Underware – Auto Pro Type Specimen Book Project by Ruairi Walsh

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figures Oldstyle Figures — Proportional Spacing 0󼀚123456789 Oldstyle Figures — Tabular Spacing 󶠀󶠰󶠱󶠲󶠳󶠴󶠵󶠶󶠷󶠸󶠹 Lining Figures — ­ Proportional Spacing 󶀀󶀰󶀱󶀲󶀳󶀴󶀵󶀶󶀷󶀸󶀹 Lining Figures — Tabular Spacing 󶬀󶬰󶬱󶬲󶬳󶬴󶬵󶬶󶬷󶬸󶬹

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glyphs Ligatures fffiffiflffl Punctuation -—!?¡¿&§;$:£=%“[{(*#@§ Mathematics = + 󶀫 % ^ < ~ ± ¹ º ¼ ½ ¾ ˚ Δ Ω μ π Ω ℮ ∂ ∆ ∏ ∑ − ∕ ∙ √ ∞ ∫ ≈ ≠ ≤ ≥ ◊ 󶀥 ‰ 󶂱 󶃗 󶃷 󶆒 󶋭 󶋮 󶋯 󶋰 󶋱 󶠥 󶠫 󶠼 󶠽 󶠾 󶢱 󶣗 󶣷 󶦒 󶫭 󶫮 󶫯 󶫰 󶫱 Symbols ¶†‡©®™

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glyphs Diacritics Āā Ăă Ąą Ǻǻ Ạạ Ǽǽ Ćć Ĉĉ Ċċ Čč Ďď Đđ Ēē Ĕĕ Ėė Ęę Ěě Ẹẹ Ẽẽ Ĝĝ Ğğ Ġġ Ģģ Ǧǧ Ĥĥ Ħħ Ĩĩ Īī Ĭĭ Įį İı Ịị IJ ij Ĵĵ Ķķ ĸ Ĺĺ Ļļ Ľľ Ŀŀ Łł Ńń Ņņ Ňň ʼn Ŋŋ Ɲɲ Ōō Ŏŏ Őő Œœ Ǫǫ Ǿǿ Ọọ Ŕŕ Ŗŗ Řř Śś Ŝŝ Şş Šš Șș ẞ Ţţ Ťť Ŧŧ Țț Ũũ Ūū Ŭŭ Ůů Űű Ųų Ụụ Ŵŵ Ẁẁ Ẃẃ Ẅẅ Ŷŷ Ÿ Ȳȳ Ỳỳ Ỹỹ Źź Żż Žž

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a brief history of signpainting and the resurgence of the craft “So You Want to Paint Letters, Do You?” were the opening lines in the little zine-like manuals handed out at the beginning of New Bohemia Signs’ Introduction to Brush Lettering Workshop. As I took a look around the little California sign shop, with its walls plastered with handpainted eye-candy, sitting in front of the paint stained easel boards setup with enticingly fresh paper — yes, I thought to myself. Yes I do!

I had been dabbling in sign painting for a while prior to this workshop, working for an old-timer in Calgary who generously took me on as his part-time apprentice, so I had heard a lot about what a traditional sign painter had to say about his trade — and it used to be thought of as

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just that — a trade — no different from a mechanic or a carpenter and with about just as much glamour. Sign painting was a lucrative, practical trade and extremely common. You’d be surprised by the number of people who can say they’ve been a sign painter at some point in their lives. My previous landlord was a sign painter.

He was also a man, which was the norm for the field in those days. Why would women be interested in getting paint under their nails? And the logistics of getting up a ladder in a dress would mean she had to wear pants, and so you see the problems unravel…

And nevermind higher education. Any man could pick up a brush and a mahlstick and with practice and proper techniques, apprenticing alongside experienced painters, make a good living at being a sign painter.

This sign painting shop in San Francisco was not the norm — not today, not 30, not 50 years ago. It wasn’t pumping out orders of eighty identical real-estate signs that would be thrown away within a week or two. And they weren’t hell-bent on the “rules” of lettering. We were encouraged to have fun. It wasn’t grudgingly practical, it was artistic.

It felt like a painting or printmaking studio from art school where people talked about the local indie music scene and organic gardening over their shoulders with each other as they painted. Yet to see a sign painting shop flourishing on

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a scale larger than a one-person operation (as most today are) is rare. To be able to paint letters well enough and fast enough to be able to convince a business to pay for their signage to be done that way at a time when printers and vinyl can produce a cleaner, faster job every time is a tough sell. But it’s being done. How? Because it now serves a niche market.

There are a few people who are willing to pay more for a process that takes longer, is more inefficient, inconsistent and riddled with problems compared to newer, reliable materials — because it’s not printed, it’s not plastic, it’s handmade. The beauty happens when a competent painter has the skills to execute a clean, sharp, smooth sign despite these factors. I don’t want people looking

“...our generation is tired of cheap, crappy products distributed from big box retailers” 22

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at what I’ve just done and think, “Oh — that looks handmade”. Or “I could do that”. Handmade or handpainted shouldn’t translate into an excuse for poor quality or shoddy painting. I’m always working to bring a higher level of skill and craftsmanship to the work that makes people feel proud to own it and to show it off. If they feel they could have just done it themselves, I don’t think they’re going to value that object nearly as much.

I think our generation is tired of cheap, crappy products distributed from big box retailers. Hand-painting signs and objects is a way to restore some of that value and personal touch back into things.

Sign painting isn’t the trade it used to be. You can’t just learn some brush skills and be able to feed yourself off it anymore, travelling from town to town sleeping in your car and painting signs all across the country. It’s become something that (I think) is much better. It has morphed into a strange and glorious intersection between art, design, and craft. It’s equal parts function, luxury item, piece of art and commercial practicality. The rising interest in craft and handmade, locally produced items is only adding to its rise in popularity.

Sign painting now belongs to a new generation of artists,

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graphic designers and letterers who maintain respect for tradition, but are adapting it to its new environment and breaking rules along the way. All forms of hand lettering — both drawn and painted — are becoming increasingly popular in graphic design applications including logos, packaging, advertising and editorial work, in addition to signage. It has come full circle — offering us the freedom and adaptability that took a back seat for years as the printing press and then the computer wowed us, and then dulled us with its linear grids. Just as analog photography teetered near the brink of death when digital became all the rage, so too has hand lettering and sign painting come back to life. You’d think that this cycle has happened enough times that we’d not go ahead and throw out the “old” technology as soon as something new arrives, but we are a strange and silly species... I’m just happy to be here at this moment and have the pleasure of riding this wave as long as I can. Viva La Sign Painting!

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masters of design In the modern age of Adobe Illustrator and vinyl printers, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to forget that not too long ago, most storefronts, banners and billboards were painstakingly hand-lettered, one at a time, by artisans armed only with brush, paint and centuries-old principals of information design. Before standardized vinyl cut-outs decimated the industry, professional sign painters roamed the earth in such large numbers they had their own union, their own trade schools and even their own bars. Filmmaker Sam Macon, who teamed with writer Faythe Levine on the new book Sign Painters (Princeton Architectural Press), says â&#x20AC;&#x153;People used to go to the corner bar where all the sign painters hung out to talk about sign stuff. They were like cop bars.â&#x20AC;?

To survey the current sign-painting landscape, Faythe and Macon trekked the country for 18 months, relying primarily on old-fashioned word of mouth to track down veteran practitioners and new-generation sign painters in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, Cincinnati, Denver and elsewhere. Levine, author of

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the 2008 book Hand Made Nation: The Rise of diy, Art, Craft and Design, initially found inspiration in the graffiti artists she’d known in Minneapolis who stripped away the so-called “gingerbread crap” from their lettering styles after they became entranced with a local sign painter who served as their mentor.

Levine says, “The thing I’ve learned is that anybody can pick up a brush or pen and write an alphabet and make a sign, but to be a really good sign painter takes a lot of time. It’s not the equivalent of punk rock.” Macon adds, “Graffiti is one of several gateways that the young crowd has gotten into sign painting. Many of them who grew up on computers have now returned to these hand-made elements they can incorporate into the design work.”

Levine and Macon hope their project, which also includes a 2013 documentary-in-progress, spurs a renaissance in hand-crafted signage. “There is a romance to sign painting because of the tradition and the physical labour, which attracts people of our generation,” Macon says. “But a lot of sign painters we spoke to emphasized this is not throwback or retro or old-timey.”

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Helping to spark the revival is New York City’s Colossal Media, whose hand-painted murals have become a hipster ad platform of choice. “It looks better than a big vinyl banner that flaps in the wind, and tears, and falls apart and fades. For these guys, the reason to paint the sign is, it looks better, it lasts longer, and it means you’re for real.” Read on for commentary by some of America’s finest commercial artists and sign painters featured in the Sign Painters book that hits bookstores on Nov. 2. greetings from texas Austin sign painter Norma Jeanne Maloney says, “Even as a small child I had a fascination with typography, which was completely abnormal,” she says. “As a teenager I’d draw ornate album covers, like Fleetwood Mac and

“There is a romance to sign painting because of the tradition and physical labour” 28

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Bob Seger. I was in love with type.” Maloney turned out to be the only student who showed up for a class conducted by old-school sign painter Mike Stevens. When Stevens died, his daughter showed her one of his journal entries. “This girl is going to be a great sign painter,” he wrote. “I’d been ready to give it up, thinking it was never meant to be, since I just kept hitting obstacles,” Maloney comments. “That was a powerful moment.” brick wall, hard sell Seattle sign painter Sean Barber, who worked previously as a carpenter and boat builder, uses chisel-tipped lettering quills to create his graphics. As excerpted from the Sign Painters book, Barber says, “So many stores have vinyl signs that now entire blocks look the same. Many business owners want to slap up some garbage and still have a bunch of people show up. It just doesn’t work that way. If you have a good-looking storefront and you take pride in it, you’ll attract more customers. I think people’s appreciation (of hand-painted sings) is growing; business owners see them and want them. They can feel the power of a hand-painted sign.” go team go New Yorker Stephen Powers comes from a graffiti background. He says, “Certain techniques and ways of

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painting I learned from over one hundred years of sign painting tradition. What’s really cool is that if you follow every known law in the sign game, you’ll at least learn how to do a sign correctly. You can’t really lie; maybe you can cheat a little bit, but you have to tell the truth. For me, sign painting is doing something that graffiti never could: it’s impacting people’s lives on a monumental scale.” the medium is the message Mark Oatis, who teams with his wife Rose on Denver-area projects, studied five years at the Union Apprentice Sign Painting Course before joining forces with other painters.

“We started this little club,” he says. “One night we’d work on gold leaf, another evening we’d bring in somebody who was very skilled at show cards. We did this informally for about six or seven years. Sometimes five people would show up and sometimes twenty. Earl Vehill coined a name for us, “Letterheads”. high-wire act Mark Oatis hopes the Letterhead project sustains oldschool traditions. He says, “We began communicating through articles in magazines, letters, and by phone since it was pre-internet. The Letterheads connected people from around the country, and that’s how it began to grow.

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making an indelible impression Washington state sign painter Ira Coyne says “The businesses that I’ve developed good relationships with understand how important it is to look different from everybody else. If you go to a cookie cutter sign company that’s going to print out something from the computer, with all the R’s looking exactly the same, it just won’t have as much character.” storefronts on parade Jeff Canham studied graphic design at the University of Oregon, worked at a magazine, then got into sign painting when he moved to San Francisco. “A friend of mine was opening up a new store and needed a sign made, so he went to New Bohemia Signs, and I went with him. I loved what they were doing and asked how I could get involved. They told me to apply for an apprenticeship, and that’s how it started. carnival time Josh Luke, who runs Best Dressed Signs in Boston with his wife Meredith, formed a group called the Pre-Vinylite Society (right) to celebrate the craft of old-school signage.

“Sign painting is experiencing a comeback,” he says. “I’ve been a sign painter for less than ten years, but in the last two or three years I’ve noticed a much higher demand

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Pre-Vinylite Society poster, Josh Luke

for hand-painted signs. I see sign painting as a way to positively affect the visual landscape of my city.” power of suggestion Sign painter Jeff Canham integrated old-school craftsmanship into his repertoire of digital tricks. “At the time I went to school they were teaching all the traditional means of graphic design, as well as how to do everything on the computer. I was lucky in that sense.”

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cocktails, anyone?

Ohio sign painter Keith Knecht learned his craft from a hard-driving mentor. “For years I couldn’t get a sign painter in the city of Toledo to show or tell me anything,” Knecht says. “It really was a closed fraternity. I was lousy and slow, and I couldn’t do the really good jobs to get the good money. Then I met Burt Mayer. He knew more about sign painting than any living human. He was a grumpy, grouchy old guy — just like the ones you hear about. He was a tough taskmaster. On more than several occasions I wanted the satisfaction of busting him one.” keeping it simple Phil Vandervaart learned his craft from an older generation of sign painters. “I’m fifty-eight, and when I started in my twenties I had access to a lot of the old-timers who are now gone. They were really brutal.

Once, after watching me paint a sign, one of them said, ‘I want you to come back here.’ He walked me about thirty feet back and said, ‘Tell me why your sign looks like crap.’ At first I was offended, but then I really appreciated his feedback and I took it to heart.” personality to spare Minneapolis artisan Phil Vandervaart likes to blend humor and information in his work. “I tend to push

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everything to the comical because it’s a sign, not fine art.

It’s meant to convey information and be attractive.” painting the town red New Yorkers Paul Lindahl and Adrian Moeller started Colossal Media in 2004 and quickly earned a following in New York City for their Sky High Murals projects.

“We have a lot of walls in neighborhoods at street level, and our painters spend half the day just talking to people. We get a lot of appreciation from the public.

Now advertisers want the hand paint, they want to draw the public. That’s what advertising is about. It’s getting to that viewer and having people stop to look.”

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designing auto pro Auto Pro is Underwareâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take on that most uncommon of typefaces â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the humanist sans serif. Auto Pro is equally capable as a hardworking reading typeface thanks to its generous x-height, as well as being a useful and varied display typeface due to its three distinct italic styles, and the unusual and the characteristic forms of the individual letters.

As with all our projects, hand sketches are the very first steps towards a new typeface. The size and precision of the sketches varies. Some sketches are rough, aiming to find the right direction for that third italic. Other sketches are small doodles, comments on printed proofs. And again other sketches are rather precise, having an x-height of 4 to 5 cm.

The overall production period of Auto took more than five years; first it was a custom-made mini-family of three fonts for a publication and exhibit about Maire Gullichsen in Pori Art Museum, Finland 2000.

After some time the family was developed into 12

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fonts for the 50th year anniversary of Salpausselän Kirjapaino (nowadays called Aldus). This Finnish printing house desired to offer its own cast metal type for its clients, and to have its own distinct typographic identity visible in its house style.

Since that time, those 12 fonts have gone through a complete overhaul: the character set was expanded a couple of times, two more italics were designed, italic small caps were added, as well as multiple figure styles.

We will continue to update and expand these fonts so that Auto remains a contemporary workhorse.

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about underware Zealotry wouldn’t be an inappropriate collective noun for Underware. We not only design typefaces, we live type — we educate about type, we publish about type, we talk about type, and we want others to talk about type.

There is an inherent honesty to our enthusiasm that betrays no snobbery — we simply think that type is very interesting and that everyone, given the chance, might think so too. Our work is among the most popular of independent type foundries — happy-go-lucky, highquality, text-friendly typefaces for both display use and comprehensive typesetting. Underware’s typefaces stand out thanks to unique aesthetics, finished quality, and a considered collective presence. Underware is a refreshing and intelligent type foundry who, while taking what we do seriously, manage to not take ourselves too seriously.

The type foundry Underware was founded in 1999 by Akiem Helmling, Bas Jacobs and Sami Kortemäki, and is based in Den Haag, Amsterdam and Helsinki. Stay tuned, follow us on Twitter and Instagram or sporadically receive marvelous news by our email newsletter. https://underware.nl/ https://underware.nl/fonts/auto/preface

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colophon title: Auto Pro authors: Jennifer Konanz Princeton Architectural Press publisher: Underware published: March 2020 design: RuairĂ­ Walsh typeface: Auto Pro Light 10pt isbn 978-55-43621-06-3

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