Creative Excursion #7: The Characters of Amsterdam
VBAT’s creatives hit the saddle for an evening of typographic inspiration
Written by Anthony Ford
Creative at VBAT
Once you see it you can’t unsee it. It’s almost perverse. We can’t stop ogling, twenty grown men and woman staring and giggling at three upside down N’s. On a sun-drenched evening VBAT’s creative department are on a Typographic tour through Amsterdam and this pitstop has brought us to the Drie Koningen building on a busy canal street. Oblivious to the bolshie commuters pushing through, our bike’s are splayed across the road while we stare upwards at some fine brass lettering set into a handsomely detailed stone exterior.
Our niche tour of typographic nerds certainly caused some confusion amongst locals — ‘what are you looking at?’ we were asked by passers-by who would be left mystified with a truthful answer. Others were incensed at our group’s ability to stop en masse whilst straddling our bikes to admire type — leaving a scene of commuter chaos around us. But it was our guide, renowned type designer and academic David Quay, who set the tone of typographic worship. David’s passion and playful interpretations changed the way we looked at these beautiful letterforms.
As our type tour winds it’s way through Amsterdam we start to appreciate the uniqueness of the city and it’s typographic gems. We must have stopped at 50 places, each with it’s own story to tell about the building’s original purpose or occupants. Like breadcrumb trails in time the type became the way we looked back to a building’s creation. Often overshadowed by the architecture it clings to, we saw the typographic detailing as it’s mouthpiece announcing the soul of the building.
From very early sans-serif stone cuts to fluid and bespoke Art Nouveau mosaics and everything in between, the eclectic range in typographic style was enthralling. Like typographic statues, each piece had it’s own personality and idiosyncrasies that we came to pay homage to.
New ideas often need old buildings — Jane Jacobs
But how can we apply these historic observations to our working life at branding agency VBAT? We learned that it’s not just about setting the perfect typeface, it’s making sure to allow a bespoke charm to come through. It was inspiring to see this level of creativity demonstrated on centuries old buildings and for us was a good reminder to not accept the status quo of current digital typography.
Urbanist Jane Jacobs once said “new ideas often need old buildings”, this resonates strongly on the evening of our typographic tour — for us to innovate and move forward as designers it helped to take a peak behind us.
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By Anthony Ford
Creative at VBAT
