On the Front Lines
Magic Potion
Cool ideas & design solutions"Cigar, cigarrettes, school supplies" reads the creatively spelled line of text squeezed below the hand-lettered sign of Katy's Candy Store, in business from 1969 to 2007. The Brooklyn shop and hundreds more timeworn New York City storefronts are lovingly preserved in Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York (Gingko Press), a new book by photographers and authors James and Karla Murray. An ode to the endangered species of the mom-and-pop shop, Store Front takes the reader on a technicolor walking tour of humble neighborhood haunts (Ideal Dinettes) and New York institutions (Katz's Delicatessen), all captured in stunning oversize images alongside interviews with shop owners. The bittersweet chronicle of the urban retail life cycle doubles as a fascinating atlas of street typography.
