This year is the 50^th anniversary of the Seattle World’s Fair—the 1962 event that saw the construction of the city’s iconic Space Needle, among other things. Beginning this month, the city is marking the occasion with the Next Fifty Festival, a six-month-long event celebrating the history of the Seattle Center and looking toward its next fifty years.

We created a place-making and identification system for the celebration that includes a family of pylons, wall-mounted signs, and painted ground graphics that will identify zones and activities throughout the Seattle Center’s campus. Twelve-foot pylons identify the three zones—the Next Fifty Plaza, the Intiman Playhouse, and the International Fountain Pavilion—and eight-foot pylons identify specific activities and also serve as directional signs.

Events will focus on a range of topics including the arts, science and technology, civic action, global health, and more. Each zone will feature a variety of events as the community gathers to engage in a dialogue about how to harness the city’s creative energy to face the new priorities, challenges, and opportunities of the future.

Signage in urban environments definitely takes a beating—its affected by everything from weather damage to pedestrian interaction—and upkeep can be costly. That’s why we were intrigued when we learned about Système Huntingdon, Inc’s Alto product line.  

This system of sub-surface graphics offers an interesting solution to the exterior signage problem. Système Huntingdon’s unique digital transfer method embeds graphics into architectural materials through a heat-and-vacuum process—essentially making the graphics part of the material. This can be done on flat, textured, or three-dimensional surfaces, embedding graphics into materials such as aluminum, steel, glass, or ceramics. 

A product like this would be great for urban environmental graphics and other signage installations in areas with high pedestrian traffic because the signs will be graffiti-resistant and offer both weather- and UV-protection. The process is also environmentally friendly—it doesn’t emit VOCs, and it uses water-based inks and recyclable base materials.

We’re considering this for our Pacific Avenue wayfinding project because the city of Tacoma is concerned about long-term maintenance. Have you had any experience with these or similar products? We’d be interested to hear about it in the comments section!

Image: An example of Système Huntingdon’s products used in urban environmental graphics.

Typographic buildings, inverted skyscrapers, and a few other fascinating finds for you this week.

——————————————————————————

Scared of heights? An apartment in the Earthscraper may be just for you. (Unless you’re afraid of dark, underground spaces, that is…)

Great buildings with typographic exteriors.

Charting the evolution of Western dance music.

The Comedy Carpet is a large (really large!) typographic installation in Blackpool, UK. Can you imagine hand-setting something with more than 160,000 letters?

A new interactive exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan teaches kids about creating healthy lifestyles. 

Image: The Domino House via Letterology

Typography games, Ai Weiwei’s latest gig, and other finds keeping us occupied this week.

———————————————————-

Ai Weiwei served as art director for the cover story of the latest issue of W…via Skype.

File under: Awesome (Also under: Way Harder than You Expect): Cheese or Font?

And while we’re talking about typography games, how’s your kerning?

An interactive Parisian garden that ignite children’s imaginations.

Clever neon posters, from Superman to the Beatles.

These little Lego guys are excellent printers.

Image: Neon posters by Mr. Whaite.

This week we discovered place-making at a bus stop, turning data into art, and the fanciest backyard playhouses around.

———————————————————————————

Making a bus stop into a pleasant place to pass some time instead of a place people are eager to leave.  

Sheesh, the cost of some of these playhouses rival that of an actual house.

Nathalie Miebach doesn’t let the weather rain on her parade — she turns it into musical scores and sculptures. (via Brain Pickings)

These artists are turning records and floppy disks into art.

Think you can trust that barista with the Hulk Hogan ‘stache or the mailman with the seemingly innocent neck beard? Think again.

Images: Nathalie Miebach’s weather-inspired art.