'쇽(CHOC)?'..." '간판의 천국' 뉴욕 장악한 서체" The Mystery Font That TookOver New York

The Mystery Font That TookOver New York

How did Choc, a quirky calligraphic typeface drawn by a French graphic designer in the 1950s, end up on storefronts everywhere?

By RUMSEY TAYLOR

NOV. 21, 2018

STAND JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE on Broadway, or on Canal Street with its sprightly neon and overstuffed souvenir shops, or the long stretch of restaurants, hardware stores, pharmacies, bars, realtors, barber shops, groceries and auto shops that extends through Fifth Avenue in South Brooklyn, and you’ll find a surplus of vibrant and overstated signage — a cacophony of typography.

'쇽(CHOC)?'..." '간판의 천국' 뉴욕 장악한 서체" 프랑스 디자이너가 1955년 개발 아시안 레스토랑 인기로 번져    뉴욕은 거리마다 많은 레스토랑과 상점 간판들이 밀집해 있어 '간판의 천국'으로 불릴 만하다. 저마다 독특한 글씨체로 자기 가게를 알리려는 간판 서체(書體)의 홍수 속에서 어디를 가나 빠지지 않고 발견되는 서체가 있다. 붓으로 휘갈겨 쓴 듯한 인상을 주는 '쇽(CHOC·사진)'이라는 이름의 서체다. 뉴욕타임스(NYT)는 21일(현지 시각) '미스터리한 서체(쇽)가 어떻게 뉴욕을 장악했나'라는 기사에서 쇽이 퍼지게 된 이유를 분석했다. '쇽' 쇽은 프랑스 항공사 '에어 프랑스'의 로고를 디자인한 프랑스 유명 서체 디자이너 로제 엑스코퐁이 1955년 개발한 것으로 프랑스어로 '충격'을 뜻한다. 엑스코퐁의 서체에 대한 책을 발간한 프랑스 서체 디자이너 사라 샤마레는 이름의 유래에 대해 "종이에 쇽 서체로 글을 쓰면 인상이 강렬한 데다 각각의 글자가 모든 방향으로 뻗어나가려는 느낌을 준다"고 설명했다. NYT는 1950년대 개발된 서체가 2018년 뉴욕에서 유행하고 있는 원인으로 일본·중국·태국·베트남 등 아시안 푸드 레스토랑의 높은 인기를 꼽았다. 피자 가게가 이탈리아 국기 모양이 들어간 로고를 많이 사용하는 것처럼 아시안 레스토랑도 간판 서체를 통해서 '아시안 요리'라는 개성을 드러내려고 하는데, 붓글씨를 연상시키는 쇽이 동양 분위기를 내는 데 안성맞춤이라 이 서체를 많이 사용한다는 것이다. 아시안 레스토랑이 뉴욕 구석구석까지 퍼지자 거리에서 쇽 서체를 보는 일도 잦아졌다는 설명이다. 시선을 끄는 강렬함도 쇽이 널리 퍼지는 데 한몫했다. 서체 전문가 토비아스 프레레 존스는 "엇비슷해 보이는 여러 다른 서체들과 달리 쇽은 시선을 잡아끄는 강렬한 에너지가 있기 때문에 가게 간판들 사이에서 확 튄다"고 말했다. 뉴욕=오윤희 특파원조선일보 출처 : http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2018/11/24/2018112400225.html

edited by kcontents

Steven Heller, a co-chairman at the School of Visual Arts’ M.F.A. program, sees it somewhat differently. “You say ‘cacophony,’” he said. “I call it chaos.”

But amid all of this chaos there is the occasional beacon. Choc, for instance.

It’s a typeface that draws the eye with its inherent contradictions. It seems to have been drawn improvisationally with a brush, and yet it’s so hefty it looks like it could slip off a wall. It’s both delicate and emphatic, a casual paradox, like a Nerf weapon.

Choc is far from the most popular typeface on the storefronts of New York, but it can still be found everywhere and in every borough. It’s strewn on fabric awnings and etched in frosted glass. It gleams in bright magenta or platinum lighting. It’s used for beauty salons, Mexican restaurants, laundromats, bagel shops, numerous sushi bars. It may be distorted, stacked vertically, or shoehorned into a cluster of other typefaces. But even here Choc remains clear and articulate, its voice deep and friendly, its accent foreign, perhaps, yet endearing.

You’ve already seen it, probably repeatedly, like a stranger you recognize from your morning commute.

 

Sumo Teriyaki and Sushi at 139 Havemeyer Street in Brooklyn. Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

France, 1955

Like so many New Yorkers, Choc is an immigrant.

It was designed by Roger Excoffon, a French typographer and graphic designer whose work departed from the Modernist trends that characterized midcentury type design. Based in Marseilles, Excoffon created a diverse array of typefaces during the 1940s and ’50s, but his script typefaces have become his most enduring work.

“There’s an unmistakable energy in all the designs that he does,” said Tobias Frere-Jones, a Brooklyn-based typeface designer. “They project their personality so clearly. And it’s very obviously not Helvetica or not Times or any other generic thing that might be on the awning next door.”

Excoffon’s most popular typeface is probably Mistral, which was modeled after his own handwriting. (Mistral has been widely used for years, from the title credits in “Night Court” to Connecticut Muffin or N.W.A.’s logos, not to mention many storefronts in New York and elsewhere.) There’s also Banco, which can justly be described as “shouty,” composed entirely of letters that resemble exclamation marks; Calypso, with halftone-patterned letterforms that look like miniature optical illusions; Diane, an ornate script that’s just about impossible to use outside of wedding invitations; and there is Choc, something of a synthesis of all of these.

 

Typefaces are characterized by redundancies. Notice how often the “d” and “b” can be rotated to make a “p” or a “q,” or how a capital “Z” is so plainly a grown-up version of its lowercase counterpart. But Choc is full of irregularity. Its lowercase “r” resembles a “z.” Its “g” looks like a capital “S.” And its “h” crouches forward as though in starting position for a race, whereas its more heavyset uppercase incarnation is on the verge of rolling backward.

“Choc expresses a certain violence,” said Sandra Chamaret, a French designer and publisher, and a co-author of a 2010 monograph on Excoffon. “It seems spattered on the page, the letters going in all directions.” (“Choc” — the ‘ch’ is soft, as in ‘sh’ — is French for “shock” or “crash.”)

Choc remains distinctive for these reasons, and it lacks datedness, as evidenced in its continued use throughout the world, most visibly on storefronts.

View Full Text

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/21/nyregion/new-york-storefronts-mystery-font.html

kcontents