The Design Museum of Chicago is a vibrant, compact space just off the Mag Mile and is currently running the vibrant, compact exhibit Letters Beyond Form: Chicago Types through April 4. The installation celebrates Chicago’s rich design legacy of sign painting and calligraphy from luminaries such as African American designer Herbert Temple (1919-2011, who worked for decades at the Johnson Publishing Company), while also incorporating new work and newer forms like graffiti.
Signage is in English and Spanish, printed on plywood to “eliminate hierarchy,” said curator Lauren Meranda, also owner of Studio Brazen and an associate professor at Northeastern Illinois University, the Midwest’s most diverse university.
Laser stencils were placed on the wood and then spray painted, blending street art and the academic, Meranda said. Use of the “construction vernacular” is a way to juxtapose the everyday with an elevated space, she added. The use of found industrial objects, like coated metal retail display racks, is also incorporated as repurposed stanchions for the large circle of artifacts. An interactive worktable is located in the center for visitors to play with tracing and drawing using wooden letter blocks on gridded paper.
From scrapbooking to outdoor building signage, “most designers begin by considering a grid or ruler to keep their letters a regular size and spacing,” a sign said. “From there, the geometric guidelines are either upheld or thoughtfully broken to create practical or expressive forms.” Gentrification can sanitize communities of typographic character, but libraries, historical societies and personal archives, such as displayed here, can preserve these visual cultural communications.
Chicago’s printing industry grew from $50 to $300 million in sales in the early 20th century. By 1930, the city employed the most printers and publishers in the US. One out of four Chicagoans came from Europe and the Great Migration brought Black creators to the city. Those melded cultures grew a trailblazing regional design aesthetic. “The style of these letters can change how we understand information,” a sign says. “Typography changes more than just how words look but also how they make you feel.”
Bold signage, focusing on research from Pilsen and Bronzeville, lines the walls, including grocery store posters. Since food shops place weekly produce orders, sign painters can quickly create succinct “Chicago style” adverts with bold colors rather than waiting on a lengthy digital design process.
As a practitioner of and educator for typography, Meranda is excited by this “evidence of the hand,” whether by brush, pen or nib, which shares the creator’s personality and nuance. “For many temporary lettering practices, the present is the best way to experience the past,” a sign notes. “Adaptivity, speed and variety keep hand practices in demand but also contribute to their demise—with time, the work fades and is discarded or destroyed.”
Typographic experimentation throughout Chicago’s communities continues today via groups like the Society of Typographic Arts, the Chicago Calligraphy Collective, the Meeting of Styles, and the Chicago History Museum.
The featured typography is also accessible asynchronously via the museum’s website, where fonts by UIC design students can be downloaded, including Ashkenazi by Daniel Fain, Hang by Nahid Yahyaee, Olas by Grace Luxton (a waving typeface inspired by Humboldt Park), and Real Beef (a hard-working typeface inspired by Bridgeport) by Elena Franck. The museum also encourages residents to upload photos of Chicago’s rich typographic landscape to be added to the interactive map, especially in vibrant street art neighborhoods like Pilsen.
For those interested in creating their own typography, prints and other creative output, check out classes at Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, Spudnik Press, and the Chicago Industrial Arts & Design Center.
The Design Museum of Chicago is located at 72 E. Randolph St., and is free and open to the public daily 10am-5pm. This exhibit continues through April 4. It's a citywide collaboration with the Terra Foundation for American Art.
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