The Spectacular Typography of the Sanborn Fire Maps
Brandon Silverman:
It was September of 2011 and I saw a link on kottke.org to a
small collection of incredible typography from something
called the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. I had never seen them
before and they blew my mind. I immediately became a massive fan
and in fact, when I got married, my wife and I designed our
wedding invitation based off of them.
However, there has never been a place to see all of the art from
the maps in one place. Until now.
This website is a free archive dedicated exclusively to creating
a one-stop shop for all the incredible typography and art of the
Sanborn maps. It includes almost 3,500 unique decorative titles,
all drawn before 1923. While large portions of the original maps
have been digitized and archived in various places both online and
offline, there has never been a comprehensive collection of all of
the decorative titles from the Sanborn maps. I hope you enjoy!
I just love this style of turn-of-the-century typography and graphic design. (The last turn of the century, that is.) In our era, this style has been used to wonderful effect by the great Chris Ware.
Via, no surprise, Kottke. What comes around goes around.
★
Brandon Silverman:
It was September of 2011 and I saw a link on kottke.org to a
small collection of incredible typography from something
called the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps. I had never seen them
before and they blew my mind. I immediately became a massive fan
and in fact, when I got married, my wife and I designed our
wedding invitation based off of them.
However, there has never been a place to see all of the art from
the maps in one place. Until now.
This website is a free archive dedicated exclusively to creating
a one-stop shop for all the incredible typography and art of the
Sanborn maps. It includes almost 3,500 unique decorative titles,
all drawn before 1923. While large portions of the original maps
have been digitized and archived in various places both online and
offline, there has never been a comprehensive collection of all of
the decorative titles from the Sanborn maps. I hope you enjoy!
I just love this style of turn-of-the-century typography and graphic design. (The last turn of the century, that is.) In our era, this style has been used to wonderful effect by the great Chris Ware.
Via, no surprise, Kottke. What comes around goes around.