Vernacular typography can be very well crafted but it can also be crudely created signs done in a hurry. Either way it is using typography and lettering to create visual communications. Take a look around you and identify some vernacular typography that you find interesting. Document it through drawing, photography or by collecting examples. Remember to ask permission if you are photographing inside train stations, markets, shops, museums or shopping centres for example. Getting permission is usually straightforward, especially when people know you are working on a student project. In your learning log note down why you selected the examples you did.
Vernacular meaning
Adjective: (of language) native or indigenous (opposed to literary or learned). Expressed or written in the native language of a place, as literary works: a vernacular poem. Using such a language: a vernacular speaker. Of or relating to such a language.
Noun: the native speech or language of a place. The language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or profession.
Wherever you go – from around the corner to around the world – examples of local, “vernacular” typography and lettering can be seen in storefronts, street and address markers, circuses and carnivals, posters, billboards, graffiti, and a lot more. This vanishing art consisting of handwriting, hand lettering, as well as commercially typeset images is an important form of urban communication.
I’ve collected some boards from Pinterest, because of the current situation and couldn’t go out to take any photos myself.
What I liked about Vernacular typography is randomness of shapes, creativity, inconsistency used in lettering. Also there is an endless in variety of letter forms around us and there is always something new to be inspired by. I would like to try to make some of my own Vernacular typography design.
Maryam: OCA Graphic Design 