With a little study trip to the ‘Gateway to the world’ aka Hamburg we were met with lots of different forms of media around us. Specifically on this trip we were tasked to look at the typography within the shops, menus, stalls, and posters. There were many great typographical examples ranging from business fronts (like the various amount of erotic stores) to posters on the Reeperbahn, there were also some questionable ones out there too. I wouldn’t exactly say these store fronts choice in typography is world ending, but in terms of my opinion it could use a little more thought and work. I found 3 examples ( two of which I took pictures of, and 1 which I forgot but remembered vividly); The Pink Club, The Magazine cutouts, and the scribble.
The Pink Club was a very eye grabbing piece with its use of many texts and erotic images. They stuck with legible fonts and colouring to really tell their customers that they can satisfy their needs. This could be a bit farfetched but I find the typography really tacky. It could be that the intentions were to be tacky with the representation of the club. The typography makes the club to seem like one of those fake internet pop up ads that appear randomly. It seems uninviting, desperate, and more for comedic purposes to say the least. I think that one way this business could improve their look and communication is just a simple font change. If this is suppose to attract customers who want a good time I would urge them to use a font that is more sexy. Ones with curly tails, accents, and personality.
In terms of the magazine cutout store front and the scribble it was unique and understable choice for their business. However I would argue that they work perfectly under certain circumstances. Take the magazine cutouts if it were under an angle with light you would be able legible to read the store front, but during day time and the creation of shadows from the elevated sign it becomes hard to read. One way I would think would help customers read it better it through either constant angled lighting or a flat sign that doesn’t create too much shadow. The last example, the scribble is a circumstantial case as if you know how to read cursive and have good eye sight you would be able to read and understand the storefront, and the fonts personality plays well into what they sell and the vibe of the store. However the legibility can differ to person due to their knowledge and understanding of cursive and their eye sight. From a far it looked like a couple scribbles, not that great if someone from across the street wants poke bowls but can’t really read the sign. To improve this I would suggest to still remain in the same personality of fonts but to cut out the cursive and go for block letters, for example A’Poke has a similar font a vibe to the poke bar and would be a safer and more legible option.
Apart from analysing and searching for interesting typography usage in Hamburg, there were many photo opportunities for us as tourists. I was excited to learn that we would be travelling to Hamburg for our study trip because I am from Tokyo and I thrive off being in a big city. To say the least I was eager to explore Hamburg, especially anything to do with the old architecture. I mainly took photos of old buildings as I loved the details in them. I took the photos through my phone and later edited them in lightroom where I had a clear goal with what I wanted to do with my pictures. For the old architecture captures I wanted it to be very grainy, sun kissed, and highly detailed, as for the more modern and colourful captures to be bright, have semi-detail, and to kind of bleed into the darkness.
In addition I have also visited the museum of Illusions with my classmates as we thought it would be educational and fun at the same time. My expectations were quite high for this place as I have visited other illusion museums in other countries and was pleased with my experience. I expected the normal things such as a vortex tunnel, the box in which you can become taller than the other person on one end, and the mirror trick. However it came to a surprise that it was a lot more interactive that I thought. There were many puzzles and games to challenge yourself as well as technological interactions. For example one was a portrait of Einstein using pictures of numbers in real settings, though at first you couldn’t make it out to be Einstein but it was said that you should see the portrait through a phone camera to see the real illusion come to life, and I thought that was incredible.
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