Sticker Shock

I’m in Boston this weekend, and yesterday I found myself right next door to the ICA with a few spare minutes. Not enough time to look at art, but just enough, to case the gift shop.

I immediately zeroed in on a bag, which I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to resist. It was printed with overlapping price stickers of all kinds. How well I know those encrustations of stickers, the ones that accumulate on assorted kitchen surfaces, or seem to grow on various notebook pages. And those big neon orange ones emblazoned with 99¢--I always have to save those. Well, restraining myself was not the least bit difficult (and it’s a good thing that I am not at a loss for bags) because the price of this “shopper” was $99.99! The sign next to the bag said “$hopping Bag” Created by ICA exhibited artist Rachel Perry Welty. Edition of 999. Signed and numbered by the artist."

I’m seeing a DIY project in my future …

It's Mr. Lucky's Day

It was just around now, early April, that I took a trip to Arizona, a few years back. I shot lots of great signs around Phoenix, but those will have to wait for another day. I’m afraid this post belongs to Mr. Lucky’s.

Everyday Richness

This extraordinary “252” on the otherwise completely ordinary building caught my eye. I figured that while I had my camera out, I’d snap my way down the rest of the block.



















And this is just one side of the street.

Typographic Triangulation

Felt pennants with names of colleges or sports teams are what come to mind when I think of graduated type set within a triangle. I have no idea if the ‘pennant’ was ever a popular format for signs, but since there are only two examples in Manhattan that I know of, it’s clearly not very common today.
The 35th St. vintage metal awning of The New Yorker Hotel is one, with thin, art deco-style letters, set against a black background.

The other is a Laundromat on West 79th St. with black mod/deco letters on bright yellow.

Last year I saw some triangular Kiosco awnings in Buenos Aires.


I just want to add here that the graduated lettering on the metal awning is only one of several type styles to be found on the structure of the New Yorker Hotel. I have no doubt that a good sleuth could find enough typographic evidence to piece together the building’s entire 80-year history.

Unscratched Lottery Cards: I Love My Life The Way It Is

Israeli lottery cards.
Eight years ago Ali Alvarez of the UK committed a willful act of defiant anticapitalism--she did not scratch a scratch-off lottery card. And she’s been not scratching ever since.

In her own words ...

There's something about the whole lottery thing that doesn't feel right to me - getting your hopes high, dreaming, escaping, and then usually being let down.

This happens to me on a daily basis WITHOUT the lottery's help, muchas gracias. So as an experiment, I started buying scratch cards and not scratching them.

It felt funny.

Then I showed it to a few people. It made them feel funny.

It made me think... "I think I'm onto something here."

I couldn't agree more. Such a simple concept—she doesn’t even do anything—and yet, so subversive.

Ali hopes to amass 8,000 tickets—enough to fill a 12 x12 foot space, floor to ceiling, as an art installation. Folks have been sending her scratch-off lottery cards from all over the world, and wouldn't you know, cheesy lottery design is, for the most part, universal. There are a few standouts, however, that have a bit of regional differentiation …


Lithuania

Australia

New York

Canada

Switzerland

Stockholm

UK

Barcelona

Zurich

Oslo

Lisbon

UK

Louisiana

Texas

Check out 'I Love My Life the Way it is'to see where you can send Ali cool lottery cards for her to leave unscratched.

Just My Type 2

These three images ended up somehow in the same folder. I kind of like them together!
POULTRY: Serving dish from the Etsy site Blue Bell Bazaar. It's from a while back and seems to have been sold.

COTE D'AZUR: Book of views from a German bookseller. Also from a while back and gone now.

STOP: Jersey Street, behind the Puck Building in NYC. I believe the street is only two blocks long. It goes from Crosby St., across Lafayette, and ends at Mulberry St. It really is more like an alley than a full fledged street.


The first Just My Type post

Floating Identities

I passed a marina the other day here on the East Coast and was disappointed to see names like ‘Great Escape’ and ‘Mr. Chips.’ What a let down after the brash self-branding I found myself documenting in Southern California a while back …