Erik Spiekermann by the Numbers
House numbers are one of those things you don't really think about until they're brought to your attention—and then you can't stop thinking about them. This happened to me recently after reading about a new line of numerals designed by typographer, designer and FontShop founder Erik Spiekermann. Apparently he had an aha! moment at one point during a visit to the US, since his observation is that, "In the USA, streets can be quite long, and house numbers often run into five digits. The choice of numbers for this purpose, however, is pretty limited. What you see attached to most walls would not pass for professionally-designed figures."
Of course, part of the charm of signage in the public space was at one time due to it not having been "professionally-designed." But these days it's hard to argue with his perspective that most house numbers are not only not professionally-designed—in fact, they range from banal to hideous. I can confirm this after an afternoon of walking around my neighborhood closely examining houses, to the occasional surprise of their inhabitants.
Spiekermann has accordingly created four designs: Classic, an adaptation of Bodoni; Contemporary, based on his own Meta Bold; Industrial, a generic negative stencil; and Tech, which avoids the use of diagonal strokes, for some reason. Each number is either laser-cut enameled or painted steel, extruded and anodized aluminum or water-cut, polished stainless steel. Judging from the examples, these will succeed from a legibility perspective and should be a fit for a wide variety of modern structures, although their aggressive design might prove jarring on older structures.
Perhaps that's why the more refined Classic, in green, is my favorite. In fact, I have a weakness for old-fashioned enameled numbers, like the ones still being made by Denmark-based RAMSIGN, an example of which is shown at right. If you have a favorite manufacturer of house numbers, by all means share a link below.
More information about Erik Spiekermann's house numbers is available on the Gestalten site.
Chris Dickman
Editor, Graphics.com
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