For the Love of Letters: Tauba Auerbach

Tauba Auerbach is a 26 year old artist and sign painter out of San Francisco. And quite frankly she is awesome. Her works examines both the complex intricacies of letter form as viewed above (the letter F), as well as some interesting takes on words and how we use them. One thing that really setes Tauba apart is that almost all of her work is done by hand. Once you realize that you really appreciate the time and loving effort that is going into her work. This is the kind of artist I would love to see making an impact on the design scene. Although, as far as I can tell from the (admittedly) brief amount of research I did on her, she is a fine artist and sign painter only, and does not do any commercial graphic design.

Ironic to me because I've had a tie to the sign business running in my blood for over 40 years. My Grandfather started hand painting signs in Chicago for grocery stores, taught his son the trade, passed it on to his son-in-law (my dad), and now I work part time with my father. It's refreshing to see something like this coming from a sign painter, no offense to the family, but for the most part signs tend to be pretty utilitarian and often customers don't understand or accept design principles, making it pretty hard to incorporate good design. Also it's not usually worth your time. Alright my tangent is over.

Check out Tauba's website here.

How to Spell the Alphabet - 2005