Re: Typeface for wayfinding

Deborah asked:

>But I do want to ask those of you who actually know about these sorts
>of things about the type, as well.
>
>I thought the Netto type was attractive ... probably for "display"
>uses -- posters and the like....
>
>What I'm wondering is how well it would work for wayfinding signage?

Whether by co-incidence, commission or design, "Netto" is
the name of a chain of cut-price, no-frills supermarkets,
headquartered in Denmark, owned ultimately by the AP
Møller- Mærsk Group, with stores in Denmark, Germany,
UK, Poland and Sweden.

This no-frills font reminds me of the kind of lettering
one used to make with tube-nibbed drawings pens and a
matching architect's lettering template, such as Leroy.
There, the no-frills-ness and minimisation or curve
complexity was to assist the passage of the nib (or,
with Leroy, the guide-pin) along the guiding groove.

It worries me when people designing type intended for
signage are seduced by an over-obeisance to geometry.
>From the legibility point of view I guess this is not
too bad (while being irredeemably ugly), but I'd look
askance at three aspects:

  (a)  Letters such as b, c, n, u, o are too box-
       like.  This means that the letterspaces,
       made from the combined sidebearing spaces,
       are often significantly out of balance with
       the areas within the letterforms ("counters").

  (b)  Ascenders are not well marked, since the x-height
       is very large and the ascenders are stubby. Thus
       the word profiles are not as clear as in some
       other fonts, and I think which could be found to
       be problematic in distance viewing and by folks
       with partial sight, which are considerations for
       signage fonts.

  (c)  Some "frills" can be significant differentiators
       between glyphs and that I think is why some people
       designing faces that are sans overall have retained
       a kind of serif on the backs of r and n, and feet
       of a and u, and either top or tail of i and l.
       "Netto" dispenses with all such concessions to
       human frailty.

Regarding the silly icons, no comment for now.

There, now I have cast my mild imprecations at Netto.

Conrad


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