hello ~
I took a voyage to the Diſtrict of Columbia and decided to conſtruct a collection of photographs of intereſting typography I ſee. Almoſt all of the photographs are from muſeums in Waſhington, D.C.; I avoided taking photographs of brand logos and things like that ſince thoſe brands appear all over the world. I have included which muſeum I took the photo from below the photo, though I am not entirely ſure all the captions are correct. Alſo, I have decided to uſe the medial s in this poſt as I am obſessed with it after ſeeing it being uſed in old documents at the National Archives (moſt notably in the Conſtitution of the United States).
The Library of Congreſs has quite pretty branding; they uſe this groteſque ſans ſerif in everything. The “S” has attractive angles inſtead of curves as the letter turns which look very pretty. This font alſo appears to have little to no contrast, but the “N”‘s ſtroke is quite a bit thinner than the reſt of the letter, which I find very odd but nice.
There are lots of Gothic typefaces around muſeums in Waſhington, D.C. as many things there are very old. Alack, I have only two or three Gothic fonts in my collection; however, this does not bother me ſince I find they all look very ſimilar and unreadable. The font choſen here is relatively ſimple, and I aſsume a ſimpler Gothic font was uſed ſo modern-day people can actually read what the header ſays; Gothic typefaces can get pretty complicated.
Theſe books are part of Thomas Jefferſon’s library at the Library of Congreſs. I thought the “La Philosophie De La Nature” title was quite intereſting ſince its tracking is different for each line of text.
The ſerif font above is rather normal, but I had to take a photograph of it for the hyphen. It is thicker on the left ſide and thinner on the right; I like the way this looks a lot.
Letters that are caſt to be three-dimenſional as oppoſed to printed to be two-dimenſional ſeem to have ſlightly uneven ſhapes. The “R” in “fire” has a little gap where the bowl and the ſtroke come together to meet the ſtem, while the “R” at the end of “extinguisher” has no gap. I think this unevenneſs is quite adorable.
This geometric ſans ſerif is mostly not very unique, but I took a photograph of this font becauſe of the very unique “K” at the beginning of the ſign. I have never ſeen a “K” like this, and I like the way it looks; I ſtarted writing my “K”‘s like this (though I think I am going to ſtop, for it looks a tad too grand for my handwriting and it takes quite a bit longer to write).
This typeface is very elegant. I aſsume both of the fonts are from the ſame typeface, but I do not know for ſure. I like the way the different weights are put together as it makes the text look leſs boring and more modern.
Again I am featuring a rather normal ſerif font; however, the “R” has a very intereſting ſtroke, ſo I had to take a photograph. The ſtroke has a little round cut into it, so the top part of the ſtroke where it meets the bowl is thinner than the reſt of it.
Alas, the paint was ſcratched off of the terminal of the “3,” but that does not matter much becauſe I was mainly adding this font to my collection because of the “5.” It has a beautiful wavy top and a stupendous terminal that looks sophisticated and dramatic.
Now, I would not call this font pretty, but it was too odd not to add to my collection. (I think its ſlight uglineſs comes from the colors it is in.) All the corners, curves, and points make the text very eye-catching.
The unevenneſs of the ſerif is very beautiful. The ſerifs are quite round, which makes the font look rather modern. Alſo, I love ligatures, and this font has one; ’tis thoſe two “t”‘s that are connected. Additionally, we muſt not overlook the fern; that leaf is delightful.
All of theſe fonts are wonderfully art deco.
This ſerif is ſo pretty. It has juſt the right amount of contraſt in it and the hyphens are very intereſting. They are tilted; I do not uſually ſee tilted hyphens.
This geometric ſans ſerif is–after a quick Google ſearch–very 1960s style.
The low bar on the “A” and the high bar on the “E” very art deco. It alſo has intereſting rounded corners. The typewriter font at the bottom is also quite nice.
This font has nice angles all over it; I eſpecially like how they are uneven and do not appear to be carefully meaſured.
Serif numbers with large terminals are always fantaſtic. I find it intereſting that the “9” deſcends inſtead of ſits on the baſeline; next to a “g” this could be confuſing.
This is one of my favorites in the collection; the font is quite eccentric and the colors are very pleaſing. I like how the lines that create the text ſhadow ſometimes meet the letter and ſometimes does not.
The curly parts of the title are really intereſting. I particularly like the “A” because its bar has a nice dip in the center and ſwirls on the ſide.
The Waſhington Dulles International Airport used this very modern and technology-eſque font for much of the text there. Uſually, airports uſe rather boring typefaces, ſo I liked ſeeing this one. They alſo uſed a red-orange color, similar to the Library of Congreſs’.
I hope you enjoyed ſeeing ſome of the typefaces I collected in the Diſtrict of Columbia. This is only twenty out of my thirty-ſix photos in my collection; the poſt was getting too long and I thought it was going to be boring. I alſo hope the medial s was enjoyable; I definitely enjoyed uſing it. Thanks for reading and happy medial s!
Whimsical Watercolor 