Thursday, July 22, 2010

Type Nerd Alert!

If you get the chance to visit the new Ramsey County Library in Roseville, Minnesota, don't miss the terrazzo type maze at the entrance to the children's room.

Black and white maze in a shiny floor with a green modernist couch in the background
I saw several kids walk the maze in the short time I was there. (I also appreciated the child-scale, lime-green, camelesque chaise in the cubbyhole at top left.)

Closeups of the letters O K M and E in varying colors and materials
Created by Brad Kaspari, the maze includes the 26 letters of the alphabet in 26 different typefaces, each crafted in varying combinations of metal, terrazzo, or tile.

The typeface names begin with the letter they represent, from Azkidenze Grotesk to Zapfino. Shown here are OCR-B, Kandal, Maple and Egiziano. A poster near the maze identifies each face and gives the name of the designer.

Black and white charcoal sketch of Harry Potter
And while you're there, peek just inside the children's room, next to the fireplace, to see this Harry Potter sketch by artist Mary GrandPré. (She's originally from the Twin Cities.)

2 comments:

Nancy/BLissed-Out Grandma said...

Oh, thank you for this preview! We've been intending to go but have been busy. But my hubby is a typesetter (digital now, but type is type). We used to have t-shirts saying "type is my life."

forward Dan said...

Cool stuff. Typography in the world, where it belongs!