Digital Tie

A couple months ago while discussing color I commented on the deadstock '30s tie shown below and how much the pattern looked like the digital numbers and letters we see so often today.




I recently received the following piece of information from a reader:

"The 'digital' font so often associated with computers and checkbooks was actually an artistic choice that was adpated into electronic use. The font was created in the 1930s, and was chosen as the basis of the font used for check OCR scanning decades later for its clear delieanation between all of the numeric characters. It is definitely yet another slice of Art Deco that continues on in the modern world.

More than 20 years ago, getting a degree in Journalism and History (double major) I took a one semester course in typography. Much of it was really a 'history of fonts overview' and was amazingly interesting."




Thanks for the tip!