Found on a fire station - Similar to Futura?
In fact, I thought it was Futura at first... then noticed that very un-Futura vertex on the 'M' that only drops to the x-height. This font appears to be the similar to the font on many other public buildings--schools, post offices, etc--built in the 1950s and 1960s around the Twin Cities.
FWIW, this is the Minneapolis Fire Station #7 on E Franklin at Cedar.
I love the curved stroke on the '7'.
2.Jul.2006 12.56am
Could it be a W flipped?
2.Jul.2006 12.59am
Mid-century architectural lettering is indeed the bomb. That's what Neutraface is based on. Kabel will get you close.
2.Jul.2006 9.13am
That curved 7 is pretty hard to get in a Geometric Sans, though, although yes, Kabel or Erbar would be pretty close.
Just for curiosity's sake, I spent the last hour-and-a half looking for fonts with the keyword "Geometric" on Linotype and found no match to this one. Stephen, you might be correct with the flipped W if my eyes haven't failed me :)
2.Jul.2006 12.25pm
If you're doing keyword searching, there's no better site than MyFonts. And soon, FontShop.
2.Jul.2006 3.34pm
*Runs to MyFonts*
You know what I want for FontShop, though? For the font's design information to be easily accessible when I view the face -- kind of like MyFonts' or Linotype's but somewhere more prominent.
2.Jul.2006 6.43pm
Also on the way.
2.Jul.2006 10.25pm
... And for Typographica's Favorite Fonts of 2005 -- Part 2 -- to come out soon :)
3.Jul.2006 1.08am
Even closer.
3.Jul.2006 1.15am
God bless you!
3.Jul.2006 3.38am
and while at it – please get rid of that redirect for german users to the german fontshop site… renders fontshop.com links posted on here unusable for germans.
many thanks in advance.
3.Jul.2006 4.30am
>please get rid of that redirect for german users to the german fontshop site…
Yes, i totally agree.
If i want to visit fontshop.com,
i want to visit f o n t s h o p . c o m !
Grüße
3.Jul.2006 6.32am
"Mid-century architectural lettering is indeed the bomb. That’s what Neutraface is based on. Kabel will get you close."
Neutraface, Gotham, Proxima Nova... they're all based on mid-century American lettering. And you're right--Kabel is very similar. I'd even bet that a lot of the architectural lettering is even inspired by Kabel.
I wonder why there are so many variations on this idea, though? And how could it be reinterpreted or improved upon?
3.Jul.2006 11.16am
Err, because -- if we took the pessimist look on things -- back in the day when Futura was so popular, everybody made a copy of their own interpretation -- all supposedly look very close to the original -- and ran away with it. Spartan and Geometric 231 are good examples (no offense to anybody).
In my opinion, there is two branches of mid-century architectural face. One is more geometric (Futura, Kabel, etc.) and one more along the lines of grotesk (Neutraface, Proxima Nova and what have you).
5.Jul.2006 10.41pm
H&FJ's new Verlag would be a recent interpretation of that. As Avenir was to Futura, Verlag was to Kabel and Neutraface (considering the x-height, ascender and descender, length-wise, and ignoring the fact that I classified both fonts into different sub-genres.)
6.Jul.2006 6.54am
Dang that Verlag is beautiful. But like my other love, Nobel, currently out of reach...