HISTORY

Mission Gothic began as a one weight, all-caps typeface during Field Trip SF — a trip to San Francisco with the Lost Type designers. As a group, we spent hours wandering the streets of the Mission neighborhood, known for its hand-painted signs. One of the many photographs we took was of a small hanging sign in the storefront of an optician on Valencia Street:

Source: Instagram @TrevorBaum

At first it seemed like a traditional 20th-century gothic, but upon closer inspection, we noticed the lovely irregularities and knew this could only have been painted by a human hand. We kept walking.

When we got back to our house that day, we began sifting through our photographs from the day, and turning our favorites into digital letterforms. An early attempt of what would eventually become Mission Gothic:

Source: Instagram @TrevorBaum

After realizing the extent of the rich typographic influences behind what we saw in the Mission, and seeing the potential of the first few characters we drew, we decided to turn those letters into a typeface, and eventually an entire family. After thorough consideration, we decided it would be best to at least add a lowercase, and then we started experimenting with other weights. Many months later, we have arrived at a complete Mission Gothic. Five weights with italics, to put a substantial amount of typographic control in the hands of the designer.

INFLUENCE

The forms are inspired mainly by antique signage in San Francisco’s Mission District, which were heavily influenced by signpainting manuals from the early to mid 1900s. The shapes evoke a sense of nostalgia, without being cartoony or overtly retro in feel.

DESIGN

The first typeface that came out of the Mission Collection from Lost Type was Mission Script, a brush script style typeface with a friendly signpainter vibe. The question became how best to compliment a script typeface with a gothic. What remains the same, and what should change? We settled on putting the Mission Gothic italics on the same twelve degree incline that Mission Script falls upon, so that when paring the fonts, they effortlessly compliment one another.

Mission Gothic is a low contrast sans serif, and is built mostly for display text. While Mission Gothic can be set small, it is intended for sizes larger than fourteen point, in order to let the nuances of this typeface shine.

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Source: Source: www.freeimageslive.co.uk

Source: www.lineklein.com

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This looks to be a beautiful gallery show hosted by 126 year old type foundry Monotype, featuring specimens and artifacts from throughout the company’s history.

We’re very excited to watch this documentary which accompanies the wonderful Sign Painters book, released recently.

SIGN PAINTERS (OFFICIAL TRAILER) from samuel j macon on Vimeo.

Coming soon!

Coming Soon!

Ribbon spotted at an Urban Outfitters company party at their headquarters in Philadelphia. Tees, napkins and hand painted signs!

Designs by Erin Mulcahy.

What I really enjoy and appreciate about these designs by Carl Bernard for Norm Türzargen is the consistency and simplicity created by the typographic restraint and adherence to a well established grid. Each piece is very consistent in form and typographical hierarchy, and all work together as a strong and established informational system. By employing a strict grid, sans-serif typeface(s) and monotone images it is clear that there is a strong International Style influence. Furthermore, each piece does very well to communicate a lot by minimal means in a very functional and clear manner.

via – kristianhay on Instagram.

Nike, Hurley and Converse team up to sponsor the US Open of Surfing, using Lost Type fonts.

Moo has launched a new line of business cards, prominently featuring Sullivan.