Essay / Street Print
Public Type Is a Serious Game
A city becomes modern when its notices, tickets, and theatre bills stop whispering and learn to play in public.
Last January, I spent two weeks mapping handbills along the Žižkov tram line. The best ones were not polite: they shouted departure times, theatre prices, repair notices, and rain dates in the same breath.
Machines do not make the page cold
Typesetting becomes democratic when it admits the street. A ticket window, a workers’ club, and a cinema lobby all deserve letters with speed, friction, and a little danger; the page should arrive like a tram, not a sermon.