How awesome are these bike racks? I took the picture in downtown Cleveland and thought the giant metal letters was such a clever solution (of course I did)…who doesn’t love giant letters that serve a purpose?! While in Syracuse, I thought of Cleveland’s clever bike rack when I stumbled upon the cool bike above and this right behind it:
It’s little details like this that give the city such a fun vibe.
a blog about how culture can affect typography
Archives for posts with tag: cleveland
This past fall, I spent a good portion of a day off of work to walk around Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, Ohio. I was so blown away by the size of the cemetery and how old the graves are but this is one of my favorite pictures from that day. It’s one of my favorite manhole pictures I have taken.
I love how, like a lot of the manholes in Cleveland say Cleveland, O. That crazy design in the middle and the wear and tear on this cover makes for a killer design. But this…THIS:
All I can say is {O}M’F'G.
While walking around downtown Orlando, I crossed a street and this brick caught my eye. I thought it was neat how the brick was stamped with the company name. It reminded me of the bricks I saw while walking around downtown Cleveland. I love how they are specific to the area.
See any brick type in your city? Take a picture and tweet it to me @nikki_vz to be featured in an upcoming post!
How awesome are these signs?! Big thanks to my buddy Scott Johnson for sharing his picture taken in Cleveland. The minute he posted this picture I just fell in love with it. It never ceases to amaze me how much character is in a hand painted sign like this. Throw in what the weather has done to it and the awesome brick work surrounding it and I’m pretty much in heaven.
I took the picture in San Antonio through a windshield. We were stopped at a red light and this sign just grabbed my attention. It’s hard for me to look at the letters in the word Entertainment and not think that the t is having so much fun he knocked the e right off the board! That must be some home entertainment center.
Today’s post is a collection of pictures of typography using tile that I have found and a few that have been shared with me. What I love about tile typography is how much character is evoked just from how the tile is set…and of course the way punctuation is handled. Enjoy!
Cincinnati, OH:
Cleveland, OH:
Orlando, FL:
San Antonio, TX:
This is on the floor at the entrance to Schilo’s:
This is hanging over the door:
This is the sign in front of the store:
Sioux Falls, SD:
Thanks to my buddy Mårten Thavenius for sharing this picture he took in Prague, Czech Republic: 
Thanks to Shauna Panczyszyn for sharing these next two pictures. This one is taken in Naples, Italy:
And this one is taken in Rome, Italy:
See any tile typography in your city? Take a picture and tweet it to me @nikki_vz!
Synergy: the interaction of multiple elements in a system to produce an effect different from or greater than the sum of their individual effects.
B Spot is a restaurant in Cleveland. Artpace is an art gallery in San Antonio.
I think the typography that is created in both instances are so interesting.
The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
–Aristotle
I thought these two plaques were really interesting. Big thanks to Josh Holland for sharing his picture taken in Mobile, Alabama that was posted on his instagram @visualcriminal feed. I love the leaf shape and the creative curves the letters take. If this is any indication of the type of work they do, I would think they are very friendly and pay great attention to detail. The contractor’s plaque in Fredericksburg isn’t handled as gracefully or with as much character, but it’s also done really well. I would think they come in, they get their work done, and then they leave. No messing around, no chit chat. This is how it looked as I was walking by. Not very noticeable at all:
Another picture just to compare is this one taken in Cleveland, Ohio at the base of a lamp post set in concrete:
Kind of a merging of the two, friendly but all business.
Manhole Monday in full effect!
I feel like with every trip I go on, new life gets breathed into my blog. I’m really forced to look at my surroundings in a new way. The trips I take for my speaking engagements are quick (I’m gone for 1 night) so I make the most of the time that I have and really take in all the typography around me. From beginning (literally, in the airport) to end, I’m in full blown typography mode (it’s as awesome as it sounds). It’s all consuming and I love it. I’ve got my iPhone in one hand and my camera in the other documenting typographic goodness.
I had the amazing opportunity to travel to San Antonio, Texas last week and was (once again) blown away at how their cultural influences affect the typographic choices that are made. There was a large amount of beautifully hand crafted lettering on the sides of buildings and signs and an equally large amount of businesses named for the Alamo. Like, everything. Even the manhole covers!
My favorite thing about this pairing is that you won’t see either of these manhole covers anywhere else in the world except for the city they are located in. I love that the bottom of the manhole from Cleveland says Cleveland O. No punctuation. No H after the O. It’s just Cleveland O. Obviously the name Alamo Iron Works caught my eye since it is specific to San Antonio but also the beautiful square pattern. I thought it was interesting that these two covers located in two very different cities shared the squares.
San Antonio definitely has a vibe and I tried to capture it in the (several hundred) pictures I took. I’m really looking forward to using them in upcoming posts.
As always, tweet me pictures @nikki_vz that you come across that are specific to your typographic landscape and I’ll use ‘em!
