The Not-So-Secret Meaning of Typography

Last Wednesday during lunch, I went to the local town hall to apply for a passport. As I was checking the nameplates outside each office for the correct room I couldn't help but notice a very large tarpelin sign proclaiming that one group of offices was clearly under the auspices of "Cheryl Dinolfo, Monroe County Clerk."

What struck me most about the sign, other than the shear size of it, maybe 12' x 5', was the comparative fonts and type sizes used to communicate each piece of information. The typography (size and font of the type) of the lettering used to trumpet Ms. Dinolfo's involvement, as well as her title, was of a significantly larger point size than that of the other relevant information. In fact, Only the county seal was a hair larger than her name, and the information present on the seal was indecipherable from a distance.

One is about as likely to find visual evidence of this phenomena online as you are to find a real picture of a Sasquatch... eventually, after first googling a myriad of possible word chains with the intent of finding an image online, it became clear that without a photographic recon mission would  proving this the existence of this phenomena would be difficult.

Looking forward to The Amazing Spider-man 2 starring.... Maggie Brooks?!

Fortunately, in my community, this is "elephantitits-of-type" only employed by Ms. Dinolfo. I have also noted on a number of occasions that our Monroe County Executive, Maggie Brooks, also has a penchant for having her name and title presented in juxtaposition to the County Logo on signs in such away that the information to be quickly processed by passersby is her name first. The County's seal taking a subordinate role to all else. Surprisingly, as seen in the photo below, somehow her name was not larger than that of the companies being represented below.

Drivers are hard pressed to figure out just for whom Brooks work for.

Both Dinolfo and Brooks are seasoned local politicos, with even more veteran operatives, so this is most surely not a printing error that was made once and never corrected. As students' of rhetoric, my high school Advanced Language and Composition classes quickly realize the implications and message of this choice on the part of the messenger. Visual rhetoric consists in part of text so obviously visual that its visual nature and power is often invisible. This type size conundrum is also a great example of one of those things that consciously goes unnoticed by some, but is subconsciously meant to "say" or communicate a message.

So, is this intended to suggest that when looking for service such as passport applications that the key piece of information one should look for is Ms. DiNolfo's name and title? The use of a rhetorical question here is intended by yours truly to suggest strongly that you know perfectly well what is being implied, as well as which politician's ego is being stroked by seeing there name (and office) in "lights."

Maybe the meaning is not so secret (or subtle) after all...



The message from a Monroe County banner: I love New York, Maggie Brooks,
and Sports--in no specific order.

Sources: Purdue Online Writing Lab

Street Signs of the Times?

The corner of Canterbury and Westminster Roads in the Park Avenue neighborhood (8/2/12).

Recently I have noticed some subtle changes in my neighborhood. With a large local festival coming up this weekend, it's not surprising that streets are a little bit cleaner and lawns are slightly more well groomed. But who would have thought that new street signs were in order?

Over the past weeks, as I have walked the neighborhood early in the morning, I have noticed that slowly the street signs in the Park Avenue area have been changing over. The change to which I refer is not the annual application of "Yes, You Can Park Here" or "No, You May NOT Park Here" paper parking covers which (thankfully) guided visitors to making proper side of the street parking choices. I'm talking the actual signs which denote the street, as pictured in the photos above and below.


Guess what corner? Yup, Edgerton Street and Canterbury Road (8/2/12)

What peeked my curiosity about the new signs is that they represent a shift in presentation: rather than employing all capital letters (as was the case with the previously existing signage as in the pic at the top of the post above), the updated signs utilize both upper and lower case lettering. It seems that the aspect of the sign at issue may be the clarity of the font.

Following a number of searches on Google,  I was unable to find any information specific to the Rochester, NY area, but I did find an interesting New York Daily News article from 2010 about a similar signage change in New York City in which the change there was attributed to the bureaucracy's dissatisfaction with the font resulting in the appearance of all caps. On the surface it may appear a waste of money to make the change (a point inferred in the4 original headline), but the real reason appears a valid one. The actual reasoning behind the change is that "The Federal Highway Administration says the switch will improve safety because drivers identify the words more quickly when they're displayed that way - and can sooner return their eyes to the road."

So the clarity (or lack of clarity) of a street sign's font can be a contributing cause to automobile accidents? Given this logic the use of clear and easily "processable" signage is a matter both safety and aesthetics. If street signs are a method of communicating information (and they are), then the decision we make around font and legibility in smaller communiques (letters, essays, notes) is worth just a tiny bit of consideration, too!