The Seeing Eye SIGN OF PROGRESS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30588, 3 November 1964, Page 7

The Seeing Eye SIGN OF PROGRESS

The appearance of our city Is being cheapened by the thousands of badly lettered and ill-con-trived signs which descend like plaques of locusts. Fortunately in this country we are aljnost spared the horror of road-side hoardings. But why is it that on entering a city we become blind to its possibilities as a place of beauty; unaware that the city could complement the beauty of mountain and lake and symbolic skills and social values.

Much of the tawdry and downright offensive lettering could be avoided if, as in Sweden, local authorities introduced appropriate by-laws, which simply regard indiscriminate lettering as litter, not to be tolerated by civilised human beings. By way of contrast “write large. Mother’s deaf,” to quote the old music hall comedian, is still a working rule in New Zealand even though lettering oversize in relation to the space it occupies does not make for legibility. Mercifully typographic stuttering does seem to be on its way out. Simple Notices While there is much bad and quite unnecessary lettering about, there is a dearth of modest and simple notices like house numbers (which are often broken, incomplete or painted over and therefore illegible) and for notices for places of general public interest and convenience. Sometimes one is obliged to cross the street to discover the name of a building in tortured letters high up on its plastered facade and recross to search among shop entrances for the way to an office on a higher floor. This really isn’t good enough in a modern city. When a building is altered sometimes its title becomes truncated, as in Wellington where a very dignified block of offices proudly and enigmatically

displays, in florid lettering reminiscent of a fan-fare, the single word "the.” What chance has a poor visitor or tourist? And this is the point; our cities will only serve us well when they also serve the person who doesn't know his way about. Several trading banks have recently taken the lead in public lettering and, whether their customers realise it or not, will soon receive advantages in return for their enlightened attitude. One bank has just erected a new building facing Riccarton road; from its appearance we know that the architects, fully alive to the “car revolution,” designed the building with its identifying title as a unity from the start. This, 1 suspect, is rather rare. Lettering so frequently spoils the appearance of buildings because a decision about its precise form, size and scale is left too late. Integration The illustration above (I’m sorry about the pole) shows how the title of the building can be quickly and easily read from a considerable distance from any direction and how refreshingly simple black-on-white lettering can be. No doubt some of the letter forms could be improved, but what makes this example

particularly worthy of study is the integration of inscription and structure. Within a few hundred yards another new building pleasantly designed in itself, also displays some public lettering. In this example illustrated below, while the letters have a lively italic slope and are probably better formed than in the previous cast, the result, because of the restless background, is a teasing and camouflaged inscription which negates the first principles of legibility. This is, to quote Bruce Allsopp, “one more example of a preoccupation with ‘interesting textures’ without any real regard to their functional or visual appropriateness.” Though I must make it clear that my criticism of the screen wall is confined to its suitability as a background for lettering, in every other respect it is probably excellent. Even now it is not too late for something to be done to minimise the effect of the spotty and irritating pattern behind the cuG out bronze letters.

Good lettering is common courtesy and institutions, private companies and public bodies in particular have a responsibility to maintain reasonable standards in everything they print and display. —John Simpson