That mysterious font is Festive, not Stymie
April 22, 2024 11:35 PM Subscribe
Oh wow, I've often wondered about this style of lettering, and now I have names for it, thanks!
There are a couple of places I can think of that still have it near here, a launderette and a tiny bike repair place, both of which have been running basically unchanged my entire life. I'm now middle aged, and this style was quite rare and seemed old-fashioned when I was young.
I do rather like 'Festive' aesthetically, but it is generally only seen on places that are a bit shabby and run down and perhaps not very welcoming to anyone who hasn't been known to the owner for at least three decades...
posted by tomsk at 1:36 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
There are a couple of places I can think of that still have it near here, a launderette and a tiny bike repair place, both of which have been running basically unchanged my entire life. I'm now middle aged, and this style was quite rare and seemed old-fashioned when I was young.
I do rather like 'Festive' aesthetically, but it is generally only seen on places that are a bit shabby and run down and perhaps not very welcoming to anyone who hasn't been known to the owner for at least three decades...
posted by tomsk at 1:36 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
Evokes mastheads of long-defunct magazines for me, with names like RADIO ENTHUSIAST or CROCHET WORLD.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:57 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 1:57 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]
'Festive' certainly does evoke an air of places already going to seed by my ('70s) childhood.
Exactly the same feeling for me. It also put me in mind of Double Diamond beer, which has similar associations buried in my childhood I guess.
posted by biffa at 2:29 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
Exactly the same feeling for me. It also put me in mind of Double Diamond beer, which has similar associations buried in my childhood I guess.
posted by biffa at 2:29 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
I love that type font. I think I used to work in a chippy that had its sign done in it.
posted by The River Ivel at 3:04 AM on April 23
posted by The River Ivel at 3:04 AM on April 23
The linked article about the sign replica is a magnificent anorak saga about identifying and recreating a Lettercast Festive sign.
posted by zamboni at 4:40 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 4:40 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
The linked article about the sign replica is a magnificent anorak saga about identifying and recreating a Lettercast Festive sign.
Yes, I got totally sucked in by that side quest too. The best of anorak, indeed.
posted by mykescipark at 5:51 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]
Yes, I got totally sucked in by that side quest too. The best of anorak, indeed.
posted by mykescipark at 5:51 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]
It was fat, bold and easy to read from a distance.
I feel a kinship with this font.
posted by delfin at 6:02 AM on April 23 [19 favorites]
I feel a kinship with this font.
posted by delfin at 6:02 AM on April 23 [19 favorites]
Cooper Black is the font face with the similar vibe in North America, amirite?
posted by bendybendy at 6:41 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
posted by bendybendy at 6:41 AM on April 23 [3 favorites]
This font made the LEO logo, and I think it's about time I whipped up a LEO FPP...
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:43 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 6:43 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]
I really like (or maybe I really hate) the way this sort of basic design changes over time. What was bold, fresh, and modern becomes old, musty, and passé in a generation. It’s like going back to your old home town and seeing how things that seemed so big to you as a kid are really pretty small and dilapidated to boot. Nostalgia and regret in font form, like Proust’s foot turning on a cobble.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:57 AM on April 23
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:57 AM on April 23
I feel a kinship with this font.
I take it that you, too, are easy to read from a distance?
posted by grubi at 9:30 AM on April 23
I take it that you, too, are easy to read from a distance?
posted by grubi at 9:30 AM on April 23
Cooper Black is the font face with the similar vibe in North America
Agreed: this North American feel a kinship with Cooper Black. First became aware of it in this Vox article from 2020.
posted by Rash at 9:48 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]
Agreed: this North American feel a kinship with Cooper Black. First became aware of it in this Vox article from 2020.
posted by Rash at 9:48 AM on April 23 [1 favorite]
Until a couple of years ago we used to live in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter, where there are plenty of decades-old small family businesses still occupying premises in the side streets. Sure enough, there were examples of signs in this style that have probably been there since the 1960s. If I've got it right, this link should show an example that was only a couple of hundred yards from our house.
posted by Major Clanger at 10:27 AM on April 23 [4 favorites]
posted by Major Clanger at 10:27 AM on April 23 [4 favorites]
And neatly resolves an AskMe of mine from six years ago: What's this British midcentury font?.
The examples I gave (Greenwich Time Signal and BBC Television Centre Studio 1) are more likely to be Festival Egyptian than Festive, given their age and official status. Festive really belongs above a plumbing supply depot. This font looks like a Commer TS3 sounds.
→
Do it! But I think that the LEO font may have been Haas Profil. I made a very silly version of the LEO logo by putting the 3D effect of Profil into actual sloped 3d depth. It looks great from precisely one angle, then looks terrible.
posted by scruss at 3:50 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]
The examples I gave (Greenwich Time Signal and BBC Television Centre Studio 1) are more likely to be Festival Egyptian than Festive, given their age and official status. Festive really belongs above a plumbing supply depot. This font looks like a Commer TS3 sounds.
→
I think it's about time I whipped up a LEO FPP
Do it! But I think that the LEO font may have been Haas Profil. I made a very silly version of the LEO logo by putting the 3D effect of Profil into actual sloped 3d depth. It looks great from precisely one angle, then looks terrible.
posted by scruss at 3:50 PM on April 23 [6 favorites]
Appropriately, it (or something very like it) appears on the southern façade of post-war Brutalist icon, the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank.
posted by LemmySays at 10:07 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]
posted by LemmySays at 10:07 PM on April 23 [1 favorite]
Well, yes. As the article mentions:
posted by zamboni at 4:50 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]
… like almost every bit of flair in Britain’s mid-20th century public spaces, it came indirectly from the 1951 Festival of Britain.As Royal Festival Hall’s name suggests,
One of its official lettering styles was ‘Festival Egyptian’, as depicted in the typographic handbook for designers.
The hall was built as part of the Festival of Britain for London County Council, and was officially opened on 3 May 1951.so the signage is, like scruss’s examples, Festival Egyptian.
posted by zamboni at 4:50 AM on April 24 [2 favorites]
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posted by misteraitch at 12:35 AM on April 23 [2 favorites]