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005 FONTSHOP 149 9th Street, Ste 302 1 888 ff fonts toll-free San Francisco 1 415 252 1003 local California 94103 USA www.FontShop.com Font 005 04 legibility letters are the hard-working Mayor Ed Koch called it vandalism; stiffs of our media-based economy. graffiti artists called it art, and, in one They quietly go about their business, of the strangest turns, letters became rarely complain, and almost never the lifeblood of a forgotten urban stray out of line. Organizing is what class. They tagged their way across they’re all about. After countless years all five boroughs, going “all-city” of first talking and then walking, with unconventional letter variations 08 you’d have expected them to form that meant little to the public and a brotherhood, a union, or at least everything to these new kings and a political action committee. But queens of New York. since there’s no lobbyist in sight, eager to advance their cause, we must For this issue of Font, our fifth, we remember that, in their many shapes focus on legibility. Graphic designer and sizes, letters are the unsung and writer Ian Lynam takes us heroes of the everyday. If you can read for a ride on a throwback tour of this, then they’re on the job. graffiti and graf culture. He updates the historic scene with the latest 16 But what happens when a letter innovations and cross-fertilizations, gets hammered on an all-night reminding us that graffiti artists bender, loses a descender in a freak still have the write stuff. Illustrator industrial accident, or, even worse, and jill-of-all-trades Marian Bantjes forgets to take its daily anti-alias contributes once again to Font with a pills and starts hallucinating? Words lighthearted look at the Latin alphabet collapse, meaning becomes distorted, that begs the question: should our 26 and messages fall prey to multiple industrious friends hit the showers interpretations. for a little freshening up? 8UHC That’s what went down three decades Font continues its role as an explor- 22 ago when teenagers battled it out on atory vehicle for letterforms, a superb the streets of New York City – not resource for designers, and a great with knives or guns, but with letters. hangover remedy. We hope that you Rocking to the beat, “b-boys” made will enjoy this issue – we sure had the break world famous, and graffiti fun putting it together. became the city’s cultural calling card. Things got ill – and ill-legible. amos Klausner 30 Editor 04 swatches Fonts and images – steal our concepts or mix your own 08 feature: Ill legIble Traveling the paths of urban pioneers with Ian Lynam 16 new fonts The greatest of the latest 32 22 foundry spotlight Type-Ø-Tones, MVB Fonts, Fountain, and OurType 30 featured distractions Get lost finding new type 32 critique Marian Bantjes reviews the alphabet Graffiti artist daim concentrates on four simple letters to push personal and visual boundaries in his highly stylized three- dimensional writing. More than a name, daim is a tool for experimenting with and exploring form, identity, and space as illustrated in this piece created in Buenos Aires during a 2001 “Graffiti World Tour.” fontshop.com 03 S Dry clean. lined collar. Felt- chest pockets. and flappockets Two front. Three-button JA PINSTRI S Dry clean. grade interlining. hand sewnwithfine silk, 100% French E C S pleats. Machinewash. withtwo Back yoke Subtle cottontexture. VERONA SHIRT this page font foundry image 23211 $350 23987 $80 23445 $145 V HA C ™ ® ENIN ƒstop KET Oranda Bitstream 116.002 MB O G TIE P U E S R G U IT 6 92 71 55 34 font foundry image tsp ™ ® Carousel Elsner+Flake ƒstop 104.021 ¢ 97 43 25 oz lbs % font foundry image ™ ® Inscription ITC ƒstop 115.002 font foundry image ™ ® Aphasia Bitstream ƒstop 115.021 Trees The Through font foundry image ™ ® zeitgeist Monotype ƒstop 010.002 P A font foundry image ™ ® Odin Elsner+Flake R ƒstop 128.011 T Y Boustifaille work DaY font foundry image ™ ® Tokay Elsner+Flake ƒstop 078.007 their onlyhome. first andforemost tures whomsoilis into thosecrea demic discovery grew amoreaca thispassion From things soil-based. obsession inall from anearly of wormsstems the matingrituals Brooks’ interesin font foundry image ™ ® Roice FontFont ƒstop 121.031 - - font foundry image ™ ® Fairfield Linotype ƒstop 068.030 SALE NOW SALE TICKETS ON TICKETS AT HOLLER AT MARCH 8 MARCH PLAYING font foundry image ™ ® Quirinus Monotype Imaging ƒstop 049.033 font foundry image ® ® Relay Font Bureau ƒstop 076.003 to open any surface type. surface openany to element tranquil even and astunning create to to here combined are Basic modernshapes PARLAY font foundry ™ ® Julia Script Elsner+Flake Traveling the Paths of Urban Pioneers by Ian Lynam Graffiti is as old as history itself, evident even at Lascaux, where mystic visions of heaven and earth made their way from hand to wall. The first published accounts of graffiti – pathological studies on prisoners, their tattoos, and marks made on the walls of prison cells – appeared in the 1800s. These early inquiries linked graffiti to theo- ries on criminality and the mental state of murderers, thieves, and other lowlifes – associations that still feed larger social fears. G.H. Luquet’s seminal 1910 textbook on graffiti featured illustrated examples he found in European toilet stalls and army barracks, and focused on obscene imagery, including male and female genitalia, urinating stick figures, and the indisputably classic penis-nose caricature. Legendary provocateur Marcel Duchamp was the first artist to participate in the act of graffiti when, in 1919, he drew a pencil moustache and thin beard on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and titled it L.H.O.O.Q. The letters, when read in French, reveal the inside joke, “She’s got a hot ass.” Duchamp’s act of defacement instantly upgraded graffiti to a viable reac- tionary activity, a critical force for commentary, and – in the case of Duchamp, whose own sexuality was rather ambivalent – an avenue for personal expression. Graffiti proliferated both in the United States and Europe, but it wasn’t until the late 1960s and early 1970s that it developed into a distinct, self-aware sub- culture with roots in the urban centers of New York and Philadelphia. Faced with a political and social dynamic that exploited family, friends, and entire communities, restless teenagers turned to graffiti as a way of bringing attention back to a forgotten class. Not trained as artists, or even highly educated, they forced their messages into the public consciousness using the only tool they could Photographer Martha Cooper captured the evolution of New York City’s graffiti and hip-hop subcultures through the lens of her camera. Her iconic images portray the youth, vitality, and curiosity of pioneering artists in a rapidly expanding and complex society. comfortably exploit – the alphabet. of self-definition in cities that The earliest activists in this renais- were impersonal and undefined. sance called themselves writers. Initially, quantity and having Unlike the obvious political slogan- your work seen (or “getting up”) eering or gang-related proto-graffiti, was the driving engine for the graf these writers communicated with community. But ubiquity became a tags – simple, highly personalized problem – subway cars were filling messages born out of a need for up with tags so fast that space was some measure of recognition. at a premium. Conversely, this was One of the earliest writers, lee 163, an important boost. With limited remembers, “Shit was deep. You opportunity, graffiti artists began had Vietnam and all types of pro- thinking about the best use for tests, the Black Panthers, the Young the uncompromised surfaces they Lords, racism and hatred at a peak, found. Writers learned to modify and brothers and others fighting their tags, creating idiosyncratic inequality and dying trying to put marks infused with creativity and a stop to it. The odds were against character that stood out among you. You can’t be unaffected by all the growing visual clutter. of that.” Unknowingly, the work of lee 163 and others bridged a Regardless of its underlying social widening gap between the haves message, the public continued to and the have-nots, and redefined see graffiti not as an effect, but as our understanding of letterforms as the cause of social ills, and it was to a tool for mass communication. be fought at every turn. Penalties for offenders were quickly increased Tags began appearing in crowded and barbed wire fences erected urban projects and throughout around train yards. For pioneering high-traffic public transit systems. writers, the act of vandalism and Hand lettered with permanent its inherent rush were not enough markers, they became omnipresent, to sustain their enthusiasm and filling the inside walls of subway participation. Older now, they had cars in a dense tapestry of ink. On the responsibilities that come with the outside, spray paint covered age. Within a few years, many of the cars from top to bottom. It was rebirth writers dropped out of the authentic and expressive; an act scene. It was – and remained – a These tags, both historic (dondi and taki 183) and contemporary (twist, cope, and rime), show how calligraphic variation allows writers to create personal identities that are shared 10 Font 005 throughout the urban landscape. kids’ game, and there was no dearth of young talent. that, in only 30 years, original styles have morphed and New blood only increased tensions in the graffiti commu- multiplied into a global kaleidoscope. That speed, along nity, pitting speed against style; the first was necessary with the anonymity that must go hand in hand with for completing the more elaborate throw-ups and pieces vandalizing private property, has left us with a rather (short for masterpieces) without getting caught, with the undefined history of modern graffiti.

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