(If this has been covered already, forgive me; I couldn't find it here, searching . . .)

I don't have my copy of PR with me (on the road), so I can't give page #s - but Cayce is describing her loathing for certain totalitarian design strategies, and she mentions that the Schutzstaffel had a type slug cast for printing their logo.

I'm doing some work on ideology and typefaces, and am trying to learn more about this particular, highly symbolic moment of design hegemony. I've found some sample sheets from official typewriters, which did indeed feature an "SS"-symbol key, but as yet no information on the typeface in question, the foundry, the designer . . . normally I'd plow ahead on my own but working through archives from the Nazi era is a singularly repulsive task, and I was wondering if anyone already had information about this detail, or pointers to a good history.

Many thanks for your attention -

Hi.

I just finished re-reading PR myself. I can't really help you with any specific info, but you might be interested that the Vonnegut novel (and movie) Mother Night features an SS slug typewriter.

good luck

I'd read someplace that it was based on the pre-roman rune for the 's' sound. So it might not actually have a designer (for example, who designed the letter G?)

Sig Rune

The wikipedia article sounds reasonable enough. At least it should give you a clue whereto direct your research.

Moving into deep otaku territory here - thanks for the Wpedia link - I should have thought to start from the rune's adoption, but . . . to DataMojo, the letter "G" was designed by, in the case of your message & mine, Matthew Carter at Microsoft and Tom Rickner at Agfa Monotype, because our words are being displayed in Verdana.

To be a letter is to be in a handwriting style, or a typeface, and there's a designer there. I was getting into this sig-rune thing backwards because I'm used to starting from the person who drew the typeface, and the cutting, the foundry, etc. - but I suspect if I can trace the sale of the rights from Heck, I'll find the dark iconographer I'm looking for.

This isn't totally tangential to PR (at least for me) - intriguingly, Cayce, who is preternaturally sensitive to images, logos, symbols, and clothes, doesn't (in my memory) pay much attention to typeface + font choices . . . a friend + I were talking about this recently, and she suggested that it be due to the almost universal adoption of Helvetica by branding and advertising, particularly in mainstream fashion (American Apparel, the Gap) - and Helvetica is a face so magnificently neutral that it's like the type version of the time-neutrality that Cayce sees in the clothes of the characters in the footage - the way the man could be stepping off a submarine or out of a jazz club, anywhere in a fifty-year range (if my memory serves). It's the default face of Cayce's Mac; it's printed on many of the clothes labels that she cuts off . . . global, permanently modern, ubiquitous, stripped of all but a few traces of ornament, and almost without ancillary content, the equivalent of her black t-shirt.

Thanks again for your thoughts.

the nazi's had a special type face for english
letter font, an official typeface, outside of the normal courier type set of the times on any given typewritter. the official"english" set would be used if they were not using the germanic typeset, the one in ornimental type face, of the previous year hundreds.
but really, I've never looked into it.

finnb:

I found some info on the Schutzstaffel at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS

The typeface according to the above, is 'Runic',
based on ancient runes symbols.

I found a couple of links to runes fonts at:

http://www.kami.demon.co.uk/gesithas/runes/fonts.html

Tom C.