{"id":4565,"date":"2022-02-18T10:46:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T09:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fontanatype.com\/?p=4565"},"modified":"2026-04-21T09:41:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T08:41:06","slug":"why-a-urinal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/?p=4565","title":{"rendered":"Nice Shot."},"content":{"rendered":"<div  class='flex_column av-3z24r9-dfbeff0401cdd2ca7944d340373d6c07 av_one_third  avia-builder-el-0  el_before_av_two_third  avia-builder-el-first  first flex_column_div  '     ><style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-kzs88tdk-91d51c7c1288ba786379cccfbb1f471c\">\n.avia-image-container.av-kzs88tdk-91d51c7c1288ba786379cccfbb1f471c img.avia_image{\nbox-shadow:none;\n}\n.avia-image-container.av-kzs88tdk-91d51c7c1288ba786379cccfbb1f471c .av-image-caption-overlay-center{\ncolor:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-image-container av-kzs88tdk-91d51c7c1288ba786379cccfbb1f471c av-styling- avia-align-center  avia-builder-el-1  avia-builder-el-no-sibling '   itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><div class=\"avia-image-container-inner\"><div class=\"avia-image-overlay-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class='wp-image-4566 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-4566 avia_image ' src=\"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-716x1030.jpg\" alt='' title='nice_shot'  height=\"1030\" width=\"716\"  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-716x1030.jpg 716w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-261x375.jpg 261w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-768x1105.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-1067x1536.jpg 1067w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-1423x2048.jpg 1423w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-1042x1500.jpg 1042w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot-490x705.jpg 490w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/nice_shot.jpg 1640w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 716px) 100vw, 716px\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<div  class='flex_column av-2jlunp-c6f42c99196f55a998ed7f3e7e31494a av_two_third  avia-builder-el-2  el_after_av_one_third  avia-builder-el-last  flex_column_div  '     ><section  class='av_textblock_section av-kzs87k1g-f0f6676dd75692fa98da34008062b662 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><h3>Nice Shot.<\/h3>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\"><em>On Duchamp, urinals, and the art of appropriation in type design.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">I have always thought of Fontanatype as a personal brand. Anyone who has ever designed a logo for themselves knows how difficult it is to arrive at a final form \u2014 I would have changed mine every month if I could. Fontanatype&#8217;s more than twenty-year history has been no different.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">When G\u00e1bor K\u00f3thay and I founded the foundry, the logo reflected where we were: rooted in historical letterforms, revival typefaces, and the archaic aesthetic that defined Central European type culture at the time. It looked like a Renaissance letterpress sign. Fontanatype was Hungary&#8217;s first digital type foundry, and over the years, that new digital character gradually made its way into the logo&#8217;s evolution, too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">So why a urinal?<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">In 1917, Marcel Duchamp exhibited a porcelain urinal as a work of art under the title <em>Fountain<\/em>. That object \u2014 displaced, renamed, recontextualized \u2014 became one of the most iconic works of the 20th century and a founding gesture of appropriation art. The move was simple and radical: take an existing object, lift it from its original context, and by doing so, make it mean something entirely new.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">Type designers have been doing exactly this for centuries. The Phoenicians drew a set of letters that have been copied, adapted, and reinterpreted ever since. Scribes appropriated daily, minute by minute, for generations. We do the same \u2014 we take letterforms that already exist, change something, and in doing so, claim them as our own. The urinal and the typeface are closer than they look.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-&#091;1.7&#093;\">As for the logo itself: I needed a single sign \u2014 something recognizable, something that works equally well in print and on screen. Eventually, it became a logo built around a new typeface, Tellur Sans by MONOVO \u2014 one that carries its own layer of meaning: tellurium is a semi-metal first discovered by a Transylvanian miner in the 18th century. The slogan lettering is by G\u00e1bor. So in our own way, we remain true to the foundry&#8217;s original spirit \u2014 just with a urinal out front.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><br \/>\n\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-kzy7gbt4-64951af57b2bda1048cceb13069bbebe\">\n.avia-image-container.av-kzy7gbt4-64951af57b2bda1048cceb13069bbebe img.avia_image{\nbox-shadow:none;\n}\n.avia-image-container.av-kzy7gbt4-64951af57b2bda1048cceb13069bbebe .av-image-caption-overlay-center{\ncolor:#ffffff;\n}\n<\/style>\n<div  class='avia-image-container av-kzy7gbt4-64951af57b2bda1048cceb13069bbebe av-styling- avia-align-center  avia-builder-el-4  el_after_av_textblock  el_before_av_textblock '   itemprop=\"image\" itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\" ><div class=\"avia-image-container-inner\"><div class=\"avia-image-overlay-wrap\"><img decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" class='wp-image-4579 avia-img-lazy-loading-not-4579 avia_image ' src=\"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-1030x268.jpg\" alt='' title='logoevolution'  height=\"268\" width=\"1030\"  itemprop=\"thumbnailUrl\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-1030x268.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-500x130.jpg 500w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-768x200.jpg 768w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-1536x400.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-1500x391.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution-705x184.jpg 705w, https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/logoevolution.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1030px) 100vw, 1030px\" \/><\/div><\/div><\/div><br \/>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-kzy7h7uw-b647cfd93527638a8e770d1b45b44577 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p>Logo evolution from 1999.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nice_shot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4565"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7905,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4565\/revisions\/7905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fontanatype.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}