Stand back

I’ve just come across the best website I’ve seen this year:

Public Lettering – a walk in central London.

The site is based on a walk by Phil Baines for his graphic design students. It examines the typography of larger examples of public lettering on and in buildings varying from the British Museum to the Central London Throat & Ear Hospital.

And why is it so good? Permit me to elucidate:

• Fascinating, insightful & compelling content, both written & visual.
• Immaculately well laid out design emphasizing the interactivity & relationship between textual & graphical elements. The result succeeds on both functional & aesthetic levels.
• Innovative & intuitive navigation, in particular a pseudo-3d map of the walk.
• Shockwave 3d models add further interactivity & understanding of the principles being explained.

Any downsides? The type is a little small and the site doesn’t quite work on Opera (when it could). Otherwise pretty much everything a web site should be.