Wow. Looks like a reversed counter. Almost FF Legato, but I’m sure that’s not what it was originally.

The o does not make it easier than the g

Good guess Stephen. But it’s not FF Legato.
Here’s another clue, lowercase ‘i’

(I’m obviously trying to make this quest interesting by making it harder to guess ;^)

Albertus? Grr. Why’dja take the g down? :(

—Jim K.

Edit: That i is painful. Painfully painful.

Is this one of those typefaces that has certain glyphs that if seen alone would be confused for a sans serif?

Jim: Sorry, the ‘g’ was giving it away :^)

Miss T: Does the image below answer your question?

No, it doesn’t.

Ok, one more clue:

(The ‘o’ was already shown)

Oh phooey. Hiroshige Sans?

Lydian?

No & no :^P

One more?

the g was, apparently, NOT giving it away. ;)

What about this one?

Optima?? How bad a hack-and-slash job WAS this?

>Optima??

Nope

>How bad a hack-and-slash job WAS this?

Obviously a REAL BAD one :^D

I promise the next letter will be the ‘g’

Whatever it is, it’s a horrible hack job that any first year design student should even be ashamed of, nevermind a prominant sign like this. >:-o

David, you’re absolutely right. With only a X-acto knife, I would do a better job than the defective plotter that did this.

The promised ‘g’

Now it should be easy to ID.

I was thinking Gill Sans. When I saw the r, I mean. The g doesn’t contradict that hunch.

Garamond?

Tiepolo?

There’s a kind of a pattern to the madness…

I still think it’s Gill.

Goddamnit, Mark, I think you’re right. CRAZY.

Miguel, are you SURE they weren’t going for Optima?

…Y’know… clean up some of those weight inconsistencies, fix the w and the f, and this hack job isn’t without a certain amount of charm…

—Jim K.

You got it Mark!
Sorry Jim, but it’s not Optima. Look:

Thank you all for participating. I had a fun time. Hope you too.

Mark, please wait on the other side of the glass partition to be credited by Mr. Yves for this ID :^)

“Mr. Yves” — at last someone who knows how to properly address my majestic self. :^P

Ah, that’s because one day I found a Post-it sticked to my screen that said, “Never challenge someone that has the power to delete whole threads. Miss T” :^o ;^P

I got da power indeed, you betcha! :^D

This is like forensic analysis - identifying a mangled face!

hhp

So what’s the deal, can it really just be that bad? I’m perplexed as to how this would get ‘approved’ in this state. :-/

Hrant: Yes, I can see the relation of this thread, with other (more serious) issues being discussed on Typophile.

David: I understand you’re not doubting that the sign is exactly like this (as of 17 March 2006) — I was baffled when I saw it too — but if you still don’t believe it, go there or ask a friend to do so.

The truth is, most people will never notice how bad it is. And even if some do, they probably won’t go farther than saying some of the letters are thinner than others, and eventually point out the imperfections on some bits of the vinyl.

Those square-sided lc e’s are pretty nice, actually. :-)

Even the arrow is poorly done, but what is to be expected from a cut job like that?

The p, g, w, and o had me thrown because they look to me like somebody had been going for oblique stress in the letters. The g looks almost calligraphic, even.

—Jim K.

Yeah, some shapes are really interesting, and thus can serve as a starting point for some ideas. That’s actually one of the reasons why I took the shots.

The other reason was to have an example of how some shapes can be completely transformed, while keeping an unarguable link with the original.

I agree with Jim, when I saw the O, I thought for sure it was a blackletter derivitave. A cross between a textura and a rotunda almost.

-Mike