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September 27, 2004
The Spot
A combination diner/bar in Harrisburg PA, the signage for The Spot mixes an unexpected variety of styles in ways that both clash, and create interesting (though presumably unintentional) harmonies.
The upper panel, with its repetition of bright orange dots on a stark white background draws your eye back and forth across the line, dragging them over the letters of the restaurant's name, each nearly hidden in a separate dot. The characters themselves are a blocky sans-serif with interesting modulations of stroke on the O and the S which seems to bulge in its middle segment. However, against this harsh modern face, set in rows above and below the dots is an ornate serif with an almost victorian sculptedness to the line hight as it literally wraps around its corresponding dot. Despite these differences in style, it's worth noting that they stumbled onto an echo with the sans-serif being modulated in weight, and the serif in size.
Below the main sign is a secondary banner that adds a third style to the mix. Offsetting the dark text on light background above, the name of the restaurant is repeated in a reversed out sans-serif face, but this one highly geometric in style. Aside from the capital T, it's hard to find a single sharp corner on any of the characters, in marked contrast to the much heavier and more angular sans font above (contrast the sharp point on the P or the squared off edges applied to the S in the upper row).
Posted by cds at September 27, 2004 06:42 PM