I assume it has religious undertones. Perhaps its intricacies mirrors the way monks used to devote themselves to penning handmade books, and so the designer, a devout typographer, came up with their own version of this.

-Colin

BUSH

BUSH

Andrew Lewis Design

While each part of this poster is geometrically and typographically simple, the connotative meaning runs much deeper. The red letters, symbolizing blood, and the black symbolizing oil, the poster serves as a commentary stating that the US’ desire for fuel is destroying the country itself. The type is a large, simple, sans serif easily read from a distance. The colours are simple and bold. In no way is this poster supposed to be subtle. Rather, it seems to have arisen out of a rushed frustration due to the current political climate and the designer’s inability to directly affect it.

Graffiti Alley

Around the world authorities struggle to protect public and private property from teenagers armed with aerosol cans. It's usually their names that they are writing, tags, bombs, throw-ups, wildstyle - there are several different terms for differing styles, but it's all about the name, and trains and freight cars are the best because your tag moves around the city or across the country for everyone to see - a mobile gallery displaying your name, your style your art.

Toronto opted to convert 2 kilometers of back alleys between Queen/Richmond, from Bathurst to Spadina into what we now know as Graffiti Alley, where every year Style in Progress (SIP), a Toronto, not for profit organization holds a two-day paint-fest, allowing artists the time and freedom to create dazzling work. If you visit Graffiti Alley occasionally, you’ll notice that these intricate murals stay intact for a particularly long time, that’s because graffiti artists have a code of conduct (or perhaps it’s more of a guideline), but essentially, what “the code” states is that it is bad form to “write” over someone else’s work, which is pretty cool.

This particular work is no better or worse than any other in the alley. What makes the alley look so awesome is that we become encased in graffiti, every crossroad is particularly intense since it feels more like you've walked into a gallery installation rather than a ratty back alley.

Angela

-S. chikoski

Drink Label

This past weekend I was helping clean out a 50 year old house. An old house with 20+ year old dust, and belongings which date beyond even that. Belongings that i couldn't help but deem as treasure. So i couldn't help but keep a few of them. One of which was an old tube used to hold drawings. On it was a lost and found of old stickers and labels.

Keeping with some of the recent readings, i set out in search of some cliche typography. Then I found this old alcoholic-beverage label for "Labatt's Velvet Cream Porter". Having been of a reasonable age, I decided to compare it to some more contemporary bottles of brew. What i observed was the still constant use of italic, calligraphic, serif type. Used often for words like "Lager", to suggest a sophistication or elegance. Often seen along side an assortment of styles, this cliche style is used to emphasis certain words. It allows use to conjure up classic connotations of tradition, that only a such a cliche can get across. So it's often used with little second thought, and is widely acknowledged. The type draws alot from its historical background and past use.

An example of how effective cliches can be, and how some are effortlessly planted in communication.

- Phil Roberto

handmade

This image was found on the storefront on LUSH on queen st. The store sells handmade soaps and cosmetics. This typeface implys handcraft because it is does not have a strict structure. I'm not sure what the name of the typeface is, but it is clear that it has been altered when you compare the 'A's' and the 'D's'. The designer has gone further than just using an organic type, and has made it look less like a digital typeface by differentiating repetitive letters; this is carried through their advertisements as well. Along with connoting handcraft, this typeface also gives the store a trendy personality in a very artistic and fashion conscious area. It's carefree, fun and laid back, like the customers they are targeting. It's a gimic to make a soap store chain seem more like an independant family business; the idea that they are someone you can trust in a world where we are very cynical to many store chains. LUSH has a strong environmental standing, natural products and natural looking type and just a few ways for them to build their persona.

Volkswagon Logo

I’ve always liked the logo design for the Volkswagon company. To me, the font looks so perfectly geometrical, like it was done by a perfectionist. I guess the font could be Futura but then again I’m not particular adept in ascertaining or distinguishing one font from another. I’m not particularly interested in cars but this logo stands out to me when grouped with numerous other automobile logo designs because of all the cultural connotations that come to mind. I connect the perfectionist symmetry of the design with the rigid, strict Nazi regime headed by Hitler. It was if he wanted the polished design of the Volkswagon logo to parallel his concept of the Arians being the superior race. Because of the VW connection with Hitler, naturally there is a feeling of distaste but at the same time, I remember reading in history class how the production of the Volkswagon created countless jobs for the Germans, boasting not only national morale but the economy which was a smart move on Hitler’s part (but in the end, not so good for the rest of the world). I took the picture so that the logo shone in the light to emphasize the perfectionist aspects that the logo connotes but cropped it so that it was off-center and unbalanced that was at odds with the perfect symmetry that the ‘V’ and ‘W’ make stacked on top of each other.

Submitted by: Teri Yeung

The word as shown can be found at the OCAD Bookstore.Painted as a light gray varnish against an eggshell finished cool white, the message’s superficial wishes for the reader is amplified by the widely tracked helvetica that reads from the top-down. In a culture versed in the paradigm that good is up and bad means down, the trajectory of the word contradicts its wishes. The banal use of the typeface it is set in only further solidifies the idea that people have become so ambivalent to being bombarded with meaningless messages that this piece of type is really just an addition to the white noise we come across in our day-to-day lives.
Set in gray, subtlety is not appropriate if this word actually has any intention of meaning anything for anyone. Yet it’s relatively large size and prominence across the side of the door is an effort towards prominence but only to be contravened by the cowardice presence of its colour. This is the sort of message that invokes from many a reader to ask—what’s the point?

—Brian Gerard Elicierto

Type stuff

(click on images to see larger version)

I was doing some research and thought that these were really good examples of expressive type. What is interesting is that even though we can’t read a lot of this stuff, the type still elicits strong impressions. This is a no-brainer - but to see such good examples is inspiring. I particularly like the use of type as part of the image i.e. incorporating letters as elements that help structure a photograph. Use of curved, fleeting and wispy type also speaks effectively, as if to say, “read it if you like, but I’m not going to say anything important” It’s difficult not to read type, but when the author dares me not to read it, I somehow feel more compelled to do so. Same with tiny type, it’s a pain to read it, but I feel like I am missing something if I don’t, or that it’s a piece of a riddle for me to solve.

Angela