Hey, nice. :-)
Would you prefer to see more of what you know, or maybe discover a less well-known [typo]graphic culture?

Copenhagen! You already are there and four days in New York are not worth to change the climate.

We're open for suggestions, so just bring 'em on!

Lucky!

See if you can convince them to let you go somewhere not too exotic, but still on the fringe of Europe: Yerevan, Armenia. You'll see a lot of it in four days (on foot), and it's a place very into "visible language"*, with Latin, Armenian, Cyrillic and Arabic (Farsi) all over the place**. You'll see how fonts, logos and visuals in general can get distorted***, or improved upon. Plus it has good food and cool architecture, it's inexpensive, and most of all very hospitable and safe.

* http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/sets/72157621930145718/

** http://www.flickr.com/photos/48413419@N00/4130151382/

*** http://www.flickr.com/photos/ninastoessinger/3798351518

Perhaps most interestingly, the Armenian script seems to stride a very
fruitful border between the familiar and the alien to a Latin-scripter:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/48413419@N00/4130109730/
It's exactly the sort of thing that can inspire and liberate a designer.

But: what time of year?

hhp

There are of course very many places you could visit and not regret it. New York is of course tons of input and crazy, but 4 days might really be too short (mind the jet lag).
But given that you're open to discovering something a bit off the proverbial beaten path, I actually (whole-heartedly) recommend Armenia too! I traveled there last summer, and found it very stimulating in terms of visual input: indeed, familiar (and hospitable) enough to not make one feel out of place, yet foreign enough to be surprising and inspiring. It's an amazing, rich culture to discover; and seriously obsessed with letters too. (Plus your bag of money will definitely last longer than if you come to Switzerland…)

If you can find an ex-Reading student to give you the low-down a trip to Rome might be a good use of four days and a fist full of euro.

A Fist Full Of Euro
Clint Eastwood, right? Great movie. Great spaghetti.
Rome's gotta be it.

> Clint Eastwood, right? Great movie. Great spaghetti.
> Rome’s gotta be it.

just a little 'problem'; the film was shot in Spain

go to England; see the Great exhibition by Frank Auerbach

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2009/auerbach/index.shtml

don't miss Anish Kapoor,Richard Deacon, Dan Graham

http://www.lissongallery.com/#/artists/

and if you love photography: http://springprojects.co.uk/flash.html

This time of year i would go for somewhere warmer, interesting stuff all over the world

If it's going to be in Winter and you shun cold weather, maybe Thessaloniki. It has some of the attributes of Yerevan I described above, although it's not so chock-full of letters and it's mostly limited to two scripts. And then of course there's Barcelona. And Beirut. :-)

hhp