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Top Sign Reference

Started by Scarfwearer, May 14, 2009, 03:40 pm

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lofiscifi

Jun 15, 2017, 09:29 pm #105 Last Edit: Jun 15, 2017, 10:38 pm by lofiscifi
As a lifelong typography nerd, I can tell you it categorically isn't Univers!  :)

Helvetica, Univers and Folio were all based on a much older sans-serif called 'Akzidenz-Grotesk'... And in my mind, they used Folio *or* Helvetica, it's difficult to tell based on source material, application technique (screen print/hand painted/transfer), distortion, etc, but my money is on those two.

Take a look at the O, C and E to see what I mean.

Top: Folio
Middle: Screen grab
Bottom: Helvetica

SIGNS.jpg

Scarfwearer

I hate to add to the confusion, but it looks to me as if the Helvetica sample lofiscifi put up and the Helvetica sample that fivefingeredstyre put up at the bottom of the previous page are different! I don't think they're the same outlines. Look at the 'C' and 'B' particularly. I don't think I'm imagining that am I?

lofiscifi

My apologies, I had the wrong layer set displayed in Photoshop. Reverted back now - thanks for pointing that out.

fivefingeredstyre

Honestly... I think Helvetica Bold nails it.

lofiscifi

Yep. And it was fairly common, even in the 50/60s, so it probably wouldn't be anything else.

lofiscifi

Because I'm a keen typography nerd, I thought I'd have a go at attempting to identify suitable top sign fonts. We know many of the 60/70s variants were clearly hand-painted, so these examples are wholly subjective and, in many cases, I've manually tweaked elements to 'look' right.

Brachacki
Pluto Sans Medium
_01_brachacki_signbox.png

Brachacki (altered)
Helvetica Neue Bold
_02_brachacki_signbox.png

Newbery
Swiss 721 Bold Extended
Lunar Orbiter (Public Call)
_03_newbury_signbox.png

Yardley-Jones
Alergia Grotesk Wide Bold
Helvetica Neue Bold Extended (Public Call)
_04_tyj_signbox.png

Happy to upload vector-scalable PDF files if anyone's interested?

deck5

Nice!  By all means, PM me and I'll arrange for you to send me the PDF's, and I can host them and update the reference section.

Quote from: lofiscifi on Jul 03, 2017, 12:29 pm
Because I'm a keen typography nerd, I thought I'd have a go at attempting to identify suitable top sign fonts. We know many of the 60/70s variants were clearly hand-painted, so these examples are wholly subjective and, in many cases, I've manually tweaked elements to 'look' right.

lofiscifi

Adding a few more... even the ones that 'don't really count'. :)

Newbery (redressed, as it appeared in Logopolis)
Neuzeit Grotesk Black
AG Book Std Medium (Public Call)
_05_newbury_signbox_logopolis.png

Newbery (redressed, as it appeared in Castrovalva)
Alergia Grotesk Wide Bold
Helvetica Neue Bold Extended (Public Call)
_06_newbury_signbox_castrovalva.png

Yardley-Jones (variant)
_07_tyj_signbox.png

Yardley-Jones (variant)
_08_tyj_signbox.png

Yardley-Jones (as it appeared in Dimensions in Time)
Corinthian
_09_tyj_signbox_dimensions.png

Hudolin
Custom letterforms based on Deck5's reference... Although I'm fairly sure it's loosely based on Lucida Sans
_10_hudolin_signbox.png

Yardley-Jones (as it appeared in The Curse of Fatal Death)
Humanist 521
_11_tyj_signbox_curse.png

Yardley-Jones (as it appeared in The Web of Caves sketch)
Humanist 970
_12_tyj_signbox_whonight.png

galacticprobe

Jul 10, 2017, 05:35 am #113 Last Edit: Jul 10, 2017, 05:37 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: lofiscifi on Jul 09, 2017, 04:52 pm
Hudolin
Custom letterforms based on Deck5's reference... Although I'm fairly sure it's loosely based on Lucida Sans
_10_hudolin_signbox.png


I just checked this out on my computer and it is very close to Lucida Sans (even closer if Bold Faced). Now if this came in a Lucida Sans Condensed version we might have a near-perfect match.

Nice work, lofiscifi!

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

ThePuzzledBoy

Quote from: lofiscifi on Jul 09, 2017, 04:52 pm
Yardley-Jones (as it appeared in Dimensions in Time)
Corinthian
_09_tyj_signbox_dimensions.png


I go off of this site for about a month or so and I come back to this. I really should visit this place more frequently.

But I digress. I'm actually replying to this because I attempted to make a recreation of the Dimensions in Time top sign about 7 months ago -- using a rip of the Pause for Pudsey featurette I found on YouTube -- entirely in LibreOffice Draw.

TYJ MK2 TARDIS 90s Top Sign.jpg

For those wondering, I used Leelawadee UI Bold for the whole thing. It's not the best (some of the formatting definitely looks rather off to me), and I would say without a doubt lofiscifi's looks superior, but I doubt you can tell it apart from lofiscifi's or even the actual sign (unless, of course, both were easily visible ;D )

If anyone's interested, I did make a PDF of the sign itself -- exported after that sign was finished -- as well as an attempt to recreate the door sign -- the latter of which also has a PDF, was also made using Pause for Pudsey as reference, and will obviously be put in its respective post. ;D

Right, back to watching Code Lyoko...


- Hunter
ThePuzzledboy - a cosplayer who needs his own TARDIS and console.....

galacticprobe

Jul 10, 2017, 07:20 am #115 Last Edit: Jul 10, 2017, 07:20 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: ThePuzzledBoy on Jul 10, 2017, 07:08 am
I go off of this site for about a month or so and I come back to this. I really should visit this place more frequently.

Yes: you really should visit more often, Hunter! We miss you when you're gone for so long. (We miss anyone who doesn't visit for a long while.)

Quote from: ThePuzzledBoy on Jul 10, 2017, 07:08 am
Right, back to watching Code Lyoko...

OKAY! Where are you watching this?! I've been looking for it since it left Cartoon Network! Thanks to work I've missed so many episodes. I want to play catch-me-up, but haven't been able to find it. Who's got it in their line-up?

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

ThePuzzledBoy

Quote from: galacticprobe on Jul 10, 2017, 07:20 am
Quote from: ThePuzzledBoy on Jul 10, 2017, 07:08 am
Right, back to watching Code Lyoko...

OKAY! Where are you watching this?! I've been looking for it since it left Cartoon Network! Thanks to work I've missed so many episodes. I want to play catch-me-up, but haven't been able to find it. Who's got it in their line-up?


At the risk of going off-topic, there's an official YouTube channel uploading full episodes of the show and then some. So far they have every episode except the last one up.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9zTBZVl6lu72s-6fXttZg/

Happy virtualization!  ;)


- Hunter
ThePuzzledboy - a cosplayer who needs his own TARDIS and console.....

galacticprobe

Jul 11, 2017, 03:25 am #117 Last Edit: Jul 11, 2017, 03:26 am by galacticprobe
Quote from: ThePuzzledBoy on Jul 10, 2017, 07:58 am
At the risk of going off-topic, there's an official YouTube channel uploading full episodes of the show and then some. So far they have every episode except the last one up.

Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn9zTBZVl6lu72s-6fXttZg/


Thanks! I've bookmarked it. (Now back to our regularly scheduled topic. ;))

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"

Grimusaur

Quote from: lofiscifi on Jul 03, 2017, 12:29 pm
Because I'm a keen typography nerd, I thought I'd have a go at attempting to identify suitable top sign fonts. We know many of the 60/70s variants were clearly hand-painted, so these examples are wholly subjective and, in many cases, I've manually tweaked elements to 'look' right.

Yardley-Jones
Alergia Grotesk Wide Bold
Helvetica Neue Bold Extended (Public Call)
_04_tyj_signbox.png

Happy to upload vector-scalable PDF files if anyone's interested?


Fantastic work on these! The only thing is that I'm still pretty confident that the font used on the Yardley-Jones sign is modified from Grotesque MT Bold Extended, Alergia Grotesk looks just a bit too spindly for my eye.

galacticprobe

Jul 12, 2017, 05:06 am #119 Last Edit: Jul 12, 2017, 05:08 am by galacticprobe
Everyone's eye is a little different, grim. That's why those Top Signs in the Table have more than one version from more than one contributor. This way people can download the version that looks best to them, and no one will fault anyone for that.

Dino.
"What's wrong with being childish?! I like being childish." -3rd Doctor, "Terror of the Autons"