Micaela Clarke
Public Typography
Hidden
Hidden Public Typography
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Hidden typography is all about searching. This has always seemed to fascinated me. I always catch myself noticing the letters as I am walking to class, working, out to dinner or walking around downtown. This also got me interested in the history of the alphabet and how letters are formed. I started out wondering how one defines a letter as that letter and where those identifiers even came from. From my inquires about found letters and the history of the letters, I created this “Hidden Public Typography” book.
“ The most widely used alphabet today is the Latin alphabet.”
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A stand for a sign in Downtown Kansas City. 4
Most alphabets start with the letter A, but why? What does A stand for? And Is it just a coincedence that the word alphabet starts with the letter A? The English alphabet starts with the letter A because most alphabets are based off of the Greek alphabet, and A is the first letter in that alphabet. Some have even said that the first letter is A because Adam was the first man on the earth. This would make A stand for Adam and not alphabet. The word alphabet originated in Ancient Greece and comes from the words alpha and beta. These in turn are the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.
“The letter A currently represents six different vowel sounds.�
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Concrete blocks on a construction site.
B
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C
“ The letter comes from the form of the letter G but sounds like K.� A decoration on a front door. 7
It is unknown whether the earliest alphabets had a defined sequence. Some alphabets today, such as the Hanuno’o script, are learned one letter at a time, in no particular order, and are not used for a comparison where a definite order is required. This makes me wonder if the order of letters has anything to do with the amount in which they are used? A is actually the third most commonly used letter. E is the first and T is the second. The least commonly used letter is ironically the last letter, Z. This actually has nothing to do with the order of the alphabet because in earlier times Z was in place of the letter G. A mural painted on the side of a store.
D
“ The letter may have come from a logogram for a fish or a door.� 8
E
The side of a store in Kansas City. 9
A drinking fountain on Massachucetts St. 10
I think it is interesting how certain letters have such easy forms. Also how these forms can be a quick change to another letter.A few examples of this are L, F and E.. A capital E is simply just four lines placed at right angles. Take away the bottom line and you can form a capital F. A capital L is two lines placed at a right angle, where a lowercase L is merely one straight line.
“ The form of the letter probably originally represented a hook or a club.�
F
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Poles in a parking lot.
“ The lowercase letter G has two typographic versions; a single-story and a double-story.”
Just a Few Others: The letter H can be found in numerous different locations. These other H’s were found in different cities and from various structures. They are found in a porta potty sink, a tree, on a garage and on a construction site. 12
H
Windows of a store in Downtown KC. 13
In the modern Roman Alphabet, each letter has two variations, a lower-case and an upper-case. I think it is interesting to look at these and see how similar they actually are to one another. For instance when you take the letter A, its two variations are vastly different. Not only does the lower-case use all rounded lines, but it has two common variations, a single-story letter and a double-story.
“ the dot over the lowercase letter I is sometimes called a ‘tittle’.”
Just a Few Others: The capital letter I is a very simple shape consisting of only three lines. Seeing as it is only three straight lines, this makes it very easy to find. These were found on a construction site, on a railroad and in graffitti. 14
Side of the City Market sign. 15
J
A scrap metal found on the railroad tracks. 16
Shadows made from a fence.
“In international morse code, the letter K is used to mean over.�
L
A sattellite that was found in an alleyway. 18
Other letters have very similar lower-case and upper-case letters, such as L and M. The lower-case L though not entirely the same as the upper-case, still has its similar characteristics. The shape of the capital L, is simplified when you take away one line to become the lower-case. A capital M has tall pointed edges while the lower-case has rounded edges. Even with these minor adjustments, the letter is essentially the same just scaled down.
M
“ The letter is derived from an egyptian hieroglyph symbol meaning water.�
A bike rack in downtown. 19
“ N is the sixth most common letter and the second most commonly used consonant in the english language.�
Different letterforms can also be used in everyday life. You would never be able to have a car without its tires. Well if you think about the form of a tire, it is the same form as the letter O. The letter X is also a common form. X can be used as a stable base to most tables, chairs, and houses. Also V is often flipped and used to form roofs tops, houses and stores. In this case, the letter N is formed as a structure to hold the gateway together. It’s my guess that this gateway was originally a full fence and the top line in the letterform N was there to hold up the rest of the fence.
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A gateway found in East Lawrence. 21
Stacks of wood in East Lawrence. 22
Just a Few Others:
The letter O is the oldest letter in the English Alphabet because of its common form. Circles can be found all over the place. Whether it be a tire, hose, sign, sculpture, or handle. You can always form the letter O out of any circle.
“ Different languages attribute their vowels for ‘O’ to the shape of the mouth when making this sound.” 23
P
A railing found by the Football Stadium. 24
Just a Few Others:
The letter P seemed to be everywhere. Most handrails seemed to be curved at the end which instantly formed the letter and even one P was formed after a lightening bolt had struck a tree and broken a limb. 25
A bike rack in Downtown KC. 26
“Q is the second most rarely used letter in the English Alphabet.”
I Think the letter Q is one of the most unique. Q is actually the second most rarely used letter in the English alphabet. But how many different variations in form are there? And why does it always have to have a U after it?
Q can have many different ways to represent its
form. The capital Q can have a curved tail or a straight tail. It can also be hanging off the bottom or cutting through the center. The lower case can have a curved tail or a straight down tail too.
In English the digraph, qu, most often denotes
the cluster kw, except in borrowings from French where it represents k as in “plaque”. 27
R
is the “ The letter only letter in the basic modern alphabet in which the uppercase has a closed section and the lowercase does not.�
A wire on the side of a building, 28
A decorative gate in Kansas City.
S
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In researching all of the letters, I started to wonder where the names of all of these letters came from. The letter T comes from Taw which was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets. The sound value of Semitic Taw, Old Italic and Latin T has remained fairly constant, representing T in each of these; and it has also kept its original basic shape in all of these alphabets.
T
“ The letter is the most commonly used consonant in the English language.� 30
A support bracket for a roof.
U
A Bike rack next to the river. 32
“In Chinese the letter is missing because there is no sound for it.�
V
Two sticks found in an alleyway.
A decorative roof to a store building. 34
“ W is the only letter in the English language whose name is not pronounced with any of the sounds that the letter typically makes.”
Some letters can have nicknames or can stand for different things. Such as T can also be the drink tea. The letter I also has the same pronunciation as the word eye. The letter B can be like the insect bee. Also C is can be the same pronunciation as see or sea. The letter W is the only letter with more than one syllable is commonly shortened to “dub”. The University of Washington is commonly shortened to “Dub University”. However, W is the only letter that seems to have a nickname.
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X 36
The letter X is another one of those common forms. Its form is two diagonal lines intersecting at 90ยบ degrees. These two forms were found from a reflection placed on a garage and a telephone pole.
Just a Few Others:
A railroad sign found in East Lawrence. 37
A pipe found on the side of a street.
Y 38
When you are a child, you will almost always learn your “A.B.C.’s” song. But where does this song originate from? And why did we even start using it? The song was first copyrighted in 1835 by the Boston-based music publisher Charles Bradlee, and given the title “The A.B.C., a German air with variations for the flute with an easy accompaniment for the piano forte”. This song became extremely poplular and many variations began to start being made. It became an extremely easy way to teach children the alphabet and from then on has been widely used in schools around the world, in all different languages.
“ In earlier times, the English alphabet did not end with Z but with ‘&’ or other related symbols.”
A staircase in KC.
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I have learned many things in the process of making this book; about the history of the alphabet, individual letters and they way we can form those letters. I enjoyed finding all the pictures around Lawrence, KS and Kansas City, MO. I hope you learned something too. Now go find all those letters around your everyday life!
“Now I know my A.B.C.’s. Next time won’t YOU sing with me?” 41
Public Typography
Hidden
Words, Pictures and Design by: Micaela Clarke Designer as Author Patrick Dooley Fall 2011 University of Kansas
Typeface: Mrs. Eaves
Camera: Nikon Pro Shot
Sources: Wikipedia.org Encyclopaedia of Type Faces By Jaspert, Berry & Johnson
Thanks to: Jamie Housh Danielle Self Bradley Brooks Michelle Gerstner