Deserted Typography

Chances are you haven't been thinking too much about the writing and/or printing that'll be needed on your desert island. Big mistake. What's going to happen when you want to send out your annual holiday newsletter to all the other islands letting them know what you've been up to all year? I know I'll want that paragraph detailing how Heidi has really come into her own as a expert coconut harvester to look professional. But I'll need something much less formal for our Official Beach Volleyball Scorebook. And what about general purpose signage around the island? It will be important to write my 'DO NOT ENTER, OTTER BREEDING GROUND' and 'WARNING: FALLING COCONUTS' signs in clear, attention-grabbing type.

My 4 typefaces:

Andale Mono

I have a strange attachment to Andale Mono. I think it mostly stems from Telnet use at Rochester, but I also just really like a good monospaced font. AM will be used for all official island business including, but not limited to, Beach Volleyball scoring, otter naming records, map legends /labels, and intra-island memos.

Distinctive feature(s): that zero with a dot inside, très officiel.


Rockwell

Rockwell will be our goto signage option. It will warn us of rocks, cliffs, sleeper waves, and extra high UV indices.

Distinctive feature(s): understated serifs for increased impact, its whimsical Q tail.


Modern No. 20

This little ditty will be perfect for our aforementioned island newsletters, or for when we finally get our quarterly poetry anthology– Islands in the Stanza, up and running. I really like its thin straight serifs and retro-ish feel. It will lend an approachable, yet distinguished air to our publications.

Distinctive feature(s): the jaunty 2 and the double line of the dollar sign, which is my preferred number of dollar sign lines.


WW2 Blackltr Alt

I had to include something gothic because we'll need it for labeling Ye bamboo huts, Ye Olde Tiki Bar, and the gangplanks. And you just can't do that with Helvetica. I don't remember where I found this font but I like it for its appropriate amount of Olde English flair, I think Robin Hood not Beowulf.

Distinctive feature(s): are you getting a load of that punctuation‽ They're all pretty brazen, but I'll be using the ampersand and № as often as possible.

[UPDATE: also distinctive, the Nazi Eagle (SHIFT+OPTION+?). I'm assuming that's the WW2 reference, but still pretty disturbing when typed unintentionally.]

P.s. - Did you know that there is both a Whitney typeface and a Joanna typeface?