REAL BEEF © 2024 by Elena Franck is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Usage implies acceptance of these terms.

REAL BEEF, Elena Franck

REAL BEEF is a typeface inspired by Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood. Meatpacking production, commercial and political signage, and the Chicago-style hot dog influenced the creation of these meaty letterforms. From the complex origins of the Union Stock Yards to the contemporary hold of Vienna Beef Inc., labor and production played a significant role in the hot dog’s journey to becoming a staple commodity in the city. This mystery meat typeface aims to blur the line between suspicion, banality, and admiration.

The design of the REAL BEEF typeface was influenced by historical and contemporary food and beverage advertising that pepper the streets of Bridgeport, Chicago. While the typographic landscape was idiosyncratic, 1950s and ’60s era food stands like Stan’s Drive In or Johnny O’s utilized a home-grown and sometimes humorous approach to the typography and imagery. These signs depict bold and expressive hand-painted lettering which denotes a friendly tone geared toward sales. Another feature of the signs include a forward sweeping axis implying a causal expediency. These characteristics were also noted in campaign signs for Richard J. Daley, a product of the Bridgeport neighborhood. Everyday vernacular and design were used to paint Daley as a familiar figure as well as “the real deal” as in the example “100% with Daley.” REAL BEEF builds upon these approaches of neighbor-hood appeal but takes it further in both material and humor. Similar to the accentuated strokes in sign-painting traditions, this typeface imagines hot dogs as the strokes to constitute letterforms. The role that meat processing played in the hot dog’s journey to becoming a beloved staple exemplifies the expression,“how the sausage gets made.”

Originally operating as a key trading port, Bridgeport was declared one of Chicago’s first official neighborhoods in 1863. Due to the region’s connecting rail and water lines, Philip Armour strategically placed what was to become the largest meatpacking district in the country: the Union Stock Yards. The bygone district operated for over a century in what is now the Back of the Yards neighborhood sitting just below Bridgeport’s Southwest border. By the 1890s, the Union Stock Yards was employing roughly a quarter of the city’s labor force. Even a young Richard J. Daley was employed there for a brief period. Armour and other industrialists amassed fortunes by transforming the way meat was produced, transported, and sold, akin to mass-market enterprises common today. However, these fortunes came at the cost of the workers who endured brutal conditions infamously documented in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle. Archival photographs of mass Union Stock Yards worker strikes demonstrate its larger significance within the labor movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries to improve industry practices. Within this period, Vienna Beef Inc. started to compete to become Chicago’s premier manufacturer of the hot dog. Started by two Austro-Hungarian sausage makers in 1890, the company rose to popularity due to their adoption of relatively safer and cleaner Kosher standards, as well as their promotion of the hot dog at the 1893 World’s Fair. While historically they have claimed the insides are 100% beef, the outer layer is composed of pig or sheep intestines to ensure a snappy texture.

Today, Vienna Beef holds a 71% market share in the city and is the meat most likely found within your Chicago-style hot dog. The smattering of toppings, colloquially referred to as “dragged through the garden,” was supposedly developed from a competition between German, Greek and Italian street vendors. The affordability of this street food throughout difficult economic stretches like the Great Depression ascended the Chicago-style hot dog to its now prolific status in the city and especially in Bridgeport. When looking for a hot dog in the neighborhood, you can opt for a classic at 35th Street Red Hots, Maxwell Street Depot, or the Vienna Beef Factory store. Alternatively, some enjoy Maria’s Standard from Kimski or The Duck Inn Dog from The Duck Inn for a unique spin. The complexity of this seemingly banal product is undoubtedly encased within the stories of the many people who helped produce, promote and enjoy it.

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Letters Beyond Form is part of Art Design Chicago, a citywide collaboration initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art that highlights the city’s artistic heritage and creative communities. This project is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art.