Font to Represent Dublin

Blisterman

Currently putting together my final year architecture project. It's set in Dublin, and I'm trying to choose an appropriate font, which would help somehow towards giving my project the feel of "Dublin", in the same way that Johnston conveys London.


I'm really racking my brains here. The blue and white street signs use what I'm fairly certain is Franklin Gothic, which is not really distinctive enough. I'm looking for something which would subtely evoke the city of Dublin.

So any suggestions would be much appreciated. I'm trying to avoid the Irish Pub style Celtic font route. It's a bit cliche and obvious.

It's for the drawing titles, which won't be more than about 18pt or so, and there won't be any blocks of text.

pauro 76

Helvetica maybe? Dublin Bus main font, but it's over used.

banquo

You could go with Gotham Bold? It's one level of obvious away from Helvetica but is still a lovely (if over used these days) sans. Do you have a sample page from the project? It's a bank holiday Monday and I have little to to

banquo

For that 'strong' feeling, Archer could also be good.

banquo

Like any of these?

Bears and Vodka

As with any other case, Helvetica would be the easy way out. But I like the idea of choosing a widely used logo around Dublin and using its font.

For example this font:



But the problem is as far as I know its custom-made, not an actual font.

banquo

Aye, I'd say it's a logo first and then the official font (if any, and probably not available to the public!) came after. Probably a poor knockoff on dafont.com or a similar site?

I'd actually love the official typeface of this!

Blisterman

Thanks for all the responses. Don't have any images of the project. It's early days yet. At the moment I'm trying to develop a visual style. Hence the need for a font.

Helvetica and Gotham Bold are both great fonts, but aren't really distinctively "Dublin", if you get what I mean.

Ironically, the Guinness font is too distinctive. Might look a little twee and cheesy. The Jameson Logo on the other hand could work. (I know my tutor loves Irish Whiskey!)
Is this available as a font?

banquo

Most likely the original letters came from a woodcut, or was specially drawn and wasn't part of a complete set of letters.

You could try Stone Serif? Won't look the same without the shadow / colour though...

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/itc/stone-serif/

banquo

Or Ellington?

http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/adobe/ellington/regular/

tricky D

subz3r0 wrote: »

As with any other case, Helvetica would be the easy way out. But I like the idea of choosing a widely used logo around Dublin and using its font.

For example this font:



But the problem is as far as I know its custom-made, not an actual font.

Goudy Old Style bold is close without the recent styling of the 'N'.

Had the actual one lying around from previous Guinness jobs, but that would be on an old floppy disk which would have been binned long ago.

stoneill

What font is used on roadsigns in ireland?
I know the UK use transport, and this is quintessentially British, the US use a Highway Gothic.

I think the font used in lower case looks good at representing Dublin.

pauro 76

How about the typeface used for Dublin Bus, CIE and Iarnrod Eireann at the turn of the century?



The typeface Iarnod Eireann use now is quite nice.

http://www.irishrail.ie/home/

CK2010

maybe the type thats used for the dublin city council logo or the airport daa logo?? loads of good ideas on here already though
i like the Jameson one

InTheTrees

banquo wrote: »

Like any of these?

For signage you need a good lower case too. All upper case is no good.

Lower case is easier to read because your brain recognizes the shape of words in addition to spelling and its therfore faster. All the british signs use Upper and lower not upper only.

OctavarIan

Just stay far far away from Helvetica. That typeface belongs down in the same tier as Comic Sans.

Don't get too hung up on the typeface. A typeface on its own won't start communicating the idea of 'Dublin'.

What gives a typeface personality is the messages it's used to convey and the surroundings within which it conveys the message. That's how they become ubiquitous with certain brands/connotations (just look at the Guinness and Jameson suggestions made so far!) Your project should already 'feel' like Dublin, if you're relying solely on the typeface do give it this feel then somethings wrong.

Of course I don't know what your project is, but I'm assuming it'll involve everything from signage to smaller brochures. If that's the case my recommendation is something versatile like ALS Direct.

Pixelcraft

OctavarIan wrote: »

Just stay far far away from Helvetica.

:eek: why do you say that?

OctavarIan

Pixelcraft wrote: »

:eek: why do you say that?

It's a bit tainted to be honest, like Comic Sans it's overused and misused way too much.

Don't get me wrong there's nothing wrong with Helvetica, when used on the right project it's excellent. I just feel personally jaded by it. I don't know whether it's lazy designers or fanboy designers or what the reason is, but it's just misused and overused.

There are so many great typefaces out there, support the craft and give them a chance!

[edit]Helvetica is certainly not a 'Dublin' typeface anyway, unless you mean to convey Dublin as generic corporate :P

Pixelcraft

I agree, but comic sans is a poorly constructed font, there's a massive difference.

The problem is, signage type has a very specific use, signs all over the world are purposely not decorative. With the exception of NYC, I don't think you could look at any given signage and say that's from London, or Dublin, or Madrid etc

OctavarIan

Pixelcraft wrote: »

I agree, but comic sans is a poorly constructed font, there's a massive difference.

The problem is, signage type has a very specific use, signs all over the world are purposely not decorative. With the exception of NYC, I don't think you could look at any given signage and say that's from London, or Dublin, or Madrid etc

I know there's a massive difference in the construction of the two and I mentioned that there's nothing wrong with Helvetica. It's just a cliché option and the overuse of it has become an inside joke, similarly to the overuse of Comic Sans, Times New Roman, etc. My issue isn't with Helvetica but with the incorrect usage of it. It brings certain connotations that people don't seem to be aware of.

As for your second point, read my earlier post We both agree on that one yes.

It's an interesting discussion anyway, but I don't want to continue it here being off-topic and getting the OP's thread locked

Blisterman

Just had a thought. The word "Dublin" will be quite prominant, and every time I fly home into Dublin Airport, I always get a nice feeling stepping off the plane and seeing the "Dublin" sign on the terminal building. It's been there unchanged for as long as I can remember.

Can't find a picture of the "Dublin" part, but I think the "Ath Cliath" sign uses the same font.


Anyone know what font this is? It looks very familiar.

Bears and Vodka

Blisterman wrote: »

Just had a thought. The word "Dublin" will be quite prominant, and every time I fly home into Dublin Airport, I always get a nice feeling stepping off the plane and seeing the "Dublin" sign on the terminal building. It's been there unchanged for as long as I can remember.

Can't find a picture of the "Dublin" part, but I think the "Ath Cliath" sign uses the same font.


Anyone know what font this is? It looks very familiar.

Helvetica ?

banquo

stoneill wrote: »

What font is used on roadsigns in ireland?
I know the UK use transport, and this is quintessentially British, the US use a Highway Gothic.

I think the font used in lower case looks good at representing Dublin.

The font - believe it or not - is called 'Motorway' (!)

Blisterman

subz3r0 wrote: »

Helvetica ?

Haha, think you're right.

Found the sign. http://www.flickr.com/photos/smannion/425472610/

Though apparently they've changed it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38016434@N05/4194238361/

Still Helvetica I think, just not all caps.