Our recent trip to Barcelona and the Penedes wine region on magazine assignments was focused on Cava and Catalan food. But when we went to the Centro de Interpretación de Cava in Sant Sadurni D’Anoia, my attention turned to design and type for a while.
As our small group started playing with the touch-screen applications on Cava and its history everyone noted how fantastic the graphics and interactive design were. I was instantly nostalgic for my former career in design. Spain is so inspiring when it comes to design and brand identity.
Back in Barcelona after the Cava trip, I once again started to notice how beautiful the type is in the city, on everything from business names to building numbers.
While Lara may go gaga for the street art, I just love visiting Barcelona to take in the stunning design and type everywhere. I find myself taking iPhone snaps so I can identify the typefaces later at home. Yes, I’m a type geek, from the days when I started working in publishing and had to sift through sheets of Letraset.
Our stay in Barcelona was way too fast, but when we return early next year I’m going to be taking more time to take in the type on the streets and maybe post them to Instagram.
Pictured: Logo on a train at the Museu del Ferrocarril de Catalunya (Catalonia Railway Museum) in Vilanova I El Geltrú.
I don’t know if you read the description about that train, but I think the slanted stylized type face was probably chosen to emphasize the main feature of the train which was designed with special axels allowing it to tilt and go faster around curves.
I read up on it while you were looking for your iPhone ;-)
Very cool. Yes, unfortunately I missed that one – because I was trying to persuade the staff that they really needed to at least make an attempt to rescue the iPhone.
As a graphic designer and type nerd myself I loved this article and can’t help but agree with you. Barcelona is a design lovers dream! I loved looking at the creativity in the buildings, the shapes, lines and details. Everywhere I looked I would find myself thinking about getting behind the desk and getting designing :-)
Hi Rebecca, glad you agree, it’s a very inspiring city!