€ 7,50

A project by: Alessandro Dallafina: alessandro.dallafina@gmail.com

Valeria Farina: tamachan_87@yahoo.com
Andrea Gessa: braindamagedkx@gmail.com

Laboratorio di Design Concept

Teachers: Mauro Panzeri
Pier Antonio Zanini

Many thanks to: Andrea Bergamini

Francesco Franchi
Stefano Meroni

Politecnico di Milano
Communication Design, 2010

Boss Said
W
elcome on Ligatures. What
you have in your hands is a
journal of typography about
typography. As you may
have already noticed, this is
a magazine with a double reading: Contextual
and Discretionary. The latter addresses the is-
sues closer to the fans of glyphs and kerning,
while Contextual treats typography applied to
the everyday world: typography, how it is and
how it should be.
This issue features a major report on road
signs: when they were developed, who the pro-
tagonists were and how we arrived at today’s
babel of signs and signals. Studies on this kind
of typography could provide great help to the
people: which characters are the most appro-
priate, which weights are more suitable for fast
viewing, how much tracking is necessary and
which corrections are needed, going from posi-
tive to negative.
All these studies have been conducted in iso-
lation (often with very positive results), as there
isn’t any institution or organization that deals
with the development of an effective empirical
study of signage – an activity that any driver on
the road would very much appreciate.
Contextual Ligatures
Road signage is a good example of how
this art, that seems to belong to an older time,
has actually a big impact on our daily lives.
Typography is at a crucial moment in its histo-
ry: while governments insist on mistreating it,
digital publishing sets it free from being a mat-
ter for the chosen few, making it available to
those who are unfamiliar with its rules as well.
While on the one hand there are numerous
events that bode well for a return to the golden
age of Venetian printers, on the other hand we
are faced with an unfortunate and raw use of
what has been discovered as if it were the latest
fashion. It takes just a few minutes browsing
web sites about graphics to see how typogra-
phy has become a new virus. Text becomes im-
age, dominated by effects of light and such, but
rarely the typeface adds any meaning to the im-
age: most of the time its choice is based on ste-
reotypes or pleasant curves only.
Every cloud has a silver lining and, from
some of these resembling drifts, several valu-
able ideas, which are worth working on and
may be able to produce some really interesting
works, may eventually arise.
Darth Vader
1
Index

INDEX Issue #1  Summer 2010

on cover: Greenhills of Aglientu, A. Gessa & A. Dallafina

Report 06 Measure Type

07 Guilloches
ROAD SIGNAGE
24
09 Gargantua
A journey into the world of signage.
When it was born, who the main
Event Report
designers are and which types are used.
10 THYPE!
27 HISTORY OF SIGNAGE Three days of hard work
at Politecnico di Torino in
When and why were honour of typography.
road signs born?

32 SIGNS OF DESIGN 18 Hyperactivitypography

The first typographic
project for a signage 20 Lodi printing museum
system: London Tube.
23 Typo Chess board
34 REQUIREMENTS
Traffic signs and road signs
should provide information
to road users and travellers. Tech

40 PICTOGRAMS
42 BOOK VS IPAD
In a few decades there has Print is dying.
been a general change of Digital is surging.
reading habits. Let’s understand
if and how books
could be replaced.
2
 Contextual Ligatures

46 League of moveable Type

Anthropology Year 1, issue n#1 – Reg. trib. of Milano number 1537 of September 28, 2009

48 READaBILITY Responsible director Demetrio Stratos

& LEGIBILITY
What does reading really mean? Director Graphic & Art Direction
What is the difference between Darth Vader Alessandro Dallafina

legible and readable? executive editor

Valeria Farina
Andrea Gessa
Paul Di Anno
Infographics
52 Coming together Editorial Chief Alessandro Dallafina
Joe Strummer Valeria Farina

project report Editorial staff PHOTO EDITOR

54 NEWTON Dom Howard

Chris Wolstenholme
Matthew Bellamy
Gianluca Chilenzi

TYPOGRAPHY EDITOR
The Italian science magazine Philip Morris Stefano Meroni
is back with a new look. Valeria Farina

Let’s discover the project. Andrea Gessa Contributors

Andrea Bergamini
Photographic Research Giò Fuga
Giorgio Canali Big Lebowski
Aegir Hallmundur
Office Manager Gianluca Pirotta
Lita Ford Jos Buivenga
Stefano Meroni

MEET THE MAN

60 Francesco management Contacts

Franchi via Stradivari 8 – 20149 MI

Interview with a rising star
in Italian editorial design.
63 aGENDA
Phone: +39 02.2233456
managemet@ligatures.com
www.ligatures.com/mgm
printer
Magazeen Print s.r.l
Jackson street 8 – 20149 GB
Phone: +31 0223.2233456
via Stradivari 8 – 20149 MI
Phone: +39 02.2233456
info@ligatures.com
www.ligatures.com
distribution
Hatzeel
Unliever street 28 – 20344 GB
Phone: +31 0223.2233456

3
News

NEWS EDITOR – Andrea Gessa

Your daily dose of visual and typographical inspiration. We search, we find,

we review all the good things you need to know.

Lectures by Martin Majoor and photographs converted to 3D.

Considering it’s already three-
In the build-up to TYPO Berlin dimensional in the 2D plane when
2010 – Passion a couple of tweets you pop on the glasses it is a multi-
by Martin Majoor caught the at- dimensional-typographic experi-
tention. One tweet announced ence! Also, lend your ears to Naive
that on Friday, May 21, he and Melody by Talking Heads – the
Sébastien Morlighem will present inspiration for the piece (the lamp
the book they wrote about José shade dance at the end of that clip
Mendoza y Almeida. Mendoza, is definitely one to keep in mind
now 83 years old, designed type-
faces like Pascal, Photina, and ITC
Mendoza. Many consider him to
be the “godfather” of French type
design. Not only will visitors of
TYPO Berlin be able to attend this
presentation by Martin Majoor
live, in another tweet he revealed
that he had collected some of his
old lectures (in English, German
and Dutch) and put them up on poster in a series of collectibles we for your next party). The magazine
his personal website for viewing. will make available through the is designed by Christine Messinesi
website of TypeTogether. Posters and you can down an online ver-
http://www.martinmajoor.com/ will be rolled and shipped in a tube. sion.

http://www.type-together.com http://www.cofa.unsw.edu.au/
Bree: I love her Poster

The talented brazilian designer Multi-dimensional Type Typekit Accounts Expansions

Marina Chaccur designed this post-
er featuring Bree, the successful This must be the place was pub- Typekit is going to be as versatile
award winning typeface designed lished this month in Incubate’s 3D as possible, so they are removing
by V. Burian, published in 2008 by issue. Equipped with glasses this some limitations on how you can
TypeTogether. This is the second issue has many of the illustrations use your account. Starting today,

4
 Contextual Ligatures

all Portfolio and Performance ac-
counts can be used with unlimited
websites. No matter how many
domain names you own, you can
use Typekit on all of them now.
Use as many fonts as you like,
across as many sites as you want.
And if you’re a designer or agency
working on client sites, go ahead
and use your single account to
serve them all.
http://typekit.com/
Must! Have! This! Book!
The in-school design agency
Studio 3 (part of the Norwegian
U’, he actually meant that.” Typography Contest. The results
You can browse through its 166 were announced by Kamel Gaddas,
pages and, if you like it order the WinSoft International CEO in a
book, you can do it right via web. ceremony held at the Adobe Beach
Bash today in Dubai.
www.hyperactivitypography.com The theme of the contest was
collaboration and communica-
tion, two fundamental values for
Colosseo Letterpress Poster WinSoft International as well as
UNESCO’s theme for 2010, the
What began as a 10-year wedding
anniversary to Rome concluded a
year later as an artistic endeavour
to re-imagine the Coliseum with
type. In March 2009, Cameron
and his wife, Suzanne, spent sever-
al days in Rome to celebrate their
10-year anniversary. This was also
a chance to observe in detail the
Coliseum, which Cameron had

already selected as the next subject

in his series of letterpress posters. Rapprochement Between Cultures.
Over the course of the next 12 First place was awarded to Dareen
months, the artwork was hand- and Habib Khoury for their work
crafted character by character, “World Cultures Interaction”. They
totalling roughly 250 hours of described the design as “The word
work from start to finish. Char- Rapprochement in 27 different
Westerdals School of Communica- acters from the Goudy Trajan and languages ... With image of several
tion’s graphic design department) Bembo Pro typefaces form the hands in a circular movement that
recently published a book, Hyper- Coliseum (or Colosseum), also symbolizes the interaction be-
activitypography from A to Z. known as today as Colosseo (Ital- tween world cultures and nations
This book is one rollicking read, ian) and originally known as Am- which also depicts the desire to live
whether you love vintage-style il- phitheatrum Flavium (Latin). peaceful coexistence. The texts
lustrations, type, or both. over elaborate the truth behind a
Taking its inspiration from chil- http://colosseotype.com mutual respect for human dignity
dren’s activity books of the mid- and the protection of morals, as
twentieth century, Hyperactivi- an entrance to the dialogue and
typography from A to Z includes Arabic Typography CONTEST interaction between civilizations.”
games such as “match the typeface
with its era” and corny jokes: “Why WinSoft International is delighted http://www.winsoft.com/
is the typographer’s wife jealous? to announce the ten winning
Because when he texted her ‘I love designs in the WinSoft Arabic

5
World

MEASURING TYPE Aegir Hallmundur | Photos – Tom Wrigglesworth

A selection of the most commonly used typefaces

were compared to see how economical they are.

I
 ’ve just seen this project on drawing them out on a wall using
Swiss Miss and I really like the biros:
idea. Matt Robinson and Tom
“A selection of the most
Wrigglesworth compared just how
commonly used typefaces were
much ink different common type-
compared for how economi-
faces use at the same point size by
cal they are with the amount
of ink which they use at the
same point size. Large scale
renditions of the typefaces
were drawn out with ballpoint
pens, allowing the remaining
ink levels to display the ink ef-
ficiency of each typeface.”
It’s not a scientific analysis or
anything but it is a gloriously fun
thing to do. I like the way they
ended up with a graph made out
of biros at the end of it, showing
how much ink is left, the resulting
evidence is its own data. It’s a great
way of explaining typographic col-
our too. Love it. 

Matt Robinson

Matt has recently graduated from

Kingston University, achieving a
First Class degree in Communication
Design. He has won the HP invent
D&AD Student Yellow Pencil and
Best new Blood on July ‘09 and the
Dotitos YCN Commendation on
July ‘08.

www.matthewrobinson.co.uk

6
 Contextual Ligatures

Guilloches Aegir Hallmundur

Let’s discover this mathematical technique

and its possible application in graphic design.

B
anknote patterns fascinate
me. I can get lost for hours
in all the details, seeing how
the patterns fit together, how the a The basic hypertrochoid equation. This makes a nice rosette.
lettering works, the tiny security
“flaws”, they’re amazing.
Central to banknote designs are
Guilloche patterns, which can be
created mechanically with a geo-
metric lathe, or more likely these
days, mathematically.
The mathematical process at-
tracted me immediately as I don’t
have a geometric lathe and nor do
I have anywhere to put one. I do,
however, have a computer, and
at the point I first started play-
ing with the designs (mid-2004)
Illustrator and Photoshop had b The guilloches applied to the old italian 500.000 Lire.
gained the ability to be scripted.
So off I went, using the hypotro-
choid equations on Mathworld to
create rather rough and ready pat-
tern; scripting at this point didn’t
have a very usable set of functions
for creating beziers, so I had to
use crummy line segments. The
process took ages and served just
to prove to me that I
could do it, but the re-
sults were too poor to
I can get lost for hours in
go much further. all the details, seeing how
Then, a couple of
years later I discov-
the patterns fit together,
ered Grapher on the how the lettering works.
Mac. Aha! Now here
was a program that could create
the patterns I was after and export
to EPS. Well, kind of.

7
World
It could create the patterns,
most of the time, and export to
EPS, though not always. I got a
couple of patterns out of it and
had a look round for other options.
Again, not much – not much that I
could afford, that is.
There are still some extreme-
ly frustrating limitations though.
First of these is the resolution of
drawing the graph. I’m sure for
most graphs the de-
fault resolution is
fine, but when creat-
Guilloche patterns,
ing these patterns you which can be created
need tiny increments.
Tiny tiny ones. If
mathematically, are
the line is going from crucial to banknote
one side of the graph
to the other and back
design.
again a thousand times in a cou-
ple of radians, you don’t want the
graph program to start dropping
line segments, or corners, or any-
thing really.
Grapher does allow you to in-
crease the resolution, but it’s not
sticky, change anything in the
equation and it pops right back
to the default. Every. Single. Time.
The same thing seems to hap-
pen with the line thickness too; I
wanted all the designs to be at 0.1,
but it kept changing it back to 1.0.
Frustrating! There are a couple of
other UI things I’d change, like
having an option to keep axes at
1:1 ratio to each other, even when
you resize the window.
Another, deeply irritating frus-
tration with the whole process
is to do with Illustrator. Try and
8
Excentro
Excentro is a simple
but advanced tool
that can create
guilloche designs like
backgrounds, borders
or rosettes.
I know there are programs
devoted to creating these
patterns – Excentro being
apparently one of the most
popular, but I’d rather use
the software tools I already
own first. I played a bit with
Excentro and it certainly
makes some things a hell of
a lot easier – but I’ll hold off
buying it for now until I’ve
got an actual project I can
use it for.
www.excourse.com
open an exported EPS in it, and
you get “An unknown error oc-
curred”. Photoshop can accept
the EPSs as placed objects, and
InkScape can (eventually) open
them, so Grapher seems to be out-
putting valid EPS files. I suspect
that the number of lines in the
graph is causing the premier vec-
tor editing app in the industry to
fall over. Oh dear.
Still, after all this, I can still get
the patterns made, and get them
into an image editing program,
which is quite something. Now I
just need to find the magic num-
bers to create just the right pat-
terns I want. 
b This beast creates the pattern over here.
The m is not strictly necessary for this one, but
varying it is good for experimentation.
 Contextual Ligatures

Grand Gargantua Paul Dijstelberge

A journey in the art of typography
moveable type Many of these initials and ornaments are
Perhaps nowadays few will know the exact abstract, but most are figurative: little pic-
meaning of these two words, but until the mid- tures that furnish unexpected insights into the
dle of the twentieth century a letter was a small thinking of our ancestors. They illustrate every
piece of lead, and to use it for printing you liter- human activity, and it is fun to trace the differ-
ally had to move it around, by hand. This sim- ent pictorial traditions of countries and cities
ple object: a piece of lead with a letter on top, and all the changes they went through during
formed the central part of Gutenberg’s inven- those centuries. You will find musical instru-
tion, back in the middle of the 15th century. ments, beautiful women, defecating little an-
To cast letters Gutenberg and all of the gels, knights, and monsters of every kind.
printers and type foundries that followed him Book historians often use these little pieces
used matrices. To make matrices you first had of wood to identify printers – some of the most
to cut punches made of steel – a little softer famous and subversive books of all ages were
than today’s steel – that was cut with a sharp printed without the name of the publisher,
steel knife or an engraving tool. But still, to and the research of this kind of book is a quest
cut a letter on top of a very small piece of steel, without end. But the sheer delight of looking at
and to do so with such precision and consist- these beautiful little pieces of art is perhaps the
ency required extraordinary skill. Remember most rewarding aspect.
the magnifying glass had not yet been invented
and even eye glasses were very rare. To create GRAND GARGANTUA
the complete sets of more than a hundred dif- And so a grand project begins: with John (the
ferent punches with letters, abbreviations, and editor of ilovetypography.com), we are building
other typographical signs that were all of the a website to bring these rare treasures to eve-
same size, all of the same design, and all equally ryone. Grand Gargantua – a history of typogra-
pleasing to the eye when viewed en masse – it phy will chart the course of typography from
seems hardly conceivable that people were able the incunabula. For some time, I have been
to do just that. But they did it, and with results photographing (in high resolution) books of
that we use up to this very day. the Amsterdam Special Collections, and upload-
ing them to Flickr. Grand Gargantua will take
INITIALS AND ORNAMENTS this one step further, by organising and tagging
Until the 18th century and for brief periods these very high-resolution images, in addition
in the 19th and early 20th century, books were to providing some commentary and historical
often decorated with initials and ornaments. perspective.
The earliest printed books were decorated by Our grand plan for Grand Gargantua is to
hand, like their written ancestors; but soon gather some 50,000 samples in the next five or
printers began to use little woodcuts that could six years. We hope that you will follow us in our
be used year after year in thousands of copies. adventures. 

Paul Dijstelberge. Born in 1956, he was a restaurant cook for 14 years and an expert bibliographer for 17 years. He completed his PhD on the use of initials
and ornaments in the 17th century, and currently works as an Associate Professor to Professor Dr Lisa Kuitert (History of the Book) at the University of
Amsterdam; and as a curator at the Special Collections. He publishes in the field of the history of the book and also writes short stories that have been
published in several literary magazines. He lives in Leiden with his wife and two daughters. www.grandgargantua.com

9
Event Report

Turin, May 5, 9:00 am: 80 students, 8 professional graphic

designers and 3 go-ahead boys are at the beginning of a
fabulous, life-changing experience named

10
 Contextual Ligatures

Three days of hard work at Politecnico di Torino in honour of typography

TEXT – Valeria Farina | Photo – Marta Bernstein

11
Event Report
custom ligature
Bauer Bodoni Helvetica
T
ypoGraphy and letters are an
“Invisible Need” without which
communication wouldn’t have
evolved into nowadays forms
and the everyday items we are all
familiar with.
“Invisible” because we don’t often capture the
entire and complex form of a glyph, our atten-
tion being held by the meaning the text bears,
forcing the process that gives shape to the lan-
guage to be hidden and put aside. “Need” be-
cause typography is nowadays a necessary tool
to transmit messages internationally and with
rapidity, from newspapers to sms, from web to
books.
Thype! is born from the wish of making to-
morrow graphic designers more aware of the
basic principles of each proper communication
product that has its roots in typography.
The event consisted in three days of lectures,
conferences and four different workshops.
The conferences were held by the designers
involved in the event plus a very special guest
on Thursday 6: Francesco Franchi, art direc-
tor of IL, an italian monthly magazine winner
of several awards for its graphic treatment, the
conscious and innovative use of infographics,
the beauty in composition and the depth of its
reports.
12
The term Thype is a junction
of the words “type” and
“hype”, which characterizes
the explosion of commercial
promotion
Marta Bernstein
Paolo Ciampagna
Meet the Man

We met Francesco Franchi, unveiled
his secrets, investigated his deepest
hidden treasures and bothered him
with a thousand questions to let
our readers have a taste of what’s
happening in his genius-like mind
and at IL’s editorial department.
“IL–Intelligence in lifestyle” is a
monthly magazine, geared towards
men. It is sold together with the
newspaper “Il Sole 24 ORE”, the Michele Bortolami
leading financial and economic daily
newspaper in Italy. One of its strong
features is the use of the grid, the
typography and the headline design,
taking inspiration from the Swiss
formalism, and the bold and witty
design of the 70s Italian and North
European popular magazines.
at page 60 of Contextual
Tommaso Delmastro
 Contextual Ligatures

Roberto Nacco

Roberto Balocco
editorial poster
design design
2nd floor

logo type
design design
1st floor

Piero De Macchi

13
Event Report

Editorial Design

Logo Design

14
Contextual Ligatures

Type Design

Poster Design

15
Event Report

Who were they?


80 students from the whole country were
selected over 200 who sent their portfolios d

THE THREE MUSKETEERS


An insight on the organizers

nicolò born 01/12/1987 in Biella

brusa graduated in Graphic &
Virtual Design at Politecnico
di Torino

www.nicobrusa.it

Everyone was enthusiastic with his speech,

francesco born 06/10/1987 in Biella
carletto graduated in Graphic &
Virtual Design at Politecnico
di Torino
http://issuu.com/fra.carletto
both the students and the professionals, who
also felt a little intimidated by the young and
talented designer.
The workshops were divided in:
›› Type Design, with Italian well-known type
designer Piero de Macchi;
›› Poster Design, with Elyron Studio;
›› Logo Design, with Undesign;
›› Editorial Design, with LS Design Studio.

80 students, 20 per class, were picked after

matteo born 21/01/1987 in Turin an accurate selection and put under the guide
pont graduated in Graphic & of the professionals involved.
Virtual Design at Politecnico Eventually, the results were quite amazing.
di Torino The students produced greatly valuable arte-
facts, the designers were extremely satisfied
www.behance.net/ with their “pupils” and the three organizers
MatteoPont were highly praised for the initiative (and for
offering beer, wine and pizza at the end of each
day). 

16

The Workshops
Type design
Short lessons were organized about the his-
tory of typography, then the students were
asked to create a typeface.
They also experienced writing with a calli-
graphic pen.
logo design
Students were given a slogan and a specific
grid (sometimes even pre-designed modules)
and they were asked to create a logo with the
elements they had.
poster design
They approached the theme “Invisible Need”
by looking first for a meaningful sentence.
What came out was “Solo perché non lo puoi ve-
dere non vuol dire che non esista” (only because
you can’t see it, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t ex-
ist) and a kind of artistic collage with the works
of the students who were asked to re-interpre-
tate the sentence keeping in mind to follow the
leading theme.
editorial design
Short lessons were given about typogra-
phy and editorial composition, together with
a main brief: realizing an editorial project in-
spired by Salone del Libro, that was going to
take place in Turin.
Contextual Ligatures
piero de macchi
He began his professional career in 1956
working for the Nebiolo Typefoundry Artistic
Department together with Aldo Novarese. In
1992 he started the calligraphic Association
From Sign to Writing. He’s interested in type
design, calligraphy and artistic creations.
www.demacchi.it
undesign studio
Founded in Turin in 2003 by Michele
Bortolami and Tommaso Delmastro.
Based on the link within design and brand-
ing it gave birth to a designing system named
undesign, that means arriving to the final syn-
thesis proceeding by subtraction, so that the
form is reduced to a symbol of itself; objective
and accessible to everyone.
www.undesign.it
elyron
Elyron is a society composed by two graphic
designers, Roberto Necco and Roberto Balocco.
They create graphic projects for firms or for
events, proposing solutions with coordinat-
ed image, experimenting with creation and
typography.
www.elyron.it
LS graphic design
LS is a graphic design studio and creative
company located in Milan (Italy) and Nashville
(Tennessee, USA).
As for the most compelling experiences, it all
begins with a bunch of friends, brought togeth-
er by a unique ardour. The strengths that char-
acterize them are a tight team spirit that fosters
creativity and innovation and a veracious pas-
sion for their job.
www.lsgraphicdesign.it
17
Books

Hyperactivitypography Andrea Gessa | Photos – Studio3

Hyperactivitypography from A to Z is an activity book for

typographers illustrated in a vintage style to give it a sweet
and childlike look. Who said typography had to be boring?

H
yperactivitypography
from A to Z is an activity
book for typographers il-
lustrated in a nostalgic vintage

They have made a really nice and

fun activity book for typographers
illustrated in a nostalgic vintage style
style to give it a sweet and child-
like look. The book is packed with
activities, ranging from silly to
hardcore nerdiness. It’s great to
test your skills on and to learn
new things while having fun. Who
said typography had to be stiff and
Arctic Paper
boring?
Hyperactivitypography is a book
designed by Studio 3, an in-school
design agency at the Graphic Originating in northern
Design Department of Westerdals Europe, we are a paper group
School of Communication in Oslo, with a dedicated passion for
Norway. making superior graphic fine
They have made a really nice paper for demanding fine
and fun activity book for typogra- paper users. Being ideal for
phers illustrated in a 60s style and creative design, our paper
with plain pastel colours. qualities offer a wide range
of applications, including
book production, advertising,
Author: Studio3 office materials and other
Publcation date: 2010 qualitative printed matter.
Publisher: Arctic Paper We want to combine delivery
Price: 17€ of our fine paper with know-
Pages: 192 ledge that inspires better
business for our customers.

18
 Contextual Ligatures

The paper is heavy and smells

like a real book should. This book aBOUT THE MAKERS
is one rollicking read, 
whether you love
vintage-style illustra- Hyperactivitypography Studio 3 is an in-school design but-triggering questions
tions, type, or both. takes its inspiration agency at the Graphic Design about the problem. They
Taking its inspira-
tion from children’s from the children’s Department of Westerdals
School of Communication in
solve problems creatively, by
reading problems creatively.
activity books of the activity books of the Oslo (Norway). Studio 3 was They solve problems together
mid-twentieth cen-
tury, Studio 3 made a mid-20th century established in 2002 and exists
of a handpicked selection of
with the client, not on their
own behind closed doors. All
book that will make every typogra- 15 truly dedicated 3rd year’s finished products that leave
phy addicted giggle just like a lit- graphic design students. the studio are supposed to be
tle child. Hyperactivitypography They don’t work with based on strong, surprising
from A to Z includes games such unnecessary complicated and fresh ideas and embrace
as “match the typeface with its era” models and methods, but by form as much as content.
and corny jokes. You can browse asking themselves relevant- http://www.studio3.no/
through its 166 pages and order
the book online. 

19
Exposition

Museum of PRinting Giò Fuga | Photos – Giò Fuga

In the centre of Lodi has been opened the Museum of

printing and printmaking, born from the great passion of
Eng. Andrea Schiavi for this art and its important history.

J
une 2008: in the centre
of Lodi was created the
Museum of printing and
printmaking, born from the great
passion Eng. Andrea Schiavi had
for this art and its important his-
tory. The museum occupies two
thousand square meters on the
ground floor of what was, until the
eighties of last century, the former
printing Lodigraf.
The collection is among the
most important in Europe and
along with the Tipoteca Italiana
of Cornuda, which is specialized
on typefaces, is the most complete
in Italy. This includes machinery,
equipment and memorabilia from
different eras, showing all print
jobs, from the woodcut intaglio,
screen printing by the letterpress,
offset printing by lithography,
from manual to mechanical com- a A detail of the Linotype
position in lead up to the type-
setting and computer. A living
museum not only dedicated to
schools but to every lover and cu-
rious about this historic art.
At the entrance the visitors find
the Binding room, a fascinating
gallery whose walls feature large
panels from an ancient bookbind-
ing; many machines are ready for
cutting, folding, sewing sheets of
paper printed, and complete the
product-book with different fin-
ishes on the cover or back. a The art gallery, with the press machines

20
 Contextual Ligatures

These goldening presses, sew-

ing and creasing machines, all fully Using the Linotype
functional, were produced by the 
most prestigious European fac-
tories in the nineteenth and early The Linotype machine type magazine from which
twentieth century. operator enters text on a they came. The name of the
To document the
operation of different A living museum 90-character keyboard. The
machine assembles matrices,
machine comes from the fact
that it produces an entire line
women, tradition- not only dedicated which are molds for the of metal type at once, hence
ally involved in the
work of bookbind- to schools, but to all letter forms, into a line. The
assembled line is then cast
a line-o-type. This allows
much faster typesetting and
ing, the typical binder lovers and curious as a single piece, called composition than original
bar with all the an-
cient manual equip- about this historic art. a slug, of type metal in a
process known as “hot metal”
hand composition in which
operators place down one pre-
ment of the Legatoria Torriani, typesetting. The matrices cast metal letter, punctuation
active in the nineteenth century in are then returned to the mark or space at a time.
Cologno Monzese. Very curious is
the system presented for the first
printing of sheet music where the
staves are engraved with a kind of b The linotype componets
rake and then insert the notes re-
corded directly from the punches. Elevator
The next gallery is the Art
Room where you can admire a se- Distributor
lection of calcographic and litho-
graphic presses of great historical
interest built from the sixteenth
century to the nineteenth centu- Magazine
ry, as well as some copper plates
engraved as copperplate engrav-
ing around 1850. Noteworthy is
also the collection of lithographic
stones of great size from the pub-
lisher Vallardi of Milan, conducted
between 1870 and 1930. On the
walls there is a review of proofs to
a single theme (a shell), made by Assembler
famous contemporary artists from
Lodi, to document the various Mold disk
ways of calcographic printing, in
addition to other techniques such
as woodcuts, linocut and screen Vise
printing.
The third major area is the Hall Keyboard
of Letterpress where, among the
hundreds of historical artefacts re-
ported its former glory, are located
many printing presses in cast iron
produced in Europe and America
in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.

21
Exposition

In the same room there are the

first printers, from simple manual
table, to more complex plates and
top cylindrical, manually operated
or electric.
Down the hall a real hot-met-
al foundry with the
presence of Linotype
and Monotype fully
A real hot-metal
functional machines foundry, with fully
for fusion and me-
chanical composition
functional Linotype
with composers who and Monotype
complete manual
with the collection of
machines
numerous bills of typefaces, most-
ly Italian, preserved in old drawers,
with punches, matrices and wood- a Andrea Schiavi with Mario Luigini
en characters.

45
Pages printed every year
To enrich the precious collec-
tion a complete system for educa-
tional use in the manufacture of
paper pulp from the watermark,
the machinery for printing cards
values, collections of old cars
and typing system for printing in
trillion
Braille, and a significant complete
implant for enamel Press relief
(rilievografia) with two beautiful
antique presses capable of print-

1886
ing in multiple colours. Introduction of the Linotype
Last in the museum, the Hall
of presses there is a rich and ele-
gant selection of presses from the
nineteenth century, mainly, from a A detail of the Heildeberg Cylinder
the famous Dell’Orto factory. Of
particular interest are the press-
es Stanhope and Albion belonged
to Claudio Wilmant, the most fa-
mous engraver and founder active
in Lodi and Milan in the nine-
teenth century.
Successively printing presses
and other presses of fine work-
manship follow, and finally, in
the centre of the room, you can
see the jewel of the museum: the
“Columbus Press”, invented by
American George Clymer, built in
London since 1817. It is the only
specimen preserved in Italy.  a The Columbus Press

22
 Contextual Ligatures

Typographic
Chess Board Stewart Walker – Photos: Stewart Walker

An amazing project, a must-have house

compliment for all the typography appassionés.

T
he typographic chess board
is a conceptual project that Stewart Walker
uses letterforms as the piec- 
es and is based around the idea
that typography is a game: He has just graduated from
Duncan of Jordanstone Art
“The grid system is an aid,
and Design College, Dundee
not a guarantee. Like the grid
with an upper 2nd class
on a chessboard it creates
(2.1) honours degree. He’s
structure whilst permitting
enthusiastic about design,
a number of possible strate-
passionate about typography
gies, each unique to its user.
b The white pieces are set in Caslon Bold Condensed and a keen collaborator.
These strategies have varying
strengths and weaknesses and
www.zeropoint25.com
must be employed tactically
depending on the situation or
opponent. This allows the sub-
ject to look for an appropriate
solution, but does not guaran-
tee success.

One must learn how to use

the grid and its varying strate-
gies; as with chess, it is an art
b The black pieces are set in Univers Bold Condensed
that requires practice.”
The white pieces are set in
Caslon Bold Condensed while
the black ones in Univers Bold
Condensed, which represents the
traditional and modern sides of
typography. The pieces are cast
in resin and the board is 5 milli-
metres thick black acrylic with 45
degrees laser engraved lines to rep- a A typographic puzzle for the
resent the white squares.  Typography museum of Thisdick.

23
Report
Road Signage
A journey into the world of road
signage. When it was born, who the
main designers are, which typefaces
are used, what the biggest problems
are and how they can be solved.
Andrea Bergamini | Photos – StockExchange
24
Road Signage – Index

1.History of signage.........................p. 27
2.The signs of design.......................p. 32
3.Good signage requirements.........p. 34
4. Pictograms...................................p. 40
 Contextual Ligatures

F
ollow the signs and you can not
be wrong... If this is the answer of
the person we ask the way, we are
already resigned to the idea that,
unless we find another one more
precise, we will get lost for sure.
Unfortunately this is how signage works in
Italy, or rather, how it doesn’t work: just for ex-
ample, 6.91% of the accidents in Italy in 2005
were caused, according to istat, for incidents
involving noncompliance signal stop. Research
on the state of road signs made by 3m also un-
derlined that in none of these cases the in-
tersection has shown horizontal and vertical
signage both according to the law.
The data show that the too often unjus-
tified weaknesses of our signage system are
there (the first 3m of research dating back to
1998), but the problem remains dramatically
visible every day on our roads. Old signals liv-
ing with the new ones, information that, when
not entirely “eaten” by the surrounding nature,
are consumed by rust, misplaced or simply not
placed at all, and then if it is true that the sys-
tem of road signs of a country constitutes one

25
Report
of the first cards for tourists who visit it, alas!
One of the main problems of Italian signs
appears to be the absence of a committee that
deals with inventory, test and sanction and re-
move cases that are not actually under. The
work of 3m, although it constitutes the main
reference of the inefficiencies of our signalling
system, is named after the world leader in the
production of the “face”, the film that covers
the iron or aluminium to form the signal.
Would therefore be quite natural to think
the conflict of interest would with ease cause
the distrust of the
26
What is signage?
Signage is any kind of visual
graphics created to display
information to a particular
audience. This is typically
manifested in the form of
wayfinding information in
places such as streets or
inside/outside of buildings.
data provided by 3m, only to get in the car and
maybe lose the way after a few kilometres.
Type design for signage
The design of a typeface requires constant
reference to the context of use, as well as on-
going audits of the work, aimed at identifying
the correct anatomical proportions and prop-
erly balance the thickness and counterpunches.
In type design for road signs, this makes that
the theory and case studies, although they offer
interesting insights and solutions, should con-
tinually be compared to “field” verify.
For this reason the prototype signals be-
come an essential tool designed to compare
the forms with the known human and physi-
cal problems; they do not lead to a final solu-
tion, but to a possible solution, to constantly
call into question to make sure of the actuality
and validity of the project choices.
Shape Code
These specific shapes on signs send
messages to the audience and form a set of
rules to follow when developing signage.
stop warning mandatory
prohibitory
Colour Code
These specific colours on signs send
messages to the audience and form a set of
rules to follow when developing signage.
warning mandatory temporary
prohibitory
 Contextual Ligatures

ROAD SIGNAGE  1

History
of Signage
Follow the signs and you cannot go
wrong… Where and when were the
road signs born?

I
t seems necessary to introduce this
historical analysis of road signs cit-
ing a good example which dates back
almost at the same time as roads and
of which numerous examples still re-
main: the milestones.
These signal elements were positioned on
the main Roman roads from 123 BC following a
proposal by the tribune Gaius Gracchus.
Initially placed every thousand steps (hence
the term mile) from the Servian walls of Rome
to the most remote Roman provinces, they
pointed to the distance from the capital or ma-
jor cities. The usefulness of these communica-
tion tools was such that, long after the end of
the Roman Empire and more precisely in 1773
in Britain, the General Turnpike Act imposed
various consortiums to build guides at inter-
vals of a mile with the aim of having a tool to
charge tolls.
Britain is not the only country where this
communication model survives: in other
European countries like France or Portugal, or
even East Asian countries like Japan we can still
find the information provided on more or less
modern panels or stones, but retain the struc-
ture with three elements: street name-distance
destination.
Roman milestone d

27
Report

italian focus
At the sitting of the Council of the Italian
Cycling Touring Club of October 1895, L.V. First milestone d
Bertarelli, after noting that the Vice-Consul
of Senigallia had placed on its own will, along
about 40 km of the Via Flaminia, plates placed
on poles, with distances in kilometres, asserted
that an important sum should be placed in the 1773 – General Turnpike Act
budget to give this service a certain develop-
ment throughout Italy. 1898 – Second International Congress
Indeed it was clear how important it was to Uniform signage among countries
adopt a system of signposts. On country roads, Symbols instead of writings
in fact, there were
crossroads and inter-
sections without any
Road signs should clearly 1908 – First Road International Congress

warning and the sit- mark distances, directions, 1931 – Conference of Ginevra
uation was no better
for what concerned
the proximity of crossings Shape code

road safety, totally and the presence of 1949 – Protocol of Ginevra

missing information
about the steepness
treacherous escarpments.
of slopes, dangerous curves or the presence of
level crossing which interrupted the journey.
Following the model of the French Touring
Club, which provided for a subscription mem-
bership to cover the placement of signs, the
TCI had set a figure of 25 pounds per flag pole.
These signals consisted of a very robust iron
rod, Y-shaped, approximately 3 meters high.
On this auction was attached a sign of cast iron
which had above the word Italian Touring Club
and down the name of “donor”. The content
was in the middle, bearing informations on the
hazard type and distance from it. 19th century signage
In 1898 was held in Luxembourg the Second
International Congress, attended by 17 tourism 
groups; here was adopted a statute of fifteen ar-
ticles, the first of which declared constituted a Until the late 1800s the advent of the bicycle
Ligue Internationale des Associations Touristes. throughout the continent was and the first car then lead
In 1903 by the Touring Club was created a not felt it necessary to any to a revolution of the road,
Permanent Commission for road signs, which other type of road signs, if not both for the development of
decreed that they should be clearly marked dis- the name of the street where new infrastructure, and an
tances, the proximity of the crossings, the place you were and the distance increase in travel speed.
of treacherous escarpments, directions of the from another fixed point. The transport revolution has
crossroads. The Commission also proposed to This is also understandable resulted in a questioning of
start with the signage of Milan-Lecco-Sondrio- in light of the fact that the existing reporting systems
Stelvio, boosting propaganda in the technical only means available so far for have increasingly proved
departments of provinces and major munici- commuting and non-urban inadequate for the new speed
palities to devote the utmost attention not were horses or wagons; only of vehicles.
only to the installation of signs, but also their
maintenance.

28
 Contextual Ligatures

This was carrying a complex organization in

order to offer a full and effective work. In this
organization of resources also took part the
Italian Automobile Club, who had at that time
a similar commission.
The Commission ACI/TCI felt the need for
Italy to stay in line with what was done in this
field in other countries, where the signs were
installed with coherent plans. It was for this
reason that a first division into three categories
was introduced: direction danger and slowing
down signs: in this way the information could
be useful not only to motorists or cyclists, but
also to drivers of wagons and to pedestrians
themselves. The utility of a well-designed signs
began to appear so obvious.
Printing techniques
The techniques currently used in the
production of road signs are basically
two: serigraphy and cut film.
The first is made in the case of
standardized whole signals (and only in
certain contexts, for pictograms), if that
can be reused several times previously
Film cutting
engraved plate thus optimizing costs.
The film, ink more expensive, but
necessary if the signal is a “unique” is
used for most indicators, overlapping
layer white films cut green, blue or black,
under the law of the case.

In the postwar period, following the union

of Fiat and Pirelli in the work, the projects re-
sumed with great fervour; a definitive distinc- alluminum (or iron)
tion of signs into three categories with specific
forms was established. It was decided, in fact, reflective film

to give and arrow shape to direction indicators,

green sticker (or blu)
a triangle for the danger ones and a circular
one for limitation or obligation.
black label (also colored)
The rectangular shape was kept for signs of
locations on the outskirts of settlements or the
names of rivers, monuments and a few oth-
er cases. These innovations of form, that the
Touring Club was the first to adopt, won inter-
national acclaim at the Geneva Conference of
1931. In the ’50s, also began to develop a certain
interest in marking, trying to meet the needs
of motorists, concentrated look at the road in
front of him.
Since 1959 the whole signs equipment relat-
Serigraphy
ed issue in Italy was governed by the new sin-
gle text of the rules of the road, according to
the Geneva Protocol of 1949. In 1973, for the alluminum (or iron)

following reasons, it was decided to close the

reflective film
signs service.
The road signs service has done its usual
red silkscreen ink
work of support, counselling and provision of
signs on public administrations and institu-
black silkscreen ink
tions that have control of the signs. The sec-
tor has now assumed such a large development,
both for the experience gained by agencies, and
because many companies have emerged that
can provide satisfactory supplies. The Touring
Club has now considered finished its function,
in other times so pioneeristic. A.B. 

29
 Report

Origin and diffusion of the two main road signage typefaces

Infographics – Andrea Bergamini

Iceland

United Kingdom
Canada Ireland

United States * Spain

Portugal

Egypt
Mexico

Colombia

Peru

South Africa

Chile

Note: Legenda:
Far from being exhaustive, this map
traces the paths of the two main Transport (and derivates)
typefaces for signage, from the
known origins to the countries H. Gothic (and derivates)
where they could be find in their
original forms or derivated ones both fonts
path of the font
* substituted
with another font

30
 Contextual Ligatures

Denmark
Holland*

Italy China
Greece

Emirates

Thailand

Malaysia

Australia

N. Zealand

31
Report
ROAD SIGNAGE  2
Signs
of Design
The first typographic project for
a signage system: the London
Underground by E. Johnston
One of the first examples of type design for
signage is the project of Edward Johnston, the
British calligrapher got commissioned to de-
sign an uppercase character for the coordinat-
ed image of the London Underground by Frank
Pick, Director of London Transport. Beside be-
ing a coordinated image project which is still
valid and effective after nearly a century, ac-
cording to Giovanni Lussu it can be consid-
ered part of the first of modern sign design for
a public service. The character was terminated
by Johnston and Eric Gill, his assistant in 1916.
It is worth mentioning this project, although it
is not a character for road signs, because it is
a checkpoint for the design of the shift in the
big city and because its sudden, geometric, yet
elegant design, has influenced many sans ser-
if characters, including, for example, Gill Sans,
1927
The lowercase version of the character was
designed later, for the warnings and that alpha-
bet was one of the most identifiable character-
istic for the identity project of the London tube.
32
Jock Kinnear describes the possible influ-
Edward ences of the work of him who was master of
johnston his master:
It is interesting to note that Johston was
The father of london
a teacher of calligraphy, and recommend-
underground signage
ed a method of proportioning letters simi-
system and bullet logo
lar to that practised by Arab calligraphers.
Both were based on the diamond dot pro-
duced by a quill or reed pen held at an angle,
but there is no trace in Johnston’s published
E. Johnston was a
notebooks that he was aware of the work of
British craftsman who is
Muhammad Ibn Muqlah, who formulated
considered the father of
the rules of letter design still followed by
modern calligraphy. He
Arab calligraphers.
has influenced typeface
designer and sculptor Eric It is ironic that while Muqlah’s work laid the
Gill, author of the London foundation of a shift from the primitive Kufic
Underground logo. He is style to the following Naskhi Johnston’s study
famous for designing the of medieval calligraphy should have been the
sans-serif Johnston has used basis of his “essential letters”, which one can see
throughout the London as a setting aside of five letter hundred years of
Underground, as well as the development and to return to first principles. it
famous round symbol. was indeed typical of his questing natures that

b Design table of the Logo
10.01
Opening of London Tube
should be know this, he was a seeker of perfec-
tion, alike in his and his graffiti lettering. Two
1863
details of the Underground Sans can probably
be attributed to his lifelong study and chief pre-
occupation: the diamond and the dot over the
“h” gave the toe to the lower case “L”.
The original London Underground map, designed by Herry Beck, 1931
Contextual Ligatures
b Wooden letterpress of Johnston Sans
His station lettering still functions superbly
and bears witness to two influences: the 10th
century Winchester hand, which he admired
above all others and which was in turn de-
rived from the Carolingian script, and the early
Caslon, from Roman inscriptions. A.B. 
33
Report

16.09
Geneva Traffic Convention

ROAD SIGNAGE  3
1950
The Geneva Convention on

Good Signage
Road Traffic is accepted in a
majority of the nations; major
non-signatory countries
include Germany, which did

Requirements
not have a government yet at
that time.
The main regulation about
international driving licence
is in Annexe 9. Switzerland
signed but did not ratify the
Convention.

Traffic signs or road signs are or passive information function: given the na-
signs erected at the side of ture of vehicle of instruction, they are intended

08.11
to provoke an immediate reaction to their ob- Vienna Road Convention
roads to provide information servers. This is why, instead of camouflage and
to road users. But not disappear into the environment in which they

many people know what
the variables and the rules
behind road sign design are.
1968
are inserted, they must prevail in the eye of the
observer, clearly identifiable and readable.
Since the sender-receiver model for the
transmission of messages, semiologist Pierre
Guiraud suggests three different modes of

T
communication: indication, representation In 1968, the European
o know well the issues related to injunction: they deal respectively with being, countries signed the Vienna
the design of road signs it may be knowing and acting. Convention on Road
useful to refer to the definition and Mollerup says therefore, to define a “theory Traffic treaty, with the aim
some considerations about the com- of wayfinding”, the three categories of Guiraud of standardizing traffic
municative functions of signals: the can be renamed in identification, explanation regulations in participating
dictionary De Mauro says: a “signal” is the in- and education. countries in order to facilitate
dication, visual or auditory, conventionally es- The locations signal is therefore an example international road traffic and
tablished, which provides news, a message or of identification, because it identifies the place to increase road safety. Part
an order. where you are. Combining an arrow to a place of the treaty was the Vienna
we instead have an explanation in this case an Convention on Road Signs
MESSAGES directional explanation. The last case is an ex- and Signals, which defined
Although in the wayfinding design a sign is ample of instruction: the “no parking” falls into the traffic signs and signals.
actually just the culmination of a process of this category because the message instructs the As a result, in Western Europe
broader analysis, we can focus on this “goal”, reader on what can or can not do. the traffic signs are well
decomposing into its basic elements and using The signpost image is a special case in which standardised, although there
them as tools for analysis and design. the three categories are simultaneously present are still some country-specific
For the semiotic, road signs are sets of signs and can effectively synthesize what has been exceptions, mostly dating
that have not, however, only a communicative said so far. from the pre-1968 era.

34

Flaminia
A type system for road signs
The Flaminia project is based
on the MA thesis by Andrea
Bergamini which reacts
to the chaotic and poorly
executed road signs seen
throughout Italy. The core
idea of the project is that
lettering for traffic signs
should always be tested in
real-life environment, and the
final solution must always
be based on such testing.
 what looks most like what we already know, be-
This led to the design of the
Flaminia type system, which
permits users and designers
to test and interpolate
a variety of letterforms
using four Multiple Master
axes. Flaminia is a tool
for designing high-quality,
well-legible type for road
signs, and it will be available
for free.
at page 20 of Discretionary
Contextual Ligatures
CONTENT
Wanting to this list the main “components”
signals, it is little wonder seeing as an indica-
tion of how that figure is made up of five mes-
sages, three graphical and two others that
could be defined as morpho-semantic: typog-
raphy, arrow, pictograms add to the aforemen-
tioned form and colour.
TYPOGRAPHY
The evolution of technology for the writing
on signals led to a clear distinction between let-
tering, term referred to a production of unique
pieces that fit the support on which they are
produced, and typographic character, an in-
dustrial product capable of serial reproduction
and automation, most often designed and im-
plemented in a context other than that which
will be used. The design of fonts for signs must
consider many variables ranging from material
used for production, letting distance, possible
visually impaired end users.
With the signage typography becomes a
three dimensional typography. According to
Smitshuijzen signs projects aim at reaching
the biggest number of users of any other typo-
graphic design, and in most cases probably be-
yond any realistic expectation.
Many researches were carried out to be able
to understand which characters are more read-
able than others, but all have led to conclusions
that have simply confirmed what the printers
already taught: we have greater ability to read
cause reading is an at activity that we learn and
that becomes the result of habit, but we have
no innate quality that allows us to distinguish
shapes or letters. Quoting Smitshuijzen, still in
its Signage Design Manual he states that:
“The sans serif font, often recommended
in the signage design, are not really charac-
ters more suitable than serif character.
[...] But it is true that serifs help guide the
eyes on the lines of text, then the serif char-
acters tend to behave better than sans serif
fonts when reading long texts.
35
Report

When the characters are very small, or

observed at a very long distance, the details
tend to become less noticeable or even dis-
appear. Characters should be designed to
be as simple as possible, so sans serif fonts
are more likely to be more suitable in these
circumstances.”

A proof of this assertion is that the character

Rawlinson, designed by Montalbano for signs of
U.S. National Park Service has responded very
well to the tests, going to successfully replace
the character previously in use, Clarendon.
As for the contrast of the letters, however, we
can say that letters with a minor difference in
thickness behave better in extreme conditions
such as those of research/reading signals.
In addition to the shape of glyphs the de-
sign must also take into account the spacing
between letters and margins to be adopted in
the signals.
The signs can be considered an extreme ap-
plication of the type design, and requires a very
thorough knowledge, as well as a large number
of experimental tests to obtain the optimal
form and proportion.
Directional Arrows d
Directional arrows are a
type of traffic sign directing
people to points of interest
such as commuter rail
stations, colleges, tourist
attractions, neighbouring
communities and the like, but
the popularity of these signs
is falling because of the use
of websites on which to look
up driving directions such
as Mapquest.also of types of
water that give you directions

ARROW
Adrian Frutiger in his Signs and symbols, says:
“When two oblique lines come together to
form an angle, the image of a movement or
a direction is somehow produced. [...] In the
conventional sign of the arrow the inland
areas of the angle are enlarged and doubled
by taken part.”
This sign, used by the oldest humans (one
of the first metaphorical use of the arrow was
alleged to the greek astronomer Hipparchus
around 150 BC), found
great success in the
Western world after
The design must also take
the end of the nine- into account the spacing
teenth century, when in
London was proposed
between letters and the
to eliminate lettering margins to be adopted
indicating a direction
to replace them with a
in the signals.
symbol that had a universal value. In the early
Italian street signs a curved arrow indicated a
dangerous turn and the horizontal a direction.

36
 Contextual Ligatures

Since then many different experiments and

regulations followed, regarding the uses and
meanings of different arrows; a curious ex-
periment of the 1962 (Gwyneth Walker & Marc
de la) has first studied readability of various
forms of arrow, showing that this was higher
in the indicator with a full point, the inverted
V-shaped and a rather thin tail.
Although many fonts do not include any “ar-
row” glyph, it should be seen as an alphabeti-
cal component of a typeface: often, in fact, the
signs projects are required as part of corporate
images and the ability to use arrows perfectly
integrated with the letters can make a strong
added value to your project.
Smitshuijzen says about it that each source
should include a set of arrows, varied, ranging
from a minimum of four (↑, ↓, ←, →), to which
you can possibly add the diagonal directions.
Talking about arrows it is also worth quot-
ing a passage from the book, Wayfinding, Craig
M. Berger, in which the theme of the arrow was
seen from a very practical point of view, with
the precise directives in which order should di-
rectional signs be placed:
“In Europe there has
been great creativity Many fonts do not include a Arrows of Four Season Hotel, Singapore

in developing arrow
designs for signs, in-
any “arrow” glyph, but it
cluding arrows that should be considered as
form the shape of
signs (Paris), triangu-
an important alphabetical
lar arrows and chev- component of any typeface. b Arrows of Köln–Bonn Airport
rons (Italy), and fat
lines with cutouts (U.K.). In North America
signs have used Federal Highway arrows for
some time. Ironically, this arrow form was
found to be not highly legible in tests by the
Pennsylvania Transportation Institute, with
Meeker and Associates and Terminal Design,
except when designed with a very long tail.
Many urban sign designers today use the
Montreal Expo arrow head. This arrow, de-
signed for the 1967 Montreal Expo, has a
long thin tail and a wide, narrowline head,
and has tested very well for legibility.”
The position and placement of arrows on
signs is another key area in which extensive
testing has been carried out. Various studies
have shown that the eye tends to follow the

37
Report

direction of the arrow at high speeds, indicat-

ing that a left arrow be placed to the left of the
message on the signs and a right arrow to the Signs and symbols
right of the message. However, this becomes A. Frutiger
very difficult in urban situations; signs are of- 
ten forced to compromise, with arrows placed
below messages instead of immediately to the
left or right.

Adrian Frutiger
Born May 24, 1928 is one
of the prominent typeface
designers of the twentieth
century, who continues to
influence the direction of
digital typography in the
twenty-first century; he
is best known for creating
the typefaces Univers and
Frutiger.

Another arrow placement issue that affects The Highway Code
legibility is the hierarchy of arrows. A consist- This code provides for the
ent rhythm of arrows is just as important for use of a number of signs,
legibility as arrow placement. Most designers which should always be
use the system recommended by John Follis in accompanied by a textual
Architectural Signing and Graphics by which explanation, this precept,
destinations that are straight ahead are placed essential in the light of the
at the top of the sign, followed by destinations foregoing, however, is too
on the left, and then destinations on the right. often dismissed.
Once the driver understands this hierarchy, it
is easier for them to read the signs.
A journey into the world of forms. From
the fundamentals of design history of the
scriptures, mystical symbols from the mark and
modern signage, experience design by Adrian
Frutiger explores the relationship between
thought and sign. A book full of examples
from various traditions of image, where the
variety of expressions graphics is sorted and
analysed to the extreme complexity of visual
communication.

It is therefore important to consider the fact Paperback: 360 pages

that the arrow is part of the signal as much as Publisher: Watson-Guptill
the text and the coherence of a signaling system Date: September 1, 1998
may be less when, as required by the Highway Language: English
Code, are expected even three different types of Price: 19 €
direction indicators.

38

FORM
The classification of Mollerup is confirmed
by the signals provided by the Highway Code,
which have three main functions: to provide
information (names of places, streets or histor-
ical monuments), give directions or instruction
with obligations, prohibitions and dangers.
With the evolution of the speed of travel, the
quantity of time required to recognize a threat
and the subsequent reaction time have now by
far exceeded the capacity of human reaction,
requiring a precise structure based on shapes,
colours and, in some cases, even pictograms.
By referring to Frutiger’s Signs and Symbols,
he is to identify the origin of the shape and col-
our signals a necessity dictated by its attempt
to distinguish them from the surrounding
environment.
In a modern city in fact rectangular or square
forms prevail (for example houses, skyscrap-
ers or buses and trains), so the warning
signs or prohibition, which must capture
more look, are diamond-shaped, tri-
angular or circular; the lines outlin-
ing these forms have a much more
marked contrast with the sur-
rounding urban environment.
Warning sign shape
In most countries, they
usually take the shape of
an equilateral triangle with
a white background and a
thick red border. But these
two variables may varies
from country to country.
a An example of italian warning sign shape
Contextual Ligatures
COLOUR
As for colour, red was chosen as most suit-
able to represent prohibitions, instructions or
warnings of danger because they it is not often
occurring in nature. Green, because of his mas-
sive presence, should be avoided. Blue is used
only for the signals of invitation or direction.
As noted in History of Road Signage, the
almost standardized system used in Europe is
partially derived from the one introduced by
the Touring Club in 1931 and consists mainly
of a category based on four specific forms and
colours that vary depending on the content of
signal. In the U.S., however, for some strange
reason, the most prevalent form is a yellow
diamond: beside the presence of the limit de-
scribed above for people who do not speak the
language, this system may be ineffective in
terms of reaction times because the signals are
unrecognizable from a distance.
  If the complexity of the signal is a prob-
lem of interpretation for the wayfinder even in
front of a single signal, it becomes even more
important when he has to decode multiple sig-
nals next to each other, when they are stacked
or side by side. In this case we must take into
account that the number of elements to
split to get the information needed will
be five times the number of signals!
A.B. 
39
Report

ROAD SIGNAGE  4

Pictograms
AIGA system
In a few decades there has This system of 50 symbol

been a general change of signs was designed for use

at the crossroads of modern
reading habits that led to life: in airports and other

the near impossibility of transportation hubs and at

large international events.
communicating certain info Produced through a

without pictograms. collaboration between AIGA

and the U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT), they
The first pictograms date back a long way are an example of how public-
since the first writing systems, such as the minded designers
Egyptian or Mayan, were pictographic. Even can address a universal
the Chinese alphabet has a figurative origin communication need.
and has been gradually simplified and abstract-
ed to reach the form we know. grams to be concise and understood, if not uni-
Thousands of years after the Egyptian or versally, by users rather broad and overcoming
Maya writing, and more specifically in 1936, language barriers (not cultural) otherwise diffi-
an Austrian economist and sociologist, Otto cult to resolve. Giovanni Lussu, however, warns
Neurath, laid the foundations for a design ap- on “pictograms fever” that would suggest that:
proach to the use of pictograms. In fact, he was
“It is easier to decode a sign than a clear
deeply convinced of the possibility of develop-
writing, although there is no sign that in
ing an international visual language, assuming
itself has some significance: [...] the picto-
that while the word divides, the image unite.
gram must be first learned, which means
The potential that Neurath had the great
converted into the mental system of refer-
merit of insight was the ability of the picto-

40

ence that oversees your language.
[...] As to which one is realized in the
design of interfaces for the computer: the
current trend, very reasonably, is that you
always accompany the pictogram with the
text in the clear. [...] Like it or not, the uni-
versal visual language of our planet (until
they were replaced by Chinese or others to
come) is now written in simplified English,
and must deal with this. Proper use of pic-
tograms in the design field can be assessed
only with a proper culture of writing.”
Frutiger, on the other hand, distinguishes
three different ways to represent information
pictographic: the first includes those signs that
as realistic figures, usually in the form of sil-
houettes, leave no doubt about the meaning,
regardless of the language and way of life of
those who sees them. A cigarette crossed out
and the telephone have become universally
understandable. There is no need of a special
training to understand these signs, which give
immediate information.
The second type includes diagrams whose
Neurath works
Some examples from the book
“The language of pools”
Neurath originally intended
Isotype to be used by
educators of young children,
but it wound up instead
heavily influencing modern
public signage, statistical
graphics, and information
graphics
Contextual Ligatures
meaning is not comprehensible at first glance
and requires some mental work. This is the
case of traffic signs as those for “priority” and
“traffic in both directions”. In this group there
are many examples of signs whose meaning
remains doubtful to many people even after
many years of use. For example signals formed
by a combination of abstract elements, as in the
case of a square with an opening on one side, a
room and a door with the arrow indicating the
direction of travel. This signal requires a much
longer time for consideration of decision time
available to the pedestrian that is approaching
the door in question. A sign of this kind will
never satisfactorily serve its purpose, because
it was designed to be both inappropriate to im-
mediate visual recognition and for a basic proc-
ess of learning. In the case examined, we prefer
verbal information: “inside” or “outside”.
The third group includes indicators that are
not based on pictorial but abstract signs, and
therefore require an appropriate time to learn.
Once absorbed into the subconscious, as the
signs of the alphabet, they are understood im-
mediately. The clearest examples of this catego-
ry are signs of “one-way street” and “forbidden
direction”, now used even on pedestrian streets,
universally known and respected.
Complex problems on pictographic design
arise when it comes to services rather than spe-
cific objects such as “customs”, “lost and found”,
“self service”, “waiting room”. The problem of Otto Neurath
indicating the toilets will probably never be Philosopher and social
solved except by verbal means, because the dis- theorist, member of the
tinction between men and women represented influential “Vienna Circle”,
in the West with pants and skirts do not work was particularly associated
everywhere. with “physicalism”, which
In this regard it is interesting to note that aimed to establish an entirely
the U.S. signalling is primarily textual, unlike materialist foundation
the European one based more on pictorial- of knowledge. His best
diagrammatic component: a justification for philosophical work was
this choice can be easily detected whereas in published in the group’s
the former case, notwithstanding a vast terri- journal Erkenntnis. In
tory, the Interstate wind up thousands of miles Vienna, he became involved
where there is a linguistic uniformity, whereas in a project which evolved
in Europe the opposite is true, and a few hun- into the “Gesellschafts-und
dred miles away, the driver can be in countries Wirtschaftsmuseum”, which
whose official language is completely different. tried to convey complicated
In this case, a system based on graphic conven- social and economic relations
tions becomes a necessity. A.B.  to the Viennese public, known
as the Vienna method
41
Tech

Print is dying, digital is surging: everyone is confused.

BOOK VS IPAD Craig Mod

Let’s understand how books can be replaced. If they can!

L
ike the publishing industry wob-
bles and Kindle sales jump, book
romanticists cry themselves to
sleep. But really, what are we shed-
ding tears over? We’re losing the
throwaway paperback. The airport paperback.
The beachside paperback.
We’re losing the dregs of the publishing
world: disposable books. The book printed
without consideration of form or sustainabil-
ity or longevity. The book produced to be con-
sumed once and then tossed. The book you bin
when you’re moving and you need to clean out
the closet. These are the first books to go. And I
say it again, good riddance.
Once we dump this weight we can prune
our increasingly obsolete network of distri-
bution. As physicality disappears, so too does
the need to fly dead trees around the world.
You already know the potential gains: edgier,
riskier books in digital form, born from a lower
barrier-to-entry to publish. New modes of sto-
rytelling. Less environmental impact.
A rise in importance of editors. And,
yes – paradoxically – a marked increase in
the quality of things that do get printed.
From 2003-2009 I spent six years try-
ing to make beautiful printed books. Six
years. Focused on printed books. In the 00s.
And I loved it. I loved the process. The finality
of the end product. I loved the sexy-as-hell tac-
tility of those little ink and paper bricks. But I
can tell you this: the excitement I feel about the
iPad as a content creator, designer and publish-
er – and the potential it brings – must be ac-
knowledged. Acknowledged bluntly and with
perspective. With the iPad we finally have a
platform for consuming rich-content in digit-

42
 Contextual Ligatures

al form. What does that mean? To understand
just why the iPad is so exciting we need to think
about how we got here.
I want to look at where printed books
stand in respect to digital publishing, why
we historically haven’t read long-form text
on screens and how the iPad is wedging it-
self in the middle of everything. In doing so I
think we can find the line in the sand to define
when content should be printed or digitized.
This is a conversation for books-makers, web-
heads, content-creators, authors and designers.
For people who love beautifully made things.
And for the storytellers who are willing to take
risks and want to consider the most appropri-
ate shape and media for their yarns.
The iPad
Is a tablet computer
designed and marketed by
Apple for Internet browsing,
media consumption,
gaming, and light content
creation. Released in April
2010, it established a new
class of devices between
smartphones and laptops.
c An Amazon Kindle
compared to the Apple
iPhone.
The Core of Thing
For too long, the act of printing something in
and of itself has been placed on too high a ped-
estal. The true value of an object lies in what it
says, not its mere existence. And in the case of a
book, that value is intrinsically connected with
content. Let’s divide content into two broad
groups. Formless Content and definite Content
Formless Content can be reflowed into differ-
ent formats and not lose any intrinsic mean-
ing. It’s content divorced from layout. Most
novels and works of non-fiction are Formless.
When Danielle Steele sits at her computer, she
doesn’t think much about how the text will look
printed. She thinks about the story as a water-
fall of text, as something that can be poured
into any container. (Actually, she probably just
thinks awkward and sexy things, but awkward
and sexy things without regard for final form.)
Content with form – Definite Content – is al-
most totally the opposite of Formless Content.
Most texts composed with images, charts,
graphs or poetry fall under this umbrella. It
may be reflowable, but depending on how it’s
reflowed, inherent meaning and quality of the
text may shift.

display reading
Designers do this consistently when choosing
paper sizes, margins, and typefaces for
physical media, and we should not be scared to
question convention in interaction models to
improve the ease of reading the materials we
are asked to design, so long as we can do so in
a way that is better for the user or reader.
One primary area horizontal orientation can
improve reader experience is with the flow of
the eye. Consider the path the eye takes when
reading on a normal, vertically scrolling block
of text in a window, versus how the eye behaves
reading shorter, smaller segments of text
arranged in columns horizontally.
The benefit is in the equilibrium of how the
eye moves. With smaller columns placed
horizontally, the eye can move left to right
to read a line, move down to take in the next,
then when finishing a column, can jump to the
next and disregard previously read columns.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing The amount of horizontal movement required
Maecenas feugiat ultricies elit, vitae egestas ligula of the eye can be balanced with a reasonable
vertical measure (the height of the column).
ligula lacinia eu. Sed molestie consequat tempus.
The horizontal orientation also allows for
Cras suscipit quam lorem, in semper nunc. Sed sit something we take for granted with pagination
amet dolor justo. Sed sit amet blandit mi. Aenean in books: the ability to disregard and not
reread text we’ve already read.
suscipit hendrerit magna, id blandit augulvulputate.
Rereading and losing position, in fact, is a
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing common problem with long, vertical swaths
of text. It’s difficult to disregard already read
Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor
text, and the flow of the eye is not balanced
because the implied movement is usually so
Maecenas feugiat Maecenas feugiat
strongly vertical. The reader is also frequently
ligula lacinia eu. ligula lacinia eu. interrupted by the need to reorient the text by
scrolling to produce new paragraphs to read.
Cras suscipit quam Cras suscipit quam
It’s not torture, but I think the readability is
amet dolor justo. amet dolor justo.
worse than we realize due to our acclimation
suscipit hendrerit suscipit hendrerit to the vertical reading environment. We do so
much of it, we had to adapt. But that doesn’t
Lorem ipsum dolor Lorem ipsum dolor
mean it’s optimal.

43
Tech

The universal container The iPad changes the experi-

It’s no wonder we love our
printed books – we physically cra-
dle them close to our heart. Unlike
computer screens, the experience
of reading on a Kindle or iPhone
(or iPad, one can assume) mimics
this familiar maternal embrace.
The text is closer to us, the orien-
tation more comfortable. And the
seemingly insignificant fact that
we touch the text actually plays a
very key role in furthering the inti-
macy of the experience.
The Kindle and iPhone are both
lovely – but they only do text.
ence formula.(Fig. 5) It brings the
excellent text readability of the
iPhone/Kindle to a larger can-
vas. It combines the intimacy and
comfort of reading on those devic-
es with a canvas both large enough
and versatile enough to allow for
well considered layouts.
Well, most obviously that a
1:1 digital adaptation of Definite
Content books will now be possi-
ble. However, I don’t think this is
a solution we should blindly em- Here’s an example of how
brace. Definite Content in print- you can read a common
ed books is laid out specifically for newspaper

Print on the screen

Oliver Reichenstein wrote an excel- piece harder to read, and in the Wired umns feels jarring, and in most cases
lent piece on some of the print conven- app they rapidly become tiresome and throughout the magazine I’d like to
tions that have been used in the Wired distracting, but that’s not an effect just read the page as a single column
(and other) apps and how they don’t limited to on-screen reading – I’ve of text. His other points on signalling,
work. I agree with what he’s said, but found some newspapers and printed ornamentation and mixing fonts are
perhaps not to the same degree. He magazines hard to read for exactly largely true, but again, they’re not
presents many assertions as hard fact, this reason, but I’ve read stuff on the entirety of the truth. It’s a mat-
as absolute truth, and I simply can’t screen just fine too, and the opposite ter of how skilled you are as a designer
accept them as such. Generally, yes, (and conventional understanding) is whether you make each thing work
multi-column layouts can make a true too. Wired’s use of multiple col- or not. Hard rules are true until you
discover all the exceptions, and when
dealing with human behaviour and
preference.

Designer: Kender Flimann

Design date: 2009
Publisher: Wired UK
Price/monthly: 10€
Price sigle app: 40€

44

that canvas, that page size. While
the iPad may be similar in physi-
cal scope to those books, duplicat-
ing layouts would be a disservice
to the new canvas and modes of
interaction introduced by the iPad.
Take something as fundamen-
tal as pages, for example. The met-
aphor of flipping pages already
feels boring and forced on the
iPhone. I suspect it will feel even
more so on the iPad. The flow of
content no longer has to be chun-
ked into “page” sized bites. One
simplistic reimagining of book lay-
out would be to place chapters on
the horizontal plane with content
on a fluid vertical planenner.
At the end of every column you
can find a page with news and
short articles.
In printed books, the two-page
spread was our canvas. It’s easy
to think similarly about the iPad.
Let’s not. The canvas of the iPad
must be considered in a way that
acknowledge the physical bound-
aries of the device, while also em-
bracing the effective limitlessness
of space just beyond those edges.
We’re going to see new forms
of storytelling emerge from this
canvas. This is an opportunity to
redefine modes of conversation
between reader and content. And
that’s one hell of an opportunity if
making content is your thing.
The rules for iPad content are
still ambiguous. None of us has
had enough time with the device
to confidently define them. I have,
however, spent six years thinking
about materials, form, physicality
and content and – to the best of
my humble abilities – producing
printed books.
So, for now, here’s my take on
the print side of things moving
forward. So don’t worry books are
not dead! 
Contextual Ligatures
The infinite canvas is the
idea that the size of a digital
page is theoretically infinite,
and its content is not limited
by conventional page sizes.
An artist could conceivably
display a complete comics
story of indefinite length on a
single “page”. Scott McCloud
introduced the concept in his
book Reinventing Comics.
iPhone 4 iPad
Height: 115,2 mm Height: 242,8 mm
Width: 58,6 mm Width: 189,7 mm
Depth: 9,3 mm Depth: 13,4 mm
Weight: 137 gr Weight: 0,68 kg (Wi-Fi)
0,73 kg (Wi-Fi + 3G)
Display: 3,5” Display: 9,7”
Resolution: 960x640 Resolution: 1024x768
326 ppi 132 ppi
Unboxing iPad
Johnathan Bonnell and John
Kumahara have created/
designed an infographic
detailing recent data
statistics about the iPad.
Besides being beautiful
designed the infographic
contains interesting facts
such as usage intention and
amount iPad sold compared
to the first iPhone.
45
Web
THe LEague
of Moveable Type
Enough with the limitations of the web, we won’t have it.
You’ll find only the most well-made, free & open-source fonts.
W
e are Caroline and
Micah, the founders of
The League. As design-
ers on the web, we have a calling
to raise the standards of the web-
design world. We’re not the only
ones who value good design, and
it’s time for the web world to catch
up with it. We understand the
challenges that comes with the
internet, but with our recent dis-
covery of @font-face, we started
getting excited.
For those who aren’t up to
speed, @font-face is a fairly new
addition to web styling, letting
a designer specify the location
of their own font files. Instead of
having to design with just a hand-
ful of web-friendly fonts, we’ll be
able to use any typeface we desire.
Well, that’s our vision, anyway.
OpenSource Type Movement
There are people who design
typefaces for a living, and we want
them to make money off of some-
thing that they do well. This revo-
lution is not a movement against
type foundries and type designers;
it’s quite the opposite. The kind of
revolution we want is a change in
the way people think about doing
business. We want type foundries
and typographers to start thinking,
“Maybe there’s nothing wrong with
46
Caroline Hadilaksono & Micah Rich
b Goudy Bookletter 1911, made by Barry Schwartz, is based on giving things away sometimes.”
Frederic Goudy’s Kennerley Oldstyle. These are letters that take It’s not always about the money,
command of the space around them; notice, for instance, the sometimes it’s also about making
bowed shapes of the v and w. a contribution to the society, in
this case, the design community.
Giving one typeface away for free
will most likely only boost sales,
and it’s a good deed. We want
more people to look at it like that:
like they have a responsibility to
do something good for their peers.
We’re not asking type design-
b League Gothic is a revival of an old classic: Alternate Gothic ers and type foundries to sacrifice
No.1. It was originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the profit, we’re asking them to con-
American Type Founders Company (ATF) in 1903. The company tribute to a greater cause, to cre-
went bankrupt in 1993. And since the original typeface was ate a community where we not
created before 1923, the typeface is in the public domain. only have a high design standard
for print and web alike, but also
a community where we’re able to
share our creations, knowledge,
and expertise with our peers and
the world.
Everyone’s Welcome to Come
As a user, everyone is welcome
to browse, download, and use our
collection of hand-picked typefac-
es. In the spirit of sharing, all fonts
made available by The League are
subject to SIL’s Open Font License.
It means that you’re allowed to
use these fonts personally or com-
mercially, as long as you credit the
original creator, and if you made
tweaks and changes to the type-
faces, any new typefaces resulting

b Raleway made by Matt McInerney, is an elegant sans-serif
typeface, designed in a single thin weight. It is a display face
that features both old style and lining numerals, standard and
discretionary ligatures, a pretty complete set of diacritics, as The
well as a stylistic alternate inspired by more geometric sans-serif
@Font-Face
typefaces than it’s neo-grotesque inspired default character set.
Rule
With the release of
Safari 3.1, website
makers can use any
licensed TrueType or
OpenType font
The @font-face rule allows
for linking to fonts that are
automatically activated
when needed. This permits
authors to work around the
limitation of “web-safe”
fonts, allowing for consistent
rendering independent of
the fonts available in a given
user’s environment.
The user agent will download
the font and use it when
rendering text within
paragraph elements. If for
some reason the site serving
b “Prociono” (pro-tsee-O-no) made by Barry Schwartz is a the font is unavailable, the
roman with blackletter elements. default font will be used.
Contextual Ligatures
b Chunk is an ultra-bold slab serif typeface that is reminiscent
of old American Western woodcuts, broadsides, and newspaper
headlines. Used mainly for display, the fat block lettering is
unreserved yet refined for contemporary use.
from it should be licensed under
the same terms. That way all our
fonts and any new fonts resulting
from them will always be open.
The Members
As a contributor to our col-
lection of high-quality typefaces,
anyone who has a well designed
typeface to share with the world
is welcome to request member-
ship. However, as founders of The
League, we will use our best design
judgement whether or not to add
a typeface to our collection. Not
because we don’t appreciate any-
one who has something to share,
but because we want to maintain
the highest of standards.
The League members are a
group of very special people. It in-
cludes, us, the founders, as well
as the all important Contributors,
and those interested in participat-
ing and supporting the movement.
These are the people who made
it all possible, the reason why we
have beautifully crafted, hand-
made typefaces for everyone to
enjoy, the people who help us fuel
this revolution, and those who
keep the open-source type move-
ment alive. So, thank you all. 
47
Antropology
The brain and the act of reading: discover how it works
READABILITY
& LEGIBILITY
What does reading really
mean? How does our brain
do it? Here you will find a
little taste of what the huge
difference between legible
and readable is about.
I
n a significant portion of the artwork,
not only when designing a font for
text, reading is a fundamental objec-
tive. If you want to maximize reada-
bility in relation to “space-saving”, for
example, often we are forced to act on hearsay,
according to tradition, common places or com-
mon sense, without these criteria being for-
malized or analysed. It almost feels the need to
have a reasoned documentation on the subject
of reading, which can serve as a tool for plan-
ning and reflection, not in competition but to
support to the tradition and to the skills of the
designers.
To what extent formal amendments tradi-
tionally made on a character, with the aim of
48
EXP
improve readability, really meet this need? How
typographic variables (which come from cen-
turies of actual practice) influence the process
of reading and how the characteristics of vis-
ual perception may make the choice of this or
that character in a given context? How does the a Readability
thinking and research on reading and its cogni- d Legibility
tive and physiological cues can provide the the-
oretical matter on visual communication?
If writing is an essential element in graph-
ic design, studying the reading process may be
decisive for anyone involved in vis-
ual communication. The written
word, even considering the typo-
The design of typefaces
graphic matter itself has various only plays a simple part
levels of planning: the design of
the typeface is a simple portion of
in the complex problem
the overall problem of reading. of reading.
To observe experimentally the
variation of some parameters on reading per-
formance in a particular context, according to
the variables of type design, aims to raise an
issue: reflect on the meaning and function of
certain formal characteristics in relation to per-
petual compromise between easy reading, at-
tractive appearance and economy of space. You
can not expect to find a definitive answer to

c Young Girl Reading, c. 1770
oil on canvas, 81.1 x 64.8 cm.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard,
French, 1732–1806
The typographic tradition is
a strong point of reference,
established by centuries
of practice, testing and
corrections.
“e” you can see the difference. Where does this
Contextual Ligatures
questions related to reading: although research
in these areas did not lead to significant results
or lead to conflicting results, it would ensure
a fruitful cross-disciplinary comparison and
deep reflection and planning; for these reasons
we think it is very important that the research
on these issues does not stop.
The typographic tradition is a strong point
of reference, established by centuries of prac-
tice, testing and corrections, but it is also true
that writing fluctuates constantly and, most
of all, the contexts in which writing is applied
are radically changing
the conditions of the
problem. For example,
consider a book of fic-
tion, the yellow pages
and a street sign: it is
evident the change of
the purpose the con-
dition and character-
istics of the media and how they have changed
over time. You can not expect to find a unique
solution to the problem of reading.
For example, in the character recent-
ly developed for the U.S. highway signs, the
ClearViewHwy, it can be seen as some shim-
mering detail that underscores the constant,
though unnoticed, the evolution of Latin
characters especially the sans serifs. If you
look at the structure of such letters, it is clear
that the dominant figure of the old charac-
ter (E-Modified) is an ellipse; on the contrary,
ClearviewHwy is strongly squared. In “o” and
square shape come from? Has it a specific func-
tion? Undoubtedly a square shape widen the
interior space of the letters without increasing
the space horizontally, but this is probably not
the only the motivation of the adoption of such
shapes and curves.
For nearly twenty characters are drawn like
this. It is not impossible that the characters de-
signed for monitor display, with their square
shapes made by the rigid geometry of the pix-
els have affected our sensibilities to characters
with more orthogonal conformation. This does
not mean that the origin of everything is also
linked to stylistic factors, if highly popular, the
characters can be expected to influence our
49
Antropology
Readability
& legibility
LET’S make SOME CLARITY
BETWEEN TWO TERMS too
MANY TIMES Abused
KINROSS
Readability: you’re sitting
in an armchair, a novel by
Raymond Chandler in hand,
your side is a glass of beer and
a cheese sandwich.
Legibility: you’re in a
psychology laboratory, some
meaningless sentence
composed in a sans serif
font with a three-millimetre
x-height, shot on a screen, a
man in a white coat comes
towards you with pliers and a
blinkometer.
FOSTER
Legibility: is the ease with
which the current text can be
included in normal reading
Visibility: concerns the
identifiability property of a
character or a printed form.
50
perception of the written text.
Officina (of Erik Spiekermann) is one of the
most famous exponents of this type of square
characters, and in some ways is the origin of
the phenomenon: a typefamily designed for
mail and presumably inspired by the characters
of electronic typewriters, when the “trendset-
ters” started to use it because of its appearance,
this character has earned the status of “Cool”
and spread exponentially. The features of his
design have become a fashion and as such con-
stitute a substantial proportion of written texts.
Since then many characters have been de-
signed with a similar formal structure. I do not
think that the design of ClearviewHwy, for ex-
ample, despite being a purely technical type, is
not affected by this influence. In the past, some
studies have shown that the factor “coolness”
affects the research on the readability, simply
because the reader develops a habit and gets
more familiar with the fonts most used at the
time of the experiments.
Dirk Wendt, for example, in a large study
of 1969 states that every source of innovation
shows a rather poor result in test about read-
ability only because readers are less familiar
with the design. Previously psychologist Miles
Tinker (1942) had considered this familiarity
with certain forms of other relevant factors
perceptive character.
The aesthetic connotation therefore ap-
pears to be a variable that can reasonably be
taken into account in ergonomic character, not Mechanism of reading
only in terms of enjoyment, but also in func-
tional terms. 
But this does not mean that perceptual
factors substantially affect the reading: what Having a range of scientific
relationship, for example, lays between the ge- topics to be addressed in a
ometric domain of visual forms and the written magazine for graphic made
symbols? Is there any interference between the us think that could have
two domains? What is the extent to which a let- been an opportunity to try
ter is similar to a line or a circle? Are common- to treat the text itself in an
ly found in reading the perceptual phenomena experimental form, even if
that characterize the visual search and recogni- the embryo. we have involved
tion of shapes? some graphs have tried to
interpret some chapters focus
Neuropsychology Of Reading more on the denotations of
One of the key prerequisites for any research communication.
on reading, readability and writing, is a refer- at page 14 of Discretionary
ence to physiological and cognitive processes
that underlie these activities. A written text

is in many ways similar to an image and it is
therefore reasonable to hypothesize that the
same perceptual processes that are implicated
in the analysis of a figure operate even in the
case of reading, at least in the early process.
The luminous information that hits the back
of the eye (retina) reaches through the optic
nerve a sorting nucleus (thalamus), which “re-
directs” the same information on three differ-
ent channels: one for the colour analysis, a one
for the form and one for the movement. The
integration of the three types of signals occurs
at different levels in the cerebral cortex, where
it has to extract a “invariant” of the image/word
which is not affected by design characteristics,
spatial position and size.
The informational processing has reached a
high level here and is ready to be complement-
ed with semantics and phonology. The path
described, which commonly takes the informa-
tion in the case of visual recognition (whether
this refers to images, objects or words), is called
“ventral route”.
In reality, however, objects also have a place
in the space, a local organization of its parts
and, often, a movement. And indeed there is
a second way of processing visual information,
which in this case is processed according to
their just mentioned size, the spatial location,
the local organization and movement.
This way is called “backbone”, and is essen-
tial for orientation and detection of objects in
natural settings. In our research we are reflect-
ing on the theme of space syntax as a medium
for the development of new communication
tools and areas of writing. This begs the ques-
tion if the backbone way can play a role in this.
And perhaps the fact that there is a way that
can convey a certain piece of information rais-
es the idea of space as syntax.
The sequentiality and linearity were always
dimensions that highly characterized areas of
writing closer to us. However, there are writ-
ings in which the bond of linearity is broken
and the spatial dimension assumes a precise
denotative function: the space can be read!
Just think Aztec writing, or the Semantic
Typography of Stefan Themerson proposed by
Giovanni Lussu, or geographic maps, unicode
or the work of information design by Ladislav
Sutnar. The high frequency and distribution
92
Rod cells in the retina
million
Rod cells, or rods, are
photoreceptor cells in the
retina of the eye that can
function in less intense light
than can the other type of
photoreceptor, cone cells.
Named for their cylindrical
shape, rods are concentrated
at the outer edges of the
retina and are used in
peripheral vision. More
sensitive than cone cells, rod
cells are almost entirely
responsible for night vision.
=6
Cone cells in the retina
million
Cone cells, or cones, are
photoreceptor cells in the
retina of the eye that function
best in relatively bright light.
The cone cells gradually
become sparser towards the
periphery of the retina. Cones
are less sensitive to light than
the rod cells in the retina but
allow the perception of colour.
Contextual Ligatures
(both geographical and historical) of this writ-
ing form is such as to arouse the suspicion that
the linear writing is a special case within a
much wider one.
More than a hypothesis, a provocation, with
the creation of a form of writing that does not
base its syntax on the positioning within the
sentence but on the placement of the elements
in space; the activation of new brain areas, pre-
cisely those of the dorsal route, could become
crucial in the process of reading.
Areas of this road would come into play in-
terfaced with the classic areas for higher-order
interpretation and processing, but provides a
fundamental contribution (in parallel) for the
development of a primary channel that until
now has never (or almost ) been activated dur-
ing reading processes, that of spatial relation-
ships. This proposal is bold, but may contain
great potential. 
About the authors

Exp is an independent
research group that began
operating in 2004, is formed
by a team of type designers,
graphic and semiotic. The
objective of Exp is to study the
phenomena of reading and
writing. Specifically, it deals
with addressing the influence
of some variables on the
printing process of reading.
www.expresearch.com
51
Action!

Coming Tog th r Valeria Farina

400 designers from all over the world participated in

the project “An ampersand for Haiti”.

Font Aid: a Brief History


Swedish type designer Claes Källarsson conceived of
the initial Font Aid project in 1999. More than 25 type
designers participated in designing a collaborative
font, with proceeds going to UNICEF to help war and
disaster refugees. In 2001, SOTA became involved
when Stuart Sandler was inspired by Källarsson’s
efforts and initiated Font Aid II. This second
collaborative charitable typeface was created to
benefit the victims of the September 11 tragedies in the
US. The font was made up of almost 100 question mark

T
he Society of Typographic Aficionados glyphs contributed by designers from over 20 countries.
(SOTA) is proud to announce the re- With your support, Font Aid can continue its efforts to
lease of “Coming Together”, a font cre- assist others in dire need of aid.
ated exclusively for Font Aid IV to benefit the
victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti. The www.typesociety.org/fontaid.html
font consists entirely of ampersands, to repre-
sent the idea of people coming together to help
one another. Type designers, graphic designers, buy it from
and other artists from around the world con- www.ascenderfonts.com/font/coming-together-font.aspx
tributed artwork to the font. www.veer.com/products/typedetail.aspx?image=UMT0000515
www.fontshop.com/fonts/foundry/sota
The font is being be sold for $20US and is new.myfonts.com/fonts/fontaid/coming-together
available through font distributors Ascender
Fonts, Veer, FontShop, and MyFonts. All pro-
ceeds from the sale of the font will go to
Doctors Without Borders, to help with their the glyph
relief efforts in Haiti.

The “Coming Together” font contains over
400 glyphs and is supplied as a single, cross- A moment of relief after all this reading.
platform OpenType font. All glyphs are ac- Can you recognize the font for each &?
cessible using OpenType-savvy applications, Try the typo geek game!
Unicode-savvy utilities, the Character Map at page 62 of Discretionary
utility on Windows, and FontBook on Mac OS
X. 

52
Contextual Ligatures

53
Project Review

Leftloft: their new work analysed and explained

Newton Andrea Gessa | Photos – Leftloft

The Italian science magazine is back with a new look.

Let’s discover the project.

54
Contextual Ligatures

55
Project Review
Lettering
The lettering project is from
Leftloft, a studio based in Milan.
This custom typeface is a sans
serif unicase with some alter-
nates (the “a” and the “A”), a heavy
weight. It is used mainly for the
heading, the names of the sec-
tion and the drop caps. Obviously
Leftloft didn’t aim at readability,
as you can see from the very small
counters.
b This is a unicase type face.
Apertures are very small,
stroke is almost 1/3 of the
height.
100
100
a Letters have a proportion
of 1:1, making this a squared
typeface.
56
a The lettering applies to the
headings of every rubric.
The colours are used to
distinguish the column.
28
b This is a case of negative
tracking: letters are
overlaying one another with
transparence.
Gianluca Pirotta
We interviewed one of the
chief designers involved
in the project of Newton’s
restoration.
What did you do
specifically?
While addressing the
design of the brand new
Newton we tried to con-
sider all the fundamental aspects of the magazine:
the rationalization and hierarchization of content,
navigation, typography, graphics, page layout, the
infographic and illustration. All this to convey to
readers the idea that Newton was on sale again,
after some years of absence, and with new unpub-
lished content. Furthermore, throughout the phase
of the project, there was the desire that our work
should both transmit the editor’s philosophy and
put the magazine clearly among scientific maga-
zines on newsstands.
The problem of this project was that after deliv-
ering it we could not follow the art direction of the
magazine, in our opinion necessary due to the dif-
ficulty of applying a completely new graphic design,
especially at such a delicate time as the beginning.
Why did you choose such a fat font?
Newton is a medium-high level scientific maga-
zine, but it wants to be accessible to the general
public. We thought that, to communicate this, it
was essential to work on the heading, to make clear
the approach of the magazine. Both we and the di-
rection liked the work very much, so we decided to
create a font and make it a characteristic element
of the entire magazine.
Is there a connection between the shapes of
characters and the content of the magazine?
Sure. The serif font, used for text, was chosen for
its readability. As for the sans we used Titillium:
a project developed by Luciano Perondi with the
Academy of Fine Arts in Urbino. This font is, in our
opinion, an interesting and innovative typographi-
cal Open Font License project, which perfectly re-
flects the spirit of Newton.

Typefaces in use
Along the custom lettering
for the heading Newton uses
two typefamilies: Farnham, of
Christian Schwartz, and Titillium,
a project from Accademia di Belle
Arti di Urbino.
Titillium is a sans serif, very
minimal and white. Altough it
comes with different weights, it’s
used mainly the light one.
Titillium is used for the titles
Titillium
Titillium was born within the Academy of Fine
Arts of Urbino with the participation of students
of the Master’s degree CampiVisivi and Luciano
Perondi. Aim of the project was the construction of
a font made available through an open source web
platform, responsible for the sharing of source code
and publishing projects with the same font. Type
designers interested in the amendment or revision
of Titillium are invited to cooperate in creating and
sending the source code to their product, which will
be made available to users in the relevant section.
Contextual Ligatures
of the main articles, excerpts and tles are written with this typeface.
subhead. It’s legibility makes this Farnham give the page a good tex-
font suitable for small captions. It ture, maybe not the best, the mood
works well also within the boxes. stays light and relaxed. Too bad for
Farnham is a modern serif font, the total absence of ligature.
heavily influenced by the work of This couple of typefaces goes
Johann Fleischman, a German- well together because of the simi-
born punchcutter contemporary lar proportions and their edgy and
of John Baskerville. angular curves.
Farnham is used for all the long
text, except boxes. In some cases ti-
OpenSource Font
100 250 400 600 800 999
a full set of weights
100 Titillium is highly recognizable thanks to
Luciano Perondi has been
250 his edgy shapes. It has very wide aper-
involved in type, graphic
400 tures that give this type family an
and information design
600 outstanding legibility. Even with long
since 1998. He has designed
800 texts Titillium doesn’t tire the eye and
several custom typefaces for
999 give the reader a pleasant time. ¹⁰/12
corporate identities, events,
Titillium is highly recognizable thanks to his edgy shapes.
publishers, sign systems.
It has very wide apertures that give this type family an
www.molotro.com outstanding legibility. Titillium doesn’t tire the eye. This
paragraph was written with Titillium 100 on a 8/10 line.
Titillium is highly recognizable thanks to his edgy shapes. It has very wide
apertures that give this type family an outstanding legibility. With long texts
Titillium rocks. This paragraph was written with Titillium 250 on a 6/8 line.
Titillium is highly recognizable thanks to his edgy shapes. It has very wide apertures that give this type family an
outstanding legibility. Even within shit Titillium rocks. This paragraph was written with Titillium 250 on a 4/6 line.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz / 0123456789
CKgaDan
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ &*?!-:;.
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz / 0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ &*?!-:;.
Paolo Mazzetti is a graphic
Designer at Robilant
Associati, information Designers: CampiVisivi
designer at EXP – non profit Luciano Perondi
graphic research group. Paolo Mazzetti
www.robilant.it Design date: 2008
Price of the family (11 fonts): free
57
Project Review

Structure ner Rita Levi-Montalcini.

The magazine has four sections, At the end of every column you
named after the famous scientists: can find a page with news and
Charles Darwin, Leonardo Da short articles.
Vinci, Albert Einstein and Galileo.
Each section talks about a dif- Grid System
ferent topic, from the human to Newton lays on a 7 modules
the society, from the earth up to grid, which allows one of the mod-
the whole known universe. ules to be left blank and give breath
The distinction between sec- to the page. In addition, this grid
tions is mainly based upon colors. allows to find space for citations.
This allows the reader to choose The three columns have a large Here’s an example of the close
the field it prefers. measure, which gives the reader a up, a page with the brief news,
Every column begins with a pair comfortable view. placed at the end of a column.
of editorials, written by notable The blank column is moved to On the recto page the starting
scientist, like the Nobel Prize win- liven up the page. of the next column.

Farnham
Christian Schwartz focused on
Fleischman’s exuberant angular-
ity, carrying it to all weights of his
new Farnham series. Farnham has a
rationalist look with a liberty strug-
gle. The proportions are close to the
Baskerville. The axis is vertical for the
roman and quite slanted for the italic.
Farnham has a very wide x-height,
which is a good thing for small texts
(its primary use). The family contains
a text version and a display one. The
text version has three weights, while
the display one comes with light,
medium, regular, bold and black.
Farnham comes with a very elegant
swash typeface, and italic and small
caps. The biggest con is the absence of
ligatures.

Designer: Christian Schwartz

Design date: 2004
Publisher: Font Bureau
Price of the family (42 fonts): 750€
Price of a single face: 40€

58
 Contextual Ligatures

Some pages, with less relevant

articles, lay on 9 modules, while
the editorial articles on 2 wide col-
umns, which amplifies the impor- Leftloft was founded in 1997
tance of the author. in Milan (Italy) by Andrea
The columns are usually short, Braccaloni, Francesco Cavalli,
with a few ones as tall as the page David Pasquali and Bruno
margins. Genovese.
The vertical rhythm gets bro- Their work goes from web,
ken with excerpts from the article, to editorial design, to type
with colored text, a bigger body design to signage and
height and a different typeface. corporate identity. Among
The grid gets suspended for the their clients Pirelli and
beginning of a new section like the Corriere della Sera.
one shown below.  www.Leftloft.com

Colour identifies
Column the section

Author, nation and city

Revelant excerpts from article

Page number with

Date
integrated layout

59
Meet the Man

An interview with the (info)graphic designer

FRANCESCO
FRANCHI Valeria Farina

We met a rising star in Italian editorial design,

art director for IL – Intelligence in Lifestyle.

H
ere we are, facing one of the Swiss formalism, linear typography and pre-
youngest and more up-and-com- dominantly black titles.
ing graphic designers in the ital-
ian editorial world. Why did you choose those magazines?
We met him, unveiled his se-
crets, investigated his deepest hidden treasures Those magazines were an expression of in-
and bothered him with a thousand questions tellectual, moral and cultural heritage of a
to let our readers have a taste of what’s hap- particular historical period. They were very
pening in his genius-like mind and at IL’s edito- innovative and influential, breaking the mold.
rial department. Their form was an expression of their content.
We wanted to achieve this with IL, where the
Tell us about IL. Were you inspired by some graphics, more than aesthetics, becomes ethics.
other magazine?
What are the main difficulties encountered
IL’s design is inspired by the popular maga- while working at a magazine like that?
zines of the ’60s and ’70s, both italian and from
northern Europe. From Epoca to L’Europeo, You must be careful to repetitivity. Frequency
their characteristic was a simple design, yet a does not mean routine. For this reason we al-
very bold visual aesthetic, with elements of ways try to renew ourselves, to experiment and

60
 Contextual Ligatures

learn from our mistakes, always developing

c A famous infographic and designing new sections of the newspaper.
made by Franchi. Published
on the italian Journal “IL” Why did you give so much space to the use
of infographics?

Writing is not enough because the technol-

ogy of speech is undergoing a restructuring to-
wards new multiple languages. It is the great
lesson of our time, going back to combine dif-
ferent languages to enhance understanding.

The complexity of today’s

situation can no longer
afford a rational-synoptic
approach and the presence of
a mix of knowledge and skills
becomes the condition for a
process of rational decision.

Page numbers are often used to indicate

data in the article. How do you do that?

We start with the page number, we turn it

into numerical data and we look for the related
news.

Why and how do you combine many arti-

cles with the listening of a song?

IL – awards It is another level of reading. We try to add

detail and above all create an experience for the
EUROPEAN DESIGN reader.
AWARDS 2009
www.europeandesign.org Favourite fonts?

SND Malofiej 17 – When selecting a font I tend to favor families

International Infographic with different weights. I always try to combine
Contest a timeless character with a more contemporary
5 silver medals one. So it was also for IL, combining Akzidenz
www.snd.org to Publico.

61
Meet the Man

What is the difference between the edito- Franchi was born in

1982
rial design in Italy and elsewhere in Europe?

A publishing project is a cultural and intel-

lectual operation and a business method cen-
tered on public opinion. Following the great 
European liberal tradition, in Italy we should
return to a service function, rediscover the He got a bachelor degree
sense of information, which is something very in Industrial Design at
different from communication. We should fo- Politecnico di Milano in

2004
cus on a precise cut of the journalistic phrase,
careful to the reader’s needs, reader who re-
mains the owner of the newspaper.

Relationship with the editor: there must 

be a bit of journalists in each designer and
vice versa? He attended some courses
specializing in Graphic
Of course. The complexity of today’s situ- Design in London at London
ation, in fact, can no longer afford a rational- Metropolitan University in

2005
synoptic approach and the presence of a mix
of knowledge and skills becomes the condition a
for a process of rational decision. These are “IL” magazine first cover
qualities that not only require different knowl-
edge, but also the assumption of a role that, all 
claims to stand above the parties abandoned,
will be able to interact creatively with other ac- He got the Master of Science
tors within each case.  in Industrial Design in

2007
His thesis on newspaper
design proposed a new design
paradigm for action in the
redesign of a newspaper


b Double inside pages from the magazines
He has been working at
Il Sole 24 ORE as Art Director
for IL – Intelligence in
lifestyle magazine since

2008
IL uses a lot of illustrations d

62
 Contextual Ligatures

Agenda EDITOR – Valeria Farina

The main typography-related events in the world.

June 9-14, 2010 blank field in which blocks of type duction, graphic design, new me-
Caratteri mobili: 3D Alphabet and illustration (frequently pho- dia, printing history, calligraphy
Docks en Seine tomontage) could be arranged in and hand lettering, the book arts,
Paris, France harmonious, strikingly asymmet- advertising, type in motion, litera-
rical compositions. cy, type sales and marketing, legal
The graphic design by Francis issues, type and design education,
Dondina, playful reinterpretation http://www.moma.org and other related areas.
of alphabetic signs, dimensional
lettering almost destined to be- http://www.typecon.com
come a full furniture, is a faithful July 18–23, 2010
transposition facilities and be- Type Camp
comes a live show from Les Trois Book Arts Buffalo September 8–12, 2010
Ourses proposal.The transforma- Buffalo, NY The Word in Dublin
tion is the work of A4Adesign that, Dublin Castle
export forms designed by graphic Return to the handmade at Dublin, Ireland
from print and carton. These are Type Camp Book Arts in Buffalo,
forms that become mobile to read, New York. Here you will discover From the Book of Kells to
or rather letters that decorate a new sense of tangibility in this Samuel Beckett and beyond, the
everyday scenarios: tables, chairs, “unplugged” printing workshop as word has always been at the cen-
stools, bookcases, coat racks, so- you will get ink under your finger- tre of Irish political, cultural and
fas and built-cut sheets of honey- nails, cast your own lead type, and social life. Dublin is therefore the
comb cardboard. even use power tools to kern let- ideal place for a gathering of those
ters. This working printing mu- who are closely involved with the
http://www.a4adesign.it seum has hundreds of metal and visual and material form of words.
woodtype fonts and flat bed and Thus from the cultural heart of
platen presses, all of which allow a literary city the theme for ATypI
June 17 – July 26 2010 for total immersion. When we say 2010 has offered itself up.
The New Typography put your hands on we mean it! This year, for the first time since
MoMA the Vancouver conference in 2003,
New York, NY http://www.typecamp.org Robert Bringhurst will be among
our keynote speakers. Those who
In the 1920s and 1930s, the so- have heard his sonorous rendi-
called New Typography movement August 17-22, 2010 tions of Haida poetry or ancient
brought graphics and information Typecon 2010: Babel Greek prose will know what an ef-
design to the forefront of the artis- Century Plaza Hyatt Regency, fective presence he can be; those
tic avant-garde in Central Europe. Los Angeles, CA who have read his books will know
Rejecting traditional arrangement how intricately he interweaves
of type in symmetrical columns, Topics at TypeCon cover a ideas and the day-to-day world.
modernist designers organized broad range of interests, including
the printed page or poster as a typography, type design, font pro- http://www.atypi.org

63
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LI Signs of Design
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Good Signage Requirements
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C48 * Readability & Legibility

A
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