Rumors to the contrary, New York is not entirely a grid. The area south of 14th Street was developed before the the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811 was adopted. The streets, like those of older European cities, are a hodge-podge of intersecting grids with meandering and bent streets. As the oldest part of Manhattan, home to City Hall and the Financial District, it has a wealth of commercial and institutional signage and lettering of interest. This lettering walk will go from the City Hall / Brooklyn Bridge area south to Battery Park at the tip of the island. It will include detours to see gravestones and memorials at St. Paul’s Church and Trinity Church. Among the landmarks as part of the tour will be the Woolworth Building, the New York Stock Exchange, Federal Hall, the United States Custom House and 70 Pine Street.

Paul Shaw is a designer and a design historian. He has been leading lettering tours of New York City neighborhoods for 10 years and of other cities, both here and in Italy, since 1997. As a designer he specializes in letterforms from calligraphy to type design. Paul has designed or co-designed 18 fonts, including Kolo, Donatello and Old Claude. As a historian he has written or lectured about Bartolomeo Sanvito, W.A. Dwiggins, Oswald Cooper, Frederic W. Goudy, George Salter, Phil Gruskin, Hermann Zapf and others.

Meeting place and itinerary will be emailed a few days in advance of the tour.

The Type Directors Club is hosting this walk as part of The One Club’s Creative Week events.