Tallhand Book & Font Family (Version 2.0): By Sam Meyerson & Bret Syfert
A Philadelphia-born graphic designer with an interest in the city’s graffiti and a Philly writer with an interest in typography looked out onto the sea of bad graffiti fonts and saw an opportunity to create one that at the very least had an understanding of the graffiti that it was impersonating.
Tallhand is a font family that pushes the rules of graffiti towards those of fonts and the rules of fonts towards those of graffiti. In doing so, it serves to help both writers and non-writers understand and appreciate the uniquely Philadelphian graffiti artform through the lense of typography. We are publishing the Tallhand font family (Version 2.0) independently along with a supplemental handbook “Tallhand Punchline” which documents the project in further detail. It also includes unsolicited handstyle examples as well as solicited commentary from many of Philadelphia’s legendary writers. The book and fonts are sold together, as we feel one can’t be fully experienced or understood without the other. “Tallhand Punchline” was printed in Philadelphia by Fireball Printing. It is perfect bound with 56 pages printed onto uncoated Neenah Environment Desert Storm 100% Recycled (Kraft Color). The inner pages are 80lb text and the cover is 120lb card. Limited edition of 125, each with a download link for the Tallhand font family.
The Tallhand font family was built as a synthesis of many styles within a single citywide method of writing, with elements borrowed from both past and present writing traditions.
The up-and-down connected style is the premier trademark of Philadelphia. It is incessantly practiced, mastered, and passed down through generations.
In order to capture the non-stop flow of the style, the font essentially is a script with tall letters. The point of connection between letters remains the same throughout, and it is often this point where the flow changes direction sharply as one letter becomes the next, in the same way as it does naturally through the speed and motion of real writing. This split-second “pause” between letters is a reflection of the physicality of writing letters using the entire body. Philly letters can be so large that a writer needs to take a step to get from one letter to the next, but be able to do so without ever breaking the flow.
Type design and graffiti could be considered complementary to each other, and at the same time antithetical. Typography is math and architecture and communicates to the masses, while graffiti is personal and subjective to the writer and mostly speaks exclusively to a community of other writers. However, both are letter-focused, and like type design and typesetting, graffiti falls into the craft and trade category. The goal of this project was not to create an authoritative representation of Philadelphia graffiti, nor was it to create yet another graffiti font gimmick.
After developing the BETA Version of Tallhand, our objectives for this release became:
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Translate a handwritten calligraphic tradition to a single-stroke typeface that can be used even without graphic design software
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Study, honor, preserve and share history, knowledge and a sense of pride in the city of Philadelphia
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To be the first to prove that it’s possible
Try out Tallhand Regular and Punchline with the live preview below (purchasing the book & font unlocks more options such as leaning left or right and fanning names)
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And you can type here too
Tallhand Regular: All glyphs
Tallhand Left Lean: All glyphs
Tallhand Right Lean: All glyphs
Tallhand Punchline: All glyphs
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© Hyde’s Lovelies is the freelance graphic design, animation and art of Bret Syfert.