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Typography in Dongan Hills – Staten Island, NY

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I am from Staten Island, New York also known as the forgotten borough. For the most part, my neighborhood is suburban, and kind of boring from my perspective. Originally, while photographing for this assignment, I wanted to capture some graffiti and different styles of decorative type. However, my neighborhood consists of many houses and small businesses. Working with my surroundings that I seldom notice being that I’m often out roaming the city or elsewhere, I began to see the significance of the small businesses and street signs around me.

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The small businesses are mainly renovated houses or small buildings. You can pretty much find any small business in my neighborhood such as bars, real estate agencies, a yoga studio, tattoo shop, barbershop, corner store, and a couple printing shops.  The letterforms used for the small businesses are very cliché for their respected industries especially the tattoo shop. Being that Local businesses sometimes use each other’s resources, I drew the assumption that some of thesignage was made by the local print shops.

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In addition to the small businesses, I also photographed some street signs. Some of the signs are specific to my neighborhood such as the “Jefferson St” and “Dongan Hills Ave” sign, and “Dongan Hills” train stop which is the name of the section of Staten Island in which I live.

After taking a walk through my neighborhood for the purpose of this assignment, I realized what the people around me haveto offer as opposed to me always travelingelsewhere. My favorite signs are the ones that remind me of the city or the urban areas in which I often hang out. I am fond the “

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Your Choice, Deli & Grocery” store sign, and “No feeding the birds” sign located under the railroad tracks. I have a fascination with Corner stores/ Bodegas because of that what they represent in a community as a place where the people living in or passing through the are can go at any time to shop for things without traveling far. I also have a weird fascination with pigeons being that they swarm the city and roam freely like me.

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–O’Nysha Thomas

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Type In The Subs

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I live in a town named a Elmont. When people first hear the name Elmont they usually respond “I’ve never heard of place”. Elmont is the town in which I live in and is located in Long Island. There are many different things that help describe a neighborhood or even tell the story of one. They could be told through the people who live there, pictures, and the many different stores located in the area. Athough all these elements play a drastic role in what a neighborhood is about and what it has to offer, one significant element that a lot of people might overlook,  is the art of typography. Typography is the style, appearance, or arrangement of characters to make words more visble and to help express feeling or mood. In my neighborhood I came across certain style of text that would describe it as a quiet and friendly town. Through the typography you can see how family oriented, and simple the town is. I would describe the designe and use of the letter forms and shapes as bold but simples. When a paticular store is trying to get the attention of the community you will notice the bold face type that stands out from the rest. Also the type styles on the front of lounges and sports bars give a different vibe in the sence that the type is a bit softer with bolder colors to still show that it is the environment to relax and have fun. In addition to that some are more masculine while other type styles are feminine depending on what the store might be looking to attract.
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Homework, Typography, Uncategorized

Typography Jackson Heights

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Jackson Heights is a diverse neighborhood in Queens. I could consider Jackson Height a small melting pot of a variety of many different cultures from Eastern Europe to Asia. Typography is everywhere you go walking out to school or work. In Little India, most stores and restaurant has stylized type fonts plastered in front of the door. IMG_5571These fonts are stylized where it replicates the Hindi letters while still be able to read in English. My local deli and supermarkets are the most noticeable that stands out from the other nearby businesses because of the use of bright colors and using large bold fonts.  Graffiti is fairly uncommon, well at least the part of the neighborhood I’m currently living. There is nothing else much to say about my neighborhood besides being bland and clean on the most part of the neighborhood. Some mom and pop stores I’ve walked by everyday use those generic white fonts found on the computer (eg. Comic Sans, TImes New Roman.). Jackson Heights is not a boring neighborhood to be around, it’s just not the kind of place you find anything artistic or appealing.