April 1977 must have been a confusing time for travel agents in London. Suddenly hundreds of people were trying to book trips to the beautiful islands of San Serriffe deep in the Indian Ocean. It turned out that the Guardian newspaper had just published a 7-page special report on San Serriffe. They noted the bustling docks at Port Clarendon, praised the golden beaches of Gill Sands and highlighted the important work taking place at the University of Perpetua. The problem was San Seriffe didn't exist. It was nothing more than a prank -- although arguably one of the most elaborate and successful April Fools' Day pranks ever. Conceived by Guardian Features Manager Philip Davies and Features Editor Stuart St Clair Legge, it paid homage to many type-inspired destinations including the capital Bodoni, the remote Thirty Point, and the lapping waves of Garamondo. Even advertisers including Kodak and Texaco gleefully joined in on the gag. In fact, what was to have been a single page had to be extended to accommodate advertiser demand. Unfortunately the task of convincing grumpy englishmen that there were no available flights to San Serriffe proved more difficult than travel agents might have hoped.
Places & Faces
Places have often provided inspiration to type designers. Microsoft has used Matthew Carter's Georgia prominently for many years.
In the 1980's, all Macs shipped with Susan Kare's New York, Los Angeles, Venice, Monaco, Geneva, Toronto and Chicago. Chicago was much-loved, becoming the 'the OS face of Apple' for more than a decade from 1984. It even returned briefly in 2001 for the earliest iPod screens.Continue reading %Travelling by Typeface: San Francisco via San Serriffe%
by Alex Walker via SitePoint
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