The other day I was trying to learn as much as I could about web typography, and while I was googling around, I came across a fabulous website by Andy Mangold.

After recovering my breath, I started swimming around in a world of some of the best design I’ve seen in a very long time. Now, I’m different from most. A lot of people really like fancy design and “gingerbread,” but as a sign maker I’ve always been an enormous fan of cleanliness and clarity. Andy’s managed to achieve both, with some serious style.

The original article I ran across on his site was about the differences between Arial and Helvetica, which I have always considered to be the east coast – west coast rap battle of sign making. In my opinion, Helvetica is an absolutely beautiful typeface, and I remember when the Gerber IVB first came out that thought cartridges were (I believe) $200 each, but the machine came with Helvetica.

You see, I’m one of those “cusp” sign makers — I grew up surrounded by lettering enamel, hand burned screens, and oh so very much oil. By the time I got into the business, however, the Gerber had just come out and I was a computer nerd  who completely fell in love with the electronics. So, I learned backwards — first I made signs with computers, and then when I went into business for myself, I learned to hand-letter, primarily as a way – initially – of adding drop shadows to my work.  That eventually progressed to a love of gold and smalts signs before I finally transitioned into working EstiMate full time.

But I digress.

I really wanted this to be about Andy’s site.

One of the coolest things I found on this site was his repackaging of the game Monopoly. Clearly, this is a guy who understands negative space. One of my rants about signmaking today,  which I can’t help but go into but I’ll try to keep it to a minimum, is how narrow the borders are on so many signs. Huge margins really set off the type, and make the sign legible and clear. I think the trend toward narrower margins began with desktop publishing. When desktop publishing became common, printers started publishing specs such as “minimum 1/8 inch margin” and then kitchen table designers followed these to the letter, thinking that by maximizing the space for their type they were maximizing the impact of their message.

In fact, it makes any design look crowded if the margins are too narrow. It’s a subtle thing, and hard to describe in words just how wide a margin should be — but it’s one of those “you know it when you see it” situations.

If you’d like to learn more about this and other very important sign design “rules,” I would highly recommend the book , by Mike Stevens.  This book really opened my eyes to some of the subtleties and beauty in sign design.

It also confirmed a lot of what I felt in my gut about design, but couldn’t really understand. All I knew growing up was that something was poorly designed I ended up having a visceral reaction to it — for example, if the picture was hung crookedly, say leaning down to the right, or if any design was right heavy — I’d feel the whole right side of my body sliding down.

I bet I’m not the only one here who just has to straighten pictures when they’re walking by.

Before I Go

One more thing you have to see on Andy’s site is his Ampersand Book. It’s pretty much a tour de force. I’m probably biased because I used to run a shop called Ampersand Signs, But this is one of the most beautiful collections of ampersands I’ve ever seen and I think you’ll get a lot out of it.  Go Andy!

Anyway, whatever you do today, make sure to spend a little time on his site and enjoy the breath of fresh air. It’s quite a nice break from nephew art!