The Font Story behind Orchard Road Logos

Have you ever wondered what is the font used in some of the logos you see? Well, that thought occurred to me one day while I was passing by Orchard.

From what I know, most of the fonts we see everyday commercially, on the web or while reading can be divided in Serifs (Times New Roman), San Serif (Arial, Helvetica, Futura, Verdana) and Script (those cursive looking letters).

(http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/classifications.html)

I've guessed some of them and I'm pretty sure I'm wrong for most of them. However, I've intended this post as more of a reference when you are designing your own logo, posters, presentations and titles.

By choosing a good font, you might be able to convey a certain image (like the overly expensive luxury brands here =) ).

Serif

Armani - Bodoni

GAP - Spire Regular

Prada - Engravers' SB

Sans Serif
BCBG - Looks a bit like Avant Garde, Engraver's Gothic

Bread & Butter - Frutiger, Univers, Gill Sans

Chanel - Avenir, Akzidenz Grotesk, Engraver's Gothic

Louis Vutton - Futura Medium

Takashimaya - Looks a bit like Rockwell

Isetan - Meta, Futura

ALDO - Looks similar to the font used for BCBG, maybe Engraver's Gothic

Marc Jacobs - Sackers Gothic Medium, or something similar to the BCBG, ALDO

Ngee Ann City - Arial? (Personally, it looks a bit dated..)

Script & Misc

ION Orchard - Comic Sans? VAG Rounded

Salvatore Ferragamo - Some custom script

For Fun

References
Basics of Typography
http://designshack.co.uk/articles/typography/8-rules-for-creating-effective-typography

If you have Illustrator, you can design some pretty nice text
http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/an-in-depth-guide-to-working-with-typography-in-illustrator

This is a pretty good introduction to some classic fonts: http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/articles/25-classic-fonts-that-will-last-a-whole-design-career

(Did this while waiting to install COMSOL.. 8 more GB to go.. =p )

AAAAR - Why do people "screw up" and projects fail in organizations?

I screw up all the time, so I try to not repeat my mistakes as much as possible for the sanity of my friends.

Some of the ideas I've read about project management have percolated in my mind recently.

It seems to me that success of a project depends on the level of

• Authority
• Accountability
• Autonomy
• Ability
• Responsibility

among the people in the team.

Imagine that you are responsible for the outcome of a project, but you are given insufficient authority, are not held accountable, do not possess the required ability and do not enjoy sufficient autonomy. Sounds like a recipe for failure..

Inappropriate levels of any of the five parameters will increase the chances of the project failing.