Dirt Wanted

Everyday as I go into town, and return from town, I am confronted by this sign as I turn onto my street. In the middle of 5 acre lots, with $500K + homes on top of them... there is this sign. This sign makes me wish some faux Graphic Designer used Papyrus to cover it up. I have had dreams of sneeking over in the middle of the night, to tear it down. But every time something happens to it, the owner somehow puts a new, even more disgusting sign up in it's place. You would think it's only up for a month or so, but this is going on a year and a half. Is there some kind of type hit squad that can help?

Devo

day 1

i have been brainstorming about what i would like to do for this project. i am very inspired by interactions of type and environment and am always interested in other designer's interpretations of their surroundings using typography.

i definitely know that i want this project to not be a generic view of cedar city, but rather of my personal experiences with our environment. i especially enjoy using typography as a reaction to the environment and have explored that concept slightly with my projects like this:



so, what if: typography becomes a layer of the environment that is not seen in the moment, but added after the fact, as a reaction to my experiences in the place (cedar city).

*Sigh* Day one Repeat idea....*sigh*

So ummmm Dan beat me to the punch with the rubbing of the tombstone. So yeah...here is mine! I did take a different point of view of the rubbing. I just think that it is interesting to see that old tombstones have sans serifs, serifs, bold letters, slab serifs, italics, and even a font from the desert. Anyways here is mine and my point of view of what you can do with the rubbings.

day one: white space

In brainstorming for this tour of Cedar City project I couldn't stop thinking about typography literally & seeing actual letter forms. I asked myself what makes the letterforms interesting? Is it the actual marks made that creates interest or the white space around it? The negative space around each letterform makes it legible. More or less white space creates a different affect to how the letterform appears & the overall feeling.

I'd like to think of Cedar City as an actual letterform & snow as the white space. Depending on how much snow Cedar has can determine ones overall feeling of Cedar City. Or, snow in the surrounding areas can make Cedar City a more or less appealing place to visit.

day one: white space

ink

Alright, so when we think about letterforms in cedar, we typically think of signs, flyers, newspapers, etc. But after being in Cedar City for most of the winter break, I realized that the the college students are really what bring life to this city. 7,000 (or so?) people that only have one thing in common with everyone else- SUU. With so many different people from a variety of places, its interesting to see personalities and characters mesh. What types of letter forms to people deem important enough to put on their bodies, or wear on their tshirt? Is it effected by the place you call home? Do people really think about it?

I'm not entirely sure where this will end up, but as a start I thought my friend's tattoo was a pretty bold way to express some hometown pride. When I asked him if he knew the typeface, he replied...."what? I don't know but it kinda sucks"...interesting.

Mexican Anyone? (Day 1)

15 days to blog, 15 Mexican joints in Cedar… coincidence? I think not

It may just be a bunch of white paint shaped into something that can be read, but to those who don't just drive by, it means more. It's life, memories, education, good times;

it's more than just a 'C'.

Day 1: Shannon Coughlin

Type is viewed in many different ways. You see signs and billboards all over even in a small town like Cedar City, Utah. One of the most interesting concepts for me that we experimented with in Typography I was how letters can convey a message and emotions to the viewer. So I wanted to play with this subject.

My first image is a carving from a tree. I love the way these people wanted to preserve the way they felt about a person and broadcast it to everyone even though it is on a tree outside of Wendy’s’ fast food restaurant. I have always found it interesting when people carve their names or put their initials whether it is on trees, or in wet cement or on walls with graffiti. They want they name and their feelings to be out there by using typography. Even I have had the urge to put something in writing in wet cement from time to time.

Shannon Coughlin

Caution... Important Quote!

OK OK maybe its not the most important quote but for a long time I have been wanting to make a book that has a bunch of inspirational type quotes that I like and do them in a cool designed way. I don't really think that is what I am going to end up doing with this project and will probably not make the book for a long while but that doesn't mean that these things don't influence my life. Anyway I saw this sign (or one just like it) on the doors of the science building while walking home. It definitely was not the actual typeface that caught my attention but the whole design itself, well actually mostly the color haha. And I think that sometimes that has to be a purpose in typography, not as much as its aesthetics as its legibility of clearness. So I thought of it as an interesting thing that struck me and I mixed it with a quote from "The Traveler's Gift" by Andy Andrews. Hope you all like it!

Festive Airs

Whenever I drive back to Cedar City from where I've been, I tend to look at land marks along the way and say- Ah ha, there's the "This is the place" bill board, and there's that sign advertising SUU and there at last is the large sign welcoming drivers to Cedar City, festival city. It lets me know I'm almost home.
Like so many other times, I noticed these signs and I had been thinking about Cedar City as a fun, little place to live with at least some cultural highlights here and there. Now with this assignment I got thinking of all the history behind the Shakespeare Festival and how typography plays a role in communicating a certain atmosphere anywhere you go. I was thinking it would be interesting to take type specimens from town, including all the signage having to do with Cedar City's heritage of festivals such as the Shakespeare and Groove Fest events and explore how different typefaces portray the mood of these events and does it affect what people think about Cedar City?

Taco Town

Ever since I moved to Cedar I noticed the outrageous amount of Mexican food restaurants. And since then they keep popping up. I guess we just don't have enough. I find people talking about this all the time, even as I went from Typography to my next class, someone had brought up the discussion about all the many Mexican restuarants we have here. I've been calling it Taco Town.

Anyways....

The three restaurants that I think have the most in common are Costa Vida, Cafe Rio, and Bajio. All mexican grills, all have similar products, and go through the same process to get your food. I was just looking at the type setting today of just these three logos. But believe me, I'll get going to the other 20 restaurants soon enough.

Tombstone Rubbing

This first image is taken from the letters engraved on a tombstone in the local cemetery. Now before you all assume that I'm a morbid tombstone rubbing, grave robber, allow me to explain my inspiration. I've been somewhat fascinated by the role that type can play in the long term.

Today, we throw away a lot of things with type on them, but for centuries, type has functioned as a means of leaving a mark that would outlast the mark-maker. It's a way for us to immortalize our ideas, for our posterity. Take the tombstone itself. We use the term "carved in stone" to refer to something that is unchangeable. I think the longevity of a tombstone is interesting because it essentially serves as a marker for a life that is temporary and finite. There is a contrast between the life of the inscription and the life of the person it now supersedes. By engraving the person's name in stone, we all can see that this particular person was here; that they lived.

That is why I would like to explore the ways that typography can leave a lasting impression, whether it be for a few years or for eons.

-Peace, Dan G.

Typography's Worst Enemy

It's funny how one thought can lead to another. I was convinced today that we really are affected by the world and culture we live in. When Jay first mentioned Cedar City was the jumping off point a chain of reactions went off in my head. Here's the trail that led to the resulting sketch:

a.) Cedar City has lots of businesses catered to the cattlemen.

b.) Those businesses use slab serif/egyptian type fonts for their signs.

c.) I saw a pawn shop by my place of work that uses that (Cedar has a few pawn shops--something we don't have in northern California).

d.) Driving home from work I noticed that there are huge trees on my street, also something I'm not accustom to seeing.

e.) Finally the idea came to me---Trees could really ruin your business if they dead center in front of your sign. Who is going to see that you're there? If typography is how we communicate visually, the tree has successfully defeated its purpose.

I bet I can find one or two business in town that are suffering from that. It IS Cedar, after all.

Day 1: Jade Gelskey

Day 1 Image: Burrito

Day 1: Jade Gelskey
Topic: The topic I am picking for this project is going to deal with all of the fast food restaurants in Cedar City UT. It will be a tour of Cedar City through these places. Coming to Cedar City the amount of fast food places surprised and intrigued me. I would like to look a little more into this phenomenon.

Now I want to take this project a step further in meaning, and the theme is going deal with the nations (including Cedar City) obsession with these same types of fast food. Fast food is often very unhealthy, rarely makes you feel good and all around does not enhance our lives. The signage never reflects this. It does not discuss the results: obesity, unhealthy lifestyles and potential health risks.

With simple, yet strong typography and alluring images you can't help but take notice. The result is that many of us find ourselves in the drive-in. The power this design possesses is often dismissed as insignificant, but I believe it really does help make a difference in encouraging an unhealthy lifestyle.

jay,
the video you showed in class reminded me of this.
i thought you guys would enjoy it :)