Tombstone typography

[JamesM]

> I spent four summers of my youth working
> at my family’s funeral home

My brother is a minister and has heard some interesting anecdotes from his funeral director friends. Like the time one of the funeral directors was listening to a ball game on the radio while driving the hearse to the cemetery, and was so distracted that he drove 5 miles past the cemetery, with a long procession of mourners following dutifully in their cars.

When he realized his error he turned the hearse around in a parking lot, with all the mourners following him, and headed back to the cemetery. He expected the family to chew him out later, but they never said a word.

[Chris Dean]

Cross posted from Font for old Spanish gravestone?

[oldnick]

Some of Eric Gill's first forays into typeface design were in the field of tombstone lettering. These letterforms are based on his work on Percy Joseph Hiscock's tombstone in Chichester caathedral...

[neverblink]

[Riccardo Sartori]

Amazing photo, Neverblink! It seems a book cover.

[hrant]

Superb photo. Horrible tombstone - it's like the guy never lived.

hhp

[eliason]

It seems a book cover.

I half-expect to see an Amazon "Click to LOOK INSIDE!" banner on top!

[Chris Dean]

@neverblink: Do you have a high res so we can read the type at the base of the stone?

I'd love to see what Müller-Brockmann's tombstone looks like. Does anyone know where he is buried?

[neverblink]

@Christopher

The image I posted was taken from Creative Review. It's a headstone done by Peter Saville and Ben Kelly for their friend and collaborator Anthony H Wilson.

You can read the full article, with more photos here: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/october/peter-saville-anth...

[simon]

Yeah, like I said in the Creative Review blog comments, I'm not sure Rotis is a very good typeface for a tombstone, particularly at the letter sizes Saville uses here. I'm not keen on Rotis and, if I'm honest, I was never really keen on Tony Wilson: then again, saves ruining another couple - an unappealing '80s type for an unappealing media type.

[mike_duggan]

not typographic necessarily, but a few classics here

http://caughtdeadinthat.tumblr.com/

[neverblink]

[hrant]

It's interesting that the two cubes are actually making a Muslim star.

hhp

[JamesM]

I like Rand's memorial although it vaguely reminds me of a pair of dice.

[Chris Dean]

A related thread on gravestones of famous designers, typographers and lettering artists.

[TylerEldredge]

I want my tombstone in comic sans, sort of as a cosmic middle finger to the universe.

[Té Rowan]

I have already picked out my epitaph: ^D

Probably oughta be monospaced, though, something like VT320.

[nina]

Related (and beautiful): Unzipped: Custom font for tombstone by Janno Hahn

[hrant]

Very nice.
BTW, what's wrong with Janno Hahn anyway?

hhp

[Chris Dean]

@TylerEldredge:

[Chris Dean]

From The delights of reading upside down.

[quadibloc]

It's quite true that, in general, one does not have tombstone typography. Nor is it really tombstone calligraphy, although that comes closer.

I did a search on "monumental lettering", hoping to find the correct term, but it seems that there is no single word, and that phrase is often what is used for what the people who carved the Trajan column did.

So there you have it.

Tombstone Monumental Lettering

as a possible improved title for this thread.

[hrant]

Actually these days most tombstones are done by machine, so it's definitely typography. Not a very good kind of typography, but still.

hhp

[Ryan Maelhorn]

Am I the only one who plans on being cremated?

[hrant]

I'd like to go straight into the earth in my birthday suit.
But it's probably illegal since it doesn't cost much money.

hhp