lettering/signage/type in the wild

all photos by anna shcherbakova

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Been hand lettering a Basque typeface based on Louis Colas's sketches

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another research morning

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Different Basque letters pulled from various signs around Bayonne, France

Note the vast differences across various styles and generations

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Mikelena

Espellete, France

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Piment D'Espelette A.O.P.

Espellete, France

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Cut wood sign

"Hotel Euzkadi

A. Darraidou"

Espellete, France

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Handpainted sign for some kind of bread in Basque Country

Espellete, France

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Children's School and neighborhood

Bayonne, France

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"happiness is the only thing we can give without having"

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the Basque interpenetrated DE 

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Currently reading a book by two designers I really look up to:

Signs: Lettering in the Environment

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tracing paper exercises in simplifying the Basque "A"

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Read a fantastic article this week on the origins of Basque typography and it's influences—

The Basque Letter. Ethnicity and Typographic Culture

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One of my favorites

Wire sign "Eskina"

Bayonne, France

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The Basque symbol nicely incorporated into a house address

Bayonne, France

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"Yes – I can’t just put things on a page. I find it very difficult to do that. Within the context of a book there are the other pages and elements that need to interrelate, so structure becomes important in unifying the thing. When I do posters there’s less reliance on it, and it’s more an organic arrangement of the words. I find those easier now than I used to."

—Phil Baines

A great article from Eye Magazine about Phil Baines, a typography professor at Central Saint Martins (& fellow urban typography enthusiast!) whose work and philosophy I greatly admire. 

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Villa Espinal

Bayonne, France

Along with some of my favorite letters that I pulled out, S, A, & V