April 1, 2008 – Citizens and tourists alike noticed a disturbing change over the last few days in the landmark sign. Portions of the letters are melting off and dripping down the mountainside. Fans have always tolerated the crooked baseline (due in part to seismic activity) but the dripping letters have caused widespread alarm among tourists, actors, scientists and local officials. Font experts at the Ascender Typographic Preservation Institute (ATyPI) were on the scene analyzing the Hollywood sign to determine the cause of the dramatic changes.
“We use proprietary algorithms in our hinting software to accommodate increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These algorithms enhance the legibility by optimizing the placement of letters on the physical grids used to hold billboard fonts” said Thomas Rickner, world-renowned font software specialist best known for his work on the Verdana, Tahoma and Georgia fonts for Microsoft. “But the velocity of pixelation modification in the Hollywood sign is both perplexing and alarming. I’ve never seen anything like this before.” he added.
The National Commission on Historic Typefaces has engaged Charles Bigelow, the distinguished Melbert B. Cary Professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, to conduct a study on the impact of global warming on fonts exposed to the environment. “We will be analyzing everything from gas pumps to ancient Greek inscriptions chiseled onto buildings that aren’t there anymore, to see how fonts will change over time,” said professor Bigelow. “As Le Corbusier once said, ‘Fonts of the future are usually fonts of the past.’ The only thing we won’t be studying is outdoor signage on bank buildings, since most financial institutions are now adopting Comic Sans as their corporate font, to better celebrate their recent achievements. We need to wait until the paint dries before doing further analysis.”
Meanwhile, as the famous Hollywood sign continues its decay, the Institute will attempt to collect portions of letters which have melted and fallen to prevent them from being sold on EBay.
The photo below was supplied by Dr. Matt Stevenson of the Ascender Typographic Preservation Institute. No rights reserved.
This article was last modified on December 17, 2022
This article was first published on April 1, 2008
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