My apologies in advance for this lengthy post folks.
Gino, not seeing what you're pointing out about the first E that's been tampered with. But I agree there are definitely two different E's--see my comments below about those.
Regarding the lengthy serifs on the capital "I," that's actually getting to be something you see with more sans serifs these days that used to be unusual but is less so now. Also, my view would be that with this font, having an "I" with no serifs would look odd spacing-wise with a very skinny character like that squeezed between all these really super-wide characters, especially with all the horizontal connector strokes going on everywhere.
I could well be wrong that this is a font, but here's some of the details that makes me lean toward thinking it is:
- The connecting O also connects not just the Y and U in the word "YOU" but also the 1st and 3rd S's in "SOS." It would also work like that sandwiched between lots of other character combinations. The two examples here don't appear that they'd be unique, because the connectors that accomplish this are either on the upper-left and lower-right of the O itself, or at least the lower-right, with the connectors on the upper right of other characters completing the job.
- There are two different versions of the SOUNDS OF SILENCE lettering, distinguished from each other by the two different versions of O in the word "OF." (I didn't upload the 2nd version of the phrase to begin with, but I've attached it here to show that.) One is the "connecting" version of O that hooks up with the previous and following letters. (Although here it doesn't have the connecting overhang on the upper left, which would be evidence against my theory.) The other is a full O without the 2 gaps in its shape on the left and right.
I would tend to guess that a graphic designer would make just one version of the phrase "SOUNDS OF SILENCE" and use the same one everywhere, instead of making two versions. However, with actual unicase fonts that are designed as just upper case, it's not uncommon to have alternate characters available in the lowercase positions of the font that can be used in different situations or just for variety. Sometimes more than two versions. Occasionally you will even see "connector" pieces you can use on an ad-hoc basis. (The font "Logotypia" by Ralf Hermann which I have in my library is set up this way and made for building logos where you can have connecting characters.)
- There are smaller "half" serifs on the C, D, and "?" and to my eye they seem to be done consistently from an optical standpoint. Also in the word HEAR it looks like the same type of half-serif may be present on the feet of the H, A, and R (though they connect up in this combination). I'd tend to think most graphic designers without type design experience wouldn't think to put little half-serifs like that on a font that is primarily a sans serif. They'd just leave them off entirely. A type designer, though, might well add them in the interest of more distinctive characters, either to lessen the monotony of a more formulaic sans typeface, or also for better legibility, since the latter is easily the biggest shortcoming with a font like this.
- Dual versions of the following two characters also show up: One version of the E has an extending connector on the upper right with a non-connecting lower leg, the other one vice versa. One version of the C has the small downward-pointing half-serif on the upper right, the other doesn't. The one without it is used in the phrase "SOUNDS OF SILENCE" underneath the main "SOS" logo, but not in the 2nd version of that phrase I'm uploading with this email that was used in right-to-left scrolling banner text on their website. This leads me to believe the C may have been designed as part of a type font with a half-serif, but it was shaved off on purpose in the actual logo treatment. Or perhaps there could be two versions of the C in the upper and lowercase keyboard positions if it was designed as a font.
- There are overhangs or overshoots on the upper right "arm" of several characters here: on E, F, I, and S.
- The middle crossbar on the E and F is much shorter than average, something that helps to improve legibility particularly in situations where the characters are all square. A type designer would be more likely to tweak that feature, I'd think, than a design.
All that said, I may be dead-as-a-doornail wrong. In either case my hat's off to whoever created the lettering, font or no, for the great job. It looks deceptively simple at first glance, but the more you look at it, quite a bit of thought seems to have gone into the whole "connector-overhangs" idea and how those end up interacting with other letters, and the alternatives needed to deal successfully with any resulting issues.
If it's not a font, I'd be one of the first buyers if it were made into one. Would work great for easy-to-make logos, and also just as a high-tech font. The connecting-letters theme also ends up making unusual and interesting end-of word letters such as the S, E when the connector sticks out to the right with nothing to connect to.
Jack
It's the lettering and logo for one o' them hard-drivin' axe-to-grind-into-your-ear post-punk alternative southern rock bands. Note that the large “SOS” main logo looks to have been created/modified from the same alphabet shown in the lower line of smaller lettering that says "Sounds of Silence," which is what I need to identify. Nobody's come up with anything on What The Font yet, so figgered it was time to put it to the gang here. Thanks!
