Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Characters and Spaces

Subversive text in Centreway Arcade

'I'll put a Girdle Round the Earth' mosaic on Collins st by Neo-classical mural artist Napier Waller

The stories behind familiar logos

So I've been blabbing about State of Design for a week now... and festival fatigue has now well and truly sunk in! There's just too much to do and see for one little blogger! Aggghh.

BUT I tell you what is an absolutely fantastic thing to do - plus you can do it anytime at all... and it's completely free!

Characters and Spaces
is a self-guided walk around one CBD block, presented by the Communication Design Program at RMIT. The beautifully designed written guide and map can be found in the central pages of the SoD program, or otherwise can be downloaded here. This fantastic guide peels back the layers of graphic design and typography that can be found in the block between Collins, Swanston, Flinders and Elizabeths sts, telling stories of logos and signage we Melburnians pass everyday and barely think twice about.

It is so great! No matter how well you know Melbourne, I promise you'll be amazed at how much more there is to learn! Its nice to know there's still lots of secrets left to discover in this village city :)

The Majorca Building signage

I bet you've never noticed this lovely cursive type from the old Graham Hotel signage on Swanston st, near Collins! Neither had I!

Manchester Unity Building - always gorgeous.

Cute signage in Campbell Arcade (aka the Degraves st Subway)

3 comments:

  1. what a nice surprise "the graham" signage is amongst all the city squareness. i don't know how you've managed to keep up with everything that's one... i've enjoyed reading it though :)

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  2. ooo thanks for the tip, this sounds like a great thing to do.

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  3. Good post Lucy - I was admiring the "I'll put a girdle round the earth" mural just the other day. (By co-incidence pointing it out to my cousin, visiting from Sydney to show her wares at the (not a) design market). Neo-classicism is not my usual taste, but I think this is beautiful. And I ALWAYS take time to admire the "Graham" sign!

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