Natalie Kane

Windsor Defense Fund

For the past month or so I’ve been thinking about a question I asked Andy Sturdevant regarding the appearance of the Windsor typeface in Britain and Europe, as I had only ever seen it in an American context. Famously Woody Allen’s favourite font, this had me thinking why I’d never seen it in the country of its birth. My early recollections of it, ironically, lie in a memory of an ‘Ye Olde Western’ photobooth at a theme park when I was younger, in which you’d dress as a miniature Cowboy for the cruel enjoyment of your parents.

I’ve been searching for this elusive typeface in Brighton, where I live, and the surrounding areas, and I’m yet to find it. I have a tendency to get a little overexcited with self-prescribed missions, so this one has taught me to become a little more aware of my surroundings, and of the cultural and design history of the city I live in. Design changes, but in a world obsessed with Helvetica, it’s more than a bit interesting to find typefaces that have supposedly fallen out of fashionand are therefore left, as Andy says, ‘in the wild.’ As if there is a jungle of forgotten trends that are left behind. I’m not going to claim any critical or academic knowledge of the subject, but it’s interesting to note the cultural trends of a country, and why certain fonts appear more or less prominently than others.

Recently Andy found an example of British-based Windsor, which genuinely brightened my day a little, as it’s always great to find significant little contributions to an interest:

I’m going to be in London very soon, so I hereby promise to keep my wits (and a camera) about me, so that if I find any relics, I can document them. And Holy Grail-style, I also promise to find this cafe (if it’s open, I’ll eat in it too). In all seriousness, if anyone who follows me can find any UK-based examples, I’m sure that Andy (and myself) would love to see them. I highly suggest your attention towards Andy’s blog too, a most wonderful and interesting writer.