There are several images online of this alphabet but they all seem to be dated 1958. By the way, note that George’s alphabet has alternate letters, including a reverse-3 style E. It may be the basis for a typeface, but it is not a typeface in itself. An alphabet is just a static arrangement of letters. The difference is that the typefaces, unlike alphabets, are composed of individual letters that, having been mass produced, can be assembled, rearranged, dissembled and reassembled to form innumerably different messages. George’s Cut-In Display Gothic is an alphabet-Art Chantry’s claim to the contrary-while the letters on the school are a typeface. The big questions are who made the metal letters and when? In fact, it seems as if the fabricators of the metal letters actually improved George’s design. However, close inspection of the metal letters on the school facade reveals that they are not identical to George’s alphabet. The counters are wider the crossbars of A, H, and E are lower and the S is curvier and closer in design to the C and G. The date of 1938 confirmed Dermot’s guess that the ICC lettering originated in the 1930s. I was stunned to see the Immaculate Conception School capitals (including the E) in the title.Ĭut-In Display Gothic (1938) from The Speedball Text Book (1941), p. My hunch was given immediately given a boost the next day when Paul Davis, the guest speaker at my History of Graphic Design class at Parsons School of Design, showed a poster he had done for Mobil Masterpiece Theatre in 1990. My curiosity was especially piqued by the form of the E which did not match the other letters in the way that I would have expected. This is what I suspected we had discovered with the Immaculate Conception School. However, buildings often “typefaces” that exist outside of the world of printing: alphabets made for the signage and construction industries and the architectural profession. That is, the emphasis is not on type-as found in books and other printed material-but on lettering that is unique. I have seen other buildings in New York with 1930s aspects that have cornerstones with early 1950s dates.Īt the outset of the talk I explained that-contrary to the Type Directors Club labeling-I do not do “type” tours but lettering tours. It is very likely that the school was planned in the late 1930s but construction was delayed due World War II. But the letters-which are clearly moderne-predate it. We were both right-but in different ways. I argued for the 1950s, based on the architecture. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2016).Īs we admired the letters, we tried to figure out when they were done. Dermot Hall guessed that the church was built in the 1930s. Signage on the front of Immaculate Conception School (1950).
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