Logos and typefaces and fonts (oh, my!) [was: RE: DEC Logo]

[simon]

yeah, font, typeface, whatever.



  30-06-15 21:21, Rich Alderson wrote:
> From: Dave G4UGM
> Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 2015 8:43 AM
>
>>> From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Toby Thain
>>> Sent: 30 June 2015 14:10
>
>>> On 2015-06-30 4:44 AM, simon wrote:
>
>>>> On 29-06-15 14:56, Toby Thain wrote:
>
>>>>> On 2015-06-29 3:54 AM, simon wrote:
>
>>>>>> the front of the internal bus options maintenance manual in front of me.
>>>>>> But looking at the f in 8/f gives me the impression they mixed some
>>>>>> fonts for the logo and taking a closer look at the line:
>
>>>>>> "digital equipment corporation . maynard. massachusetts"
>
>>>>>> is proving both of us wrong. the y in maynard is a rounded version,
>>>>>> but both futura and avant garde hve a straight y.
>
>>>>>> "...the search continues..."
>
>>>>> Can you scan the page you're looking at?
>
>>>> tada.wav: https://hack42.nl/mediawiki/images/a/a7/Dec_footer.png
>
>>>> it is also used on the front of the pdp8/f here at our museum.
>
>> If it’s the oldest logo why do Straight Eights have a serifed font...
>
>> http://dustyoldcomputers.com/pdp8/images-3C8F62C8/R3378-hp.jpg
>
> http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/DEC/pdp-1/DEC.pdp_1.1960.102652405.pdf
>
> This early brochure for the PDP-1 features the vertical d
>                                                          e
>                                                          c
> logo in a picture, as well as a serif face for titles and *on the machine*.
>
> Our PDP-7 likewise has a serif face for "Digital Equipment Corporation" on its
> name plate, with an outline block sans-serif "PDP-7".  A brief survey of the
> manuals for the 18-bit systems on Bitsavers shows that the change from a serif
> face for titles occurred during the development of the PDP-7 documentation:
> The preliminary edition of the User Handbook has the system name in a block
> serif typeface, while the release edition has the name in a block sans-serif.
> The PDP-6 (36-bit system) also uses the serif face; the PDP-8 is schizophrenic,
> and the PDP-9 et seq. use sans-serif.
>
> Note that I use the terms (type)face and logo, not "font".  Until Apple
> bastardized the term, a _font_ was a package of metal type in a particular
> _typeface_, and was the unit by which type was ordered from a foundry.  A
> _logo_ was a special item, cast as a single unit for printing, not a collection
> of individual pieces of type.
>
> Someone in this thread mentioned having been in the graphics design trade, and
> can certainly back me up on this, as well as on the fact that advertising
> houses and departments generally designed their own lettering for lithographic
> reproduction rather than using commercially available typefaces; the latter
> were used for printed materials consisting of large stretches of text rather
> than one-offs.  (A company might adopt a face, or commission one, as part of
> the house identity, in which case the lettering done by the graphics people
> would probably resemble the face, but it's unlikely that it would be cast at
> the large sizes needed for advertising, since each size requires a set of steel
> punches to be engraved and a set of matrices to be produced.)
>
>                                                                  Rich
>
> Rich Alderson
> Vintage Computing Sr. Systems Engineer
> Living Computer Museum
> 2245 1st Avenue S
> Seattle, WA 98134
>
> mailto:RichA at LivingComputerMuseum.org
>
> http://www.LivingComputerMuseum.org/
>

-- 
Met vriendelijke Groet,

Simon Claessen
drukknop.nl