State by State
- Publisher: Ecco
- Publication date: October 1, 2009
- Genre: Non-Fiction
- designer: Heads of State
- Typefaces: Hoefler Text
WPA Gothic
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Comments
"State By State" designed by Heads of State? How meta ...
While I'm sure that the waiters in cafes and restaurants see a side of society that many miss, I'm not sure they're the best choice for providing "A Panoramic Portrait of America."
And yes, I know that "50 Waiters on 50 States" is actually "50 Writers on 50 States," but it does seem a bit odd to rank highly a cover that uses a font so badly designed that only close inspection will tell the difference between a capital A and a capital R.
The flag motif is a good idea. The choice for the dominant font isn't.
As the humble author of the badly designed font (WPA Gothic I admit that I didn't expect this little thing I whipped together in a few days on FontStruct end up on a book cover. That 'R' could use some help, but I'm pretty pleased with how it did otherwise. And the style certainly is American.
By the way, WPA Gothic does have an alternate 'R' with a more distinct leg. Whether it's enough to distinguish Waiters from Writers at this size is debatable.
I think the "font so badly designed" bit is highly subjective and not entirely fair. The typeface choice is on the contrary quite appropriate, but unfortunately it was used much smaller than its designs allows for. It's more a problem of application, not one of design.
As you can read in last August's episode of ScreenFonts, this style of type refers to the Depression era, and the publicity posters for Roosevelt’s New Deal initiative, which promoted economic relief after the 1929 Wall Street collapse. You can find additional information via the various links in the article.