Custom Stop

Apart from my interest in the history of typography I also have a sweet spot for the use of type in the wild (I would use the term “vernacular”, but I’ve been noticing it sometimes tends to assume a negative connotation, whereas I don’t mean any negative bias). I’ve been collecting pictures of signs, inscriptions, public lettering and so on for quite a lot of time now.

At some point I noticed that most of the instances of usage of the Stop typeface by Aldo Novarese that I saw in the wild where customized versions, where the designer tweaked this or that glyph, so I decided to take a closer look and start recording them. Due partly to its geometric nature – which makes it easy to customize it – and to its ubiquity on people’s computers, Stop appears to be the go-to typeface when somebody needs a quick logo, especially construction or delivery companies.

Above, the logo for the Custom Stop group I created on Flickr, which I invite you to join and to fill with pictures of Stop being customized in the wild! Of course the logo is a Custom Stop itself, how could it not be!