When one isn’t trying to think of the perfect after party play list that pleases absolutely every red blooded person on the planet, one is seeking refuge in type.

The Exeter Hotel is one of the many landmark public houses in CBD Adelaide – One can have a parmagana with an $849 bottle shiraz. The public bar stands as it has since the last renovation for a hundred years – a long room, modest timber finishes, with a long bar and high ceilings – not a white on white fit out in sight. So to stands a history of much of the venacular type. While many cities mow down their obscure type history, in Adelaide it is kept in tact, at least till it’s relevance is discussed at a community level – let’s not forget this is the Australian state that was the first to grant indigenous and woman the right to vote. In the long bar one designer’s interpretation of a local beer brand is allowed to stand next to it’s former incarnation – please enjoy David Lancashire’s interpretation of the Southwark brand in the 1980s completed entirely as a piece of hand lettering. Then there is the Exeter Window lettering, the cross bar of the ‘E’s, is strangely enforced in the ‘H’. One wonders (as only a type nerd can) if the hand letterer made this touch of a whim; on the spot of hand lettering the piece, or was it a design drafted in the weeks, or days before?

Then there is that curious font used for the the recent AGDA National Design Awards developed by Voice studio in Adelaide and it’s inspiration… The Adelaide Produce Exchange facade lettering on Grenfell Street, Adelaide. The word Exchange is a glorious sample of eccentric type design at it’s most individual.

Andrew spent a few days last week as one of the guest speakers at the Symposia conference held in Wagga Wagga in southern New South Wales. One of the other speakers at the conference was Tasmanian based artist Justy Phillips.

Phillips is a native of Great Britain now based in Hobart Tasmania, who lectures at the Design Faculty at the University of Tasmania. In 2006, along with artist James Newitt, Phillips dreamed up a unique community project – write/here. The project is a special event that combines conceptual thinking, research, writing, graphic design, along with fund raising, planning, the fine art of diplomacy and hundreds of hours of old fashioned persistence.

In April 2007, all the major advertising billboard sites in Hobart’s CBD, twenty seven spaces, were taken over by splashes of red with white type, dressed with the thoughts and impressions from residents of Hobart. The write/here project took Hobart by storm for 10 days, during the Ten Days on the Island festival. The event changed the way locals of thought about the community, divided and brought together public opinion and revealed the impact of advertising in the public space.

Phillips and Newitt has captured this extraordinary project in a splendid publication that documents the intent right through to the making. Visit write/here for your copy.

The advent of shopping destinations and households having ready access to cars has seen the decline of local shopping precincts. Derby Road, Caulfield East is one of the many roads in Melbourne that have seen busier days. There are signs that this deserted shopping strip was once a vibrant place. Many shop fronts are now empty, and buildings that once were banks and hardware stores are now occupied by services — accountants, lawyers and architects — that typically use office space rather than street frontage to display products, produce and wares. One of the surviving stores in this precinct is the newsagent with a fine sample of signwriting on its northern wall. The type with its leaf like flourishes, smells of Art Nouveau styling which possibly dates the work around early 1900s. Yet the seven digit telephone number does bring into question whether this piece has enjoyed a little loving restoration. If there is a type nerd lurking out there that can fill in the gaps, a comment or two is beckoning.

For the design students at studying at Monash it is a five minute walk away. See location here

The trade of fine hand rendered sign writing in 2008 is rare. Sign writing is a vocation now littered trashy work, being superseded by vinyl letter cutting machines. As older businesses reinvent themselves, or close, examples of hand rendered sign writing are a disappearing from the street scape.

In the meantime enjoy this fine script and san serif found on Centre Road in Bentleigh.

As this space enjoys a segue, or two, from time to time, the MetaDesign SF post prompted one to bring to light another project developed by Metadesign’s founder Erik Spiekermann. Meta offices can be found in several corners of the globe, outputting works that include information design, brand, signing, packaging design and type design. Erik Spiekermann during his Metadesign period was responsible for the design of the Meta type family, among other fonts.

Meta, the font that is, along with the Rotis family of typefaces was one of the most popular fonts used by designers in the 1990s. Many projects requiring a “design” look and feel often used Meta or Rotis at the time. That was until Helvetica Neue Light, Swiss and Din Schriften family pulled on the boxing gloves in the mid 1990s and slugged for their share of the designer space too. One recalls Dr Anthony Calahan’s excellent PhD thesis titled: Type, trends and fashion: A study of the late 20th century proliferation of typefaces, references these type heavy weights.

Andrew had the pleasure of visiting Meta’s offices in Berlin; an impressive studio that had a boardroom large enough to accommodate around 100 people (attested by the AGI congress in 2005). During Andrew’s web trawling, researching Berlin and design related topics, he came across a free font in one weight designed by Erik Spiekermann (now CEO at SpiekermannPartners), – called FF Mt.

FF Mt is one many fonts that pushes the fundamental design elements of type readability. Spiekermann on his blog states – this font is an exercise in saving space – because it ignores the vowels when entering text. One can force a vowel, if necessary, by using the capitals – which is a complete alphabet. One is grateful that such exploration exists, even though at this time one doesn’t feel compelled to use it. It reminds one of Wim Crouwel’s new alphabet, and it presence will invite other type designers to better the experience in the future.

FF Mt is a free font, so give it a go, it is curious, and as Erik states in his web log – Save space! for yourself. Download FF Mt from here

Visit SpiekermannPartners here

Visit Erik Spiekermann’s web log here (like all good Euro sites it is at least bi-lingual)

Visit a Dutch bio of Wim Crouwel here

Visit Dr Anthony Calahan’s website here