An Abecedary to color: H

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high-resolution printable.

A few weeks ago, with the F page, we talked about the Mauve Decade of the 1890s and its letter forms; I just can't resist adding a second installment.  Spoiler: it wasn't only about mauve.  

There’s always more you can say about Art Nouveau, and more of its characteristics to re-discover.  It permeated fashion, art, architecture, and typography for a generation.  Its pale colors, its drooping line, and its pose of blasé fatigue were so fundamental to the larger Aesthetic Movement that they were soon ripe for satire.  In Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta Patience, a pretentious character based on Oscar Wilde describes himself: 


“A pallid and thin young man,
A haggard and lank young man,
A greenery-yallery, Grosvenor Gallery,
Foot-in-the-grave young man!”

Note on the poster design at right; Art Nouveau's languid line even manages to take the rigor out of classical Roman capitals.  

Here is an H colored in pale verdigris and yellow.  Try your own color choices versions.   

Two endearing Finnish calligraphy signs

Some 140 years ago, Helsinki artists embraced Art Nouveau, known to them as Jugendstil. Many of these letters can still be seen on buildings.  

I could not resist these two little charmers.  They are about half a meter in length.  

Madrid signs on the street

Madrid displays many styles of lettering and numbering.  Here are a few of the ones that caught my eye.

Interesting blend of Art Deco and Art Nouveau letters spell out
CENTRAL.  The R and A are dangerously similar.  Posed by
 the door, David Mash, VP of Innovation at Berklee College
of Music, in Boston who played at this club with
Gary Burton back in the day.  

Note how the D evokes a paella pan.  

A Turkish bath.  I like the symmetry.  

Small adaptations make the M and the S catch your eye.  

I like the M and A.  C and E continue the motif.  

Great, monumental capitals; identify--what else!?--a printer.  

Classic, restrained Art Nouveau .  

A few more Art Nouveau letters from Finland

Slightly curved letters.  

I've posted a lot of numerals since I got back from Finland.  Now here are a few whole words.  They show some of the creative range of Jugenstil.  

Enjoy!  

Bell-bottomed letters.  

An S with a chef's toque.  

A curved and curliqued N, with a double-underlined O.  Sweet.  

Creative use of brickwork.

Look at the top of the arch.  

Calligraphic treasures from Helsinki neighborhoods

After last week's love note to visual Helsinki, are you wondering who could possibly be impervious to the Art Nouveau charms of Finnish architectural letters and numbers?  An ex-pat found the answer.  

Recently the American ambassador's wife, Cody Douglas Oreck authored a book* of photographs about those neighborhoods. Her motivation?  She says that when she told Finnish friends how much she liked the inventive facades, they looked puzzled, because they take their enchanting cityscape for granted.  It should make you pay better attention to what you might be overlooking in your own neighborhood.  

*(Unfortunately, it's now very out of print.  You can get it in a Kindle version.  Storybook Helsinki)  

Sorry about uneven tone.  Still mastering this skill.  

Art Nouveau has its own special flavor in Finland, showcased in its hundred-year old building facades.  Now I wonder if the graffiti have their own special Finnish style, too?  

I'm not finished with the architectural numbers of Helsinki

It turns out I have more photos, using a borrowed camera, taken on one of those days I walked around Helsinki's Jugendstil neighborhood.  So here are a few more irresistible numerals in the Art Nouveau style that was the latest thing a century ago.

It's worth a trip to see them.  

Helsinki ABC's and 123's

A recent trip to Finland opened my eyes to a treasure house of beautiful letters on buildings there.  The capital city is full of visual treats.

 A unique Helsinki residence facade.

Like many cities, Helsinki went through a period of prosperity--theirs occurred around 1905-1915--during which whole new neighborhoods went up.  To showcase their modernity, young architects specified the new, sleek Jugendstil, which was then known more commonly in France, England, and the US as Art Nouveau.  They interpreted it in a fresh, distinctly Finnish way, with coils, local materials, and historic colors.  

  

But if you look closer at those entryways and signs, and if you are a letter-noticer like me, you begin to see wonderful calligraphy as well as ornament.  I took a few snapshots of letters and numerals in the chilly rain, and hope to get more on a return visit next year.    

Finns use a lot of coils.  

I love that numeral 1.  

Swans, a characteristic motif of Jugendstil

Names of businesses, private homes, and apartment houses offer lots of Jugendstil letters.  Complete with their awkward spacing.  Note the first 5 letters above.   

We don't see as many examples of this charming letter style in American cities, because our downtown building boom had already come and gone a little earlier, when Gothic Revival dominated late 19th century architecture.  Finland also did not share America's 1950's booming prosperity following WWII, which swept away many smaller, older American city neighborhoods that had housed the now out-of-style Art Nouveau. The Finns were actually obligated first to pay war reparations to the Soviet Union.  It sounds surreal. Periods of economic stagnation, however, tend to be periods when people make do with older buildings; that's how all those Gothic Revival buildings survived in Boston, and how Jugendstil buildings survived in Finland.   

Today dozens of doorways, lintels, and plaques delight the strolling tourist in Helsinki.  Only one kind of passerby is immune to the charms of Jugendstil.  Check next week's post to find out who, and why.