We're fascinated with the choices made by the San Diego city planners who named America's Finest Streets back in the 1800s—particularly regarding the streets running east to west in the vicinity of Balboa Park. An alphabetical series using the names of trees? Yes, please! Most of which are not endemic to the region, and some that aren't even trees? Sure, that's fine! Stopping at Walnut instead of following through with the last three letters of the alphabet? Hey, we're all doing our best here!

It remains a mystery as to why they tossed in the towel at Walnut. As San Diego Historical Society Quarterly editor Ray Brandes points out in a 1964 article, "They need not have, for there are a number of perfectly good trees in X, Y and Z, including Xylopia, Yew and Ziziphus."

Many of my fondest (and cringiest) memories are set among the hills and canyons traversed by the tree streets, in some of the oldest and loveliest neighborhoods of San Diego: South Park, Burlingame, Bankers Hill, Little Italy... Weekly lunches with my dad and his friends at Fifth & Hawthorn, disc golf at Morley Field, countless Walkabouts and New Years Eves, and more plates of pasta, Sombrero burritos, and nightcaps at the Whistle Stop than I'd care to admit.

Our latest work, the San Diego Tree Streets print, is a love letter to this special part of the city. The print's design is inspired by one of the great graphic designers of the 20th Century, Herb Lubalin, deploying his most famous typeface, Avant Garde, in the way he intended: boldly, tightly kerned, and bedazzled with as many ligatures and alternate glyphs as the copy permits. Available now in the shop.