Tale of a Typeface: Paul Shaw’s “Helvetica and the New York City Subway System”

Porcelain enamel 8th Avenue IND sign (1930s)Transit Museum
Corner of Boerum Place and Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn Heights
6 pm, Thursday, 22 September 2011 Graphic designer, typographer, calligrapher, and author Paul Shaw—for whom letters and words are everything—will present a new edition of his acclaimed book, Helvetica and the New York City Subway System (The MIT Press). It features additional photos and annotations. The resulting story is more than a tale of a typeface; it’s a look at the …
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TDC2 2012

James Montalbano and I created TDC2, the Type Directors Club Type Design Competition, in 1998. Now, for the first time, I will have the opportunity to be a judge of the competition. I am honored to be part of an august panel that includes Roger Black, Matthew Carter and Erik Spiekermann. Maxim Zhukov is the chairman. The deadline for submission is Friday, 16 December 2011. For more details on TDC2 go to the Type Directors Club website.

WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show

On August 4th, guest host Richard Hake interviewed me on The Leonard Lopate Show on WNYC about my book Helvetica and the New York City Subway System. It’s too late to hear me live, but you still hear me online.

From the Street to the Sky

Taxi stand, Leiden
I gave my talk “From the Street to the Sky” at the Hochschule RheinMain / University of Applied Sciences in Wiesbaden on July 6th for students in the Design Informatik Medien department. The talk was at the invitation of Prof. Gregor Krisztian. “From the Street to the Sky” is a survey of the many places that lettering can be found in the urban environment—from manhole covers in the street to neon signage on the rooftops of buildings. …
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Author @ the Library presents: “Helvetica and the New York City Subway System,” with Paul Shaw

Middletown Road station (no. 6).

Mid-Manhattan Library, New York Public Library
6:30 pm, Monday, 23 May 2011
This visual lecture will show how the signs in the New York City subway system have evolved over the past forty-five years, from the first attempt by Unimark to create a coherent, cohesive and modular system in 1966 to its incarnation today.  The resulting story is more than a tale of a typeface; it is a look at the forces that …
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Paul Shaw and Jan Conradi: A Conversation about Design and the New York City Subway System

Strand Books
828 Broadway
New York City
Wednesday, 11 May 2011
7–8 pm
Unimark International, formed in 1965, was a new kind of design firm, one that sought to wed American marketing know-how with European modernist design. Over the course of a decade it transformed graphic design and corporate identity, creating a new paradigm of how design and business worked together. Among its major clients was the New York City Transit Authority for whom it created a new subway sign system between 1966 and …
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The Heritage of Printing: Treasures from the Archives of the Imprimerie Nationale

This is an early notice of what promises to be one of the seminal typographic exhibitions of 2011/2012.
In December 2011 The Grolier Club of New York will host an exhibition on the history of the French national printing establishment, the Imprimerie Nationale, arguably the most important printing house in Europe.  Drawn from the vast and comprehensive archives of the Imprimerie Nationale, the exhibition will document the significant influence of the press, not only on printing and the book arts, …
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Spoonbill and Sugartown, Booksellers

Paul Shaw, author of Helvetica and the New York City Subway System, and Abby Goldstein, book designer, will be appearing for a reading and book signing (with special Subway t-shirts for sale).
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 7pm
Spoonbill and Sugartown
218 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
718 387-7322

Pasta, Wine and Serifs

You are invited to an illustrated talk by Alta Price and I about looking for lettering in Italy at the Type Directors Club on Wednesday, March 30 at 6 pm. The evening is free and there will be wine—but no pasta. And some serifs and some sans serifs. If you are curious about the Legacy of Letters tour this is your chance to see what all the fun and fuss is about. We hope to see you there.

You …
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Bodoni Is Not Bodoni: A First-Hand Look at Classical Typefaces

Paul Shaw
Thursday, March 24 and April 7, 2011
5:30–7:30 pm
Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Butler Library, Columbia University
Garamond No. 3 is not Garamont. Bauer Bodoni is not Bodoni. This two-session course is a first-hand exploration into finding out why these statements are true. It is a chance to look at the “real thing”, the sources of classical typefaces up close and in detail. Books printed in the typefaces of Nicolas Jenson, Francesco Griffo, Claude Garamont, Robert Granjon, William Caslon, John Baskerville, …
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