I am Ga Ga for Googie

Date: July 28, 2022

Can a Buildings Design and a Choice of Font Meet in Unison?

Let’s go back to the early 50’s and 60’s to find out and the answer is YES!

Never have I ever found such a unique mix of architecture, design and typography all in one place than with the Googie architecture style. A quick shout out to “Stuff You Should Know” for highlighting this in their recent stretch of architectural based podcasts and for giving me yet another reason to keep listening.

If you get chance, take some time to listen to the “Googie: The Architecture of the Space Age” podcast to get a taste of Stuff You Should Know and a better understanding of how the “Googie” style of architecture came to be.

What Is Googie Architecture?

Googie is a futurist style of architecture that came of age in the mid-twentieth century in the United States, particularly Los Angeles and the surrounding suburbs in Southern California. Googie buildings incorporate strong geometric shapes, upswept roofs, the suggestion of motion, and a mixture of materials ranging from steel to glass to craggy boulders.

Googie is a low-rise architectural style most common in designs for restaurants, car washes, bowling alleys, gas stations, drive-in theaters, apartment buildings, and occasionally single-family homes. Googie design, along with its close mid-century modern cousins Populuxe and Doo Wop, embraced the futurism of the atomic age. It conveyed optimism and a sense of progress, and many of its surviving structures are cherished architectural landmarks.

MasterClass | Articles – Guide to Googie Architecture: 13 Iconic Googie Buildings

Wow Factor

Once you get a chance to see some of the most popular spots ever created in the “Googie” design, it is clear to see that these aren’t meant for residential homes but more so as commercial eye catchers and hopeful money makers that stand out from the norm and inspire passers by to stop in and take a look around.

How Does this Apply to Your New Build or Remodel?

Well if you are considering building or remodeling your home into an eye catching, outside the norm, flashback, quick trend, style that was mostly commercially based and may have a giant glowing neon sign with an abstract font that broadcasts your family’s name to the neighborhood… then this is the design path for you (and me). Even though it may be more of a far fetched outlandish dream than reality to build something like these structures in your neighborhood, the best part about thinking about a new build or remodel is that the canvas is yours! It is your ideas and dreams and you are the one deciding how risqué things get for your home design.

It’s been done before… should it be done again?

Umm, YES… click here for more

Take the time to develop your thoughts and ideas even if they are a little outside the box, propose those ideas to a professional architect, designer or builder to see what they think, who knows, they may have some ideas that are even wilder than you thought.

As quickly as trends become popular and fizzle out (and return again before you even thought it was possible), I think it is important to create and design your home to carry as much of your vibes and your family’s vibes as possible.

Be inspired by looks and the styles that catch your eye. Take on projects both big and small that can add the elements of design you want. I hate to play the YOLO card here but it seems fitting. However, you may want to leave out the giant neon sign 🙂