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| CLICK to see larger. Back to photographing the typecast. The scanner is not very subtle. |
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| In the backyard studio. We had to take advantage of the Fall weather. The snow will blow soon enough. |
The above photo is probably the most accurate white balance and overall color. We did not need another green typewriter. Olympia's green is somewhere between the shade of the Hermes and that of the Oliver. I like the color, but not as much as I like the typeface. The whole family loves this typewriter.
Wait until they hear me banging away on it at midnight ;-)
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| Olympia!!!! All exclamation, all the time. We may need to meter her espresso intake. |
The extreme shallow depth-of-field is courtesy of the Sigma 50mm f2.8 macro mounted on the Canon 60D. The saturation and contrast on this lens is really nice. My walk around is the Canon 50mm f1.4 because I like doing low light, but the Sigma is pretty special.
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| I may eventually grow to love crinkle finish. I should have done a before cleaning photo, but yuck. |
I'm getting good at washing Olympia machines. Fortunately, removing the mechanical system from the housing is easy and each is washed separately. I have two fans ready to blow the moisture out quickly and spray lube at the ready. Washing activities will most likely cease mid-winter when the garage is cold in spite of a quartz heater. We're used to soldering and robot building with gloves on.
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| Gratuitous Detail. I love Olympia typewriter's trademark turned metal bits. |
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| Lovely type slugs. So peppy! Olympia is not a vary creative name for an Olympia branded typewriter, but in this case it fits the type personality. Hmm, looks like I need to clean the slugs with mineral spirits and a toothbrush. |
As noted in the typecast, this typeface is known as Professional Elite #41. I thought it was italic based on the ebay auction photos. Having seen a sample each, I like this typeface better than the pure italic version. Thanks to the Munk for making all things typeface available at:
http://munk.org/typecast/2011/04/23/1964-nomda-blue-book-olympia-font-styles/
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| German engineering at its finest. |
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| Welcome to the House Full of Nerds, Olympia. |
Ahh, I love unique typestyles on great-looking machines (:
ReplyDeleteThat's a real keeper you've got there!
Great typeface, and the typecast is hilarious. I must try channeling my typewriters' thoughts too!
ReplyDeleteVery innovative typecast idea. Like it. And your photos are great. Can you tell us the serial number? It looks pretty similiar to my Olympia: http://maschinengeschrieben.blogspot.com/2011/07/collection-olympia-sm3_30.html
ReplyDeleteWow! Beautiful typewriter and fantastic typeface; what a stroke of good fortune :)
ReplyDeleteThanks all! This is my 20th blog post and I am starting to the get hang of it.
ReplyDeleteSerial number: 1249779
Adwoa: Obsession + Luck = Success Maybe 1 in 40 typewriters on ebay has a type sample or a clear photo of the type slugs. This one actually had a good photo and went for less than I would have expected. Olympias are fairly common, so perhaps people don't check every item that comes along.
As I was loosening up the machine and getting letters on the page, the personality emerged with the typeface. We tend to anthropomorphize our stuff. That is a good characteristic for building junk robots and not so good for typewriters. It is hard to adopt out the earlier standard typeface machines since they have their own personalities.
I do much dry technical analysis and writing in my day job. The blog gives me a chance to have fun with writing and photography. It's all good.
Or, in the words of Olympia "It's all good!!!!!!" *ding!*
REALLY GREAT typeface on this one.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder "it" waxed so enthusiastic. ;-)
Or was that just the coffee talking?
I just found an SM3 at a thrift store. Very nice machine but not as interesting as yours by any stretch.
The typewriters are in various parts of the house and are handy for carrying on conversations with my kids.
ReplyDeleteMy fourteen year old daughter contributed something on behalf of Olympia regarding how much clearer she felt without all the espresso. This is the same kid who became upset when the Adler slipped the Oliver anti-psychotics causing him to want to play with My Little Ponies instead of taking over the world.
Olympia enjoyed being less perky to the point of wanting to be dangerous, like Svetlana Optima.
We let her have five shots of espresso the next day and everything is just fine.
Yes, this is what happens when four Word Nerds live in the same house.