Given our penchant for the “old school” aesthetic (or is that “skool”) around here it should be no surprise that we appreciate the retro fonts over at Font Diner. And it’s not just fonts that catch our eye. Seattle is filled with great examples of early 20th century architecture and signage. I often take more circuitous routes to my destination just so I can check out some of the cool Seattle buildings.

It was on one such tour in Seattle’s so-called International District (Chinatown, essentially) that I spied the Milwaukee Hotel. Well, it was at least the sign for the long gone Milwaukee Hotel (apparently built by “Goon Dip, a leading Seattle merchant and consul for the Chinese government” in 1911).

And that’s when my two little worlds of retro fonts and cool old Seattle architecture collided. Check out this comparison:

I actually noticed the font similarities first and only a minute later remembered that the version back on my computer had the same name as the hotel. The fonts look nearly identical to me. Yes the letters in the word “Hotel” look fatter but it’s still the same form, just stretched. The word “Milwaukee” looks identical, especially the unique M, K, and E. Visual artists of all kinds borrow all the time, is this an example of a font designer getting inspired by the hotel sign?

It should be said that there are many many very similar fonts. And especially when it comes to display/novelty fonts there are some good ones but many rip-offs. A little googling showed that Milwaukee was designed by the prolific Stuart Sandler. According to his bio: “Each [font] is carefully researched and carefully rendered to produce an authentic retro look.”

Maybe through the magic of the internets Stuart will offer up a comment to explain his inspiration. I am 100% certain that solving mysteries like this is one of the main reasons the internet was invented.