Urban Lettering Tour

Last weekend I went on an Urban Lettering Tour with Paul Shaw, organized through the Type Directors Club to take place in Greenwich Village and SOHO.

The plan was to walk around and discuss the lettering on the buildings in the neighborhood. It was pouring rain that morning so we ended up deviating from the predetermined itinerary. There were about 20 of us in the tour and all were all deemed Super Dorks for walking around in the pouring rain, talking about type.

I'd seen Paul moderate the Navigating the Labyrinth talk with Massimo Vignelli and co. a few months back and clearly the man knew his stuff. So I was relieved to walk up to a group of soaking wet people in the subway to find Paul, enthused as ever, trying to breath life into the rest of the group.

We met up up in the Canal Street station and slowly made our way around SOHO. The rain let up for a while and I was able to snap some photos. Paul is a walking encyclopedia of type and must spend his days roaming the city, memorizing the lettering on each building. The tour was three hours long and we may have only gone within a 6 block radius. We stopped at almost every building to discuss the details that went into the lettering (both good and bad).

I was blown away by some of the buildings in that neighborhood. Some of these places I walk by on a regular basis, but have never stopped to notice the fine details. I like to think that I'm a pretty detail oriented person, but Paul takes it to a whole new level. The tour was a good reminder to open my eyes and look up when I'm walking through the city. There is so much history on every corner, you've just got to pay attention.

Over the past few months, I've been working on a type magazine for an editorial design class that I just wrapped up. One of the feature articles is based on the walking tour that Tobias Frere-Jones has done. Working with that story for a few weeks inspired me to take a similar tour. I'm not a member of the TDC, but I usually keep up with the events that they have in the city. This seemed like a great tour so I signed up!

It was well worth the 45 bucks (for a non-member). I met some fellow type nerds and learned a ton about the SOHO area. Once I got home and took of my soaking wet socks, I was really glad that I went.