Steve Mehallo, the creator of the Martini at Joe's font, is an art director who lives in Mountain View, California. He enjoys mixing retro design with post modern elements, allowing good typefaces to breathe properly and doing things with photography that confuse his parents. Steve's notes offer some background on the adaptation and development of the googie-inspired typeface Martini at Joe's. Take it, Steve!...

Background

The future being not what it used to be, a fifty-year old style of type finds itself rescued from the wrecking ball of commercial progress.

There was a time when outlandish buildings were found SHOUTING on commercial strips - metal, plastic, and neon exploded outwards calling for motorists to STOP IN. Originating in 1950s Southern California, this building style, dubbed "Googie," created a new, futuristic aesthetic: post-war prosperity merged with the atomic age. Boomerangs, starbursts, flying saucers and amoeba-like shapes were common motifs, and these elements influenced dynamic commercial lettering forms. While later dismissed as cartooney, or "kitsch," this style of lettering embodied the very core of 1950s design - with ties to everything from Eames furniture to Melmac plastic dinnerware.

Martini at Joe's recalls this lettering style - brash, but with a sense of conservatism ... this was, after all, the 1950s. Based on partial and varied examples surviving on now-decayed commercial buildings, Martini at Joe's represents the futuristic past - when drinks were stiff and Les Baxter was playing on the hanging DuMont speaker.

Creating Martini at Joe's

Growing up in Northern California, I typically went to restaurants that had unusual lighting, sloped roofs, large rocks adorning walls, colorful and playful menus, and hosts who enjoyed their jobs; the whole experience was about fun. Years later, I learned there was a name for these restaurants: "Googie."

A few years ago, I started photographing these restaurants - and their signage - and discovered a hand drawn boomerang-style of lettering that consistently appeared on the facades.

The best specimen came by chance when I made a wrong turn one day and drove past an old bowling alley. As soon as I saw the sign, it hit me: I had to do a googie font.

This particular googie-esque B O W L had the best four letters I could ever want to start with. Unfortunately, when I tried sketching out the rest of the alphabet I ended up with a complete mess. I could have fudged the letters, but my conscience kicked in: by rushing this would I be doing a disservice to a whole style of art that was rapidly vanishing? I decided to investigate further.

As I studied my photo specimens, I found the edges of the boomerang-styled letters had a "fingerprint" to them - like a representation of someone's handwriting - which I couldn't replicate freehand. The fingerprint was loose, but also conservative.

I started seeing this fingerprint in other items from that era: furniture, kitchen products, modern art, spot illustration in books and menus, magazines and just about anything that embodied the popular style of that time.

Unable to draw the face I wanted freehand, I resorted to tracing several edges from whatever "modern" item I could get my hands on. A thrift store-bought ashtray really came in handy. The computer helped me adapt these rough tracings into what became the basic Martini at Joe's letterforms. The rest was a 17 month personal journey through mid-century modern - reading several books on the "style" and ending up with a living room where faux Pottery Barn antiques were replaced with vintage pole lamps and Naugahyde furniture - the final result is a boomerang-shaped 1950s typeface with 14 variations that represents a time when the future may have been better than what it is today.

- Steve Mehallo

Numerous versions of Martini at Joe's are available through the Agfa/Monotype Creative Alliance
(888) 988.AGFA, http://www.agfastudio.com

The entire Martini at Joe's collection is also available through Psy/Ops Type Foundry, San Francisco.
(888) PSY-FONE, http://www.psyops.com

Martini at Joe's Font Collection – 1 base font, 14 variations:

With the exception of the Cameo versions, all the Martini at Joe's fonts are designed to work together. Letterspacing is similar in all fonts. For example, try layering: put Martini at Joe's Brush Regular on the bottom in one color, overlap it with Martini at Joe's Dimensional Outline in another color. Or have Dimensional Outline "float" at an angle above Martini at Joe's Regular.

All text on this page copyright (c) 1999 Steve Mehallo, used with permission. Edited by Googie On-line.