31/08/10 – The cover for Agatha Christie’s Death comes as an end is an example of a standard Penguin crime title from the 1950s. The simple (and now classic) design belies the force of its impact and the finesse and sophistication of its layout. (more…)
19/04/10 – Third installment of 1960s & 1970s Scandinavian design logos on Flickr//. The collection features the logos and trademarks of furniture, textile, glass, ceramic and general housewares manufacturers. (more…)
25/03/10 – In his book, The forms of colour, Karl Gerstner examines the interactions of colour and form. The book begins with an analysis of existing graphical colour spaces and the advantages, as Gerstner sees them, of the ‘uniform colour space’ (UCS) developed by Günter Wyszecki. He then goes on to examine form systems, i.e., developments in geometry since Euclid, including perspective, topologies and fractals. (more…)
16/03/10 – A selection of excerpts from the second edition of Eric Gill’s An Essay on Typography (1936). Gill’s frequent use of the ampersand (&) retained throughout.
The Theme
Even if a man’s whole day be spent as a servant of an industrial concern, in his spare time he will make something, if only a window box flower garden. (i)
The application of these principles [i.e., the the industrial and the 'humane'] to the making of letters and the making of books is the special business of this book. (ii) (more…)
31/08/09 – Second installment of 1960s & 1970s Scandinavian design logos on flickr//. Includes logos from a variety of furniture and textile firms. (more…)
24/08/09 – First installment of a collection of Scandinavian design logos/logotypes circa 1960/70 on flickr//. Initial assortment strictly Danish furniture and textile firms. More to come from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. (more…)
17/07/09 – Selections from Design and Paper (13): Controlled Visual Flow by Ladislav Sutnar, New York (1943). (more…)
16/07/09 – Selections from Design and Paper (19): Shape, line and color by Ladislav Sutnar, New York (1945). (more…)
28/06/09 – Monograph for Czech artist and designer, Karel Teige (1900-1951): Karel Teige a typografie: Asymetricka harmonie (2009) by Karel Srp, Polana Bregantova and Lenka Bydzovska. Text in Czech. (more…)
18/05/09 – Excerpts from Jost Hochuli’s Detail in Typography: Letters, letterspacing, words, wordspacing, lines, linespacing, columns (2008): (more…)
14/04/09 – Formal typographic study of the square with 3×3 grid and variations in ratio/proportion and orientation. (more…)
01/04/09 – Excerpts from Bruno Munari’s Design as Art first published in 1966. Images on flickr//
Preface to the English Edition
They [artists] have realized that at the present time subjective values are losing their importance in favour of objective values that can be understood by a great number of people.And if the aim is to mass-produce objects for sale to a wide public at low price, then it becomes a problem of method and design. The artist has to regain the modesty he had when art was just a trade, and instead of despising the very public he is trying to interest he must discover its needs and make contact with it again. This is the reason why the traditional artist is being transformed into the designer, and as I myself have undergone this transformation in the course of my working career I can say that this book of mine is also a kind of diary in which I try to see the why and wherefore of this metamorphosis. (13)
(more…)
24/03/09 – Excerpts from Massimo Vignelli’s The Vignelli Canon (2008):
This little book reveals our guidelines – those set by ourselves for ourselves. (6)
Creativity needs the support of knowledge to be able to perform at its best. (ibid.)
It is not the formula that prevents good design from happening but lack of knowledge of the complexity of the Design profession. (ibid.) (more…)
18/02/09 – Excerpts from Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual: Principles and Practice published in 1965.
Introduction
“What is lacking is a creative focus which would be the source of every new insight into the nature of art and would foster every kind of talent.” (37)
“It is only in in drawing, which occupies an isolated and underprivileged position in the curriculum, that thinking, inventing, representing, transposing and abstracting can be correlated.” (ibid.)
“It is a fairly general assumption that art training is autonomous and subject only to its own laws. It is precisely this error which has induced me to preface my consideration of the problems of art education with some thoughts on education in general with a view to showing the close interdependence of the various aims of education.” (ibid.) (more…)
24/06/08 – Select excerpts and notes from Laurent Pflughaupt’s Letter by Letter:
Introduction
“Tracing back through the history of these abstract signs, which we manipulate and decipher unconsciously on a daily basis, is often like discovering their hidden or forgotten meanings. We find that today we still use capital letters whose structures are identical to the engraved capitals that date from the beginning of this era. We also discover that the design of our printed letters is based on Carolingian lowercase letters, which were rehabilitated and perfected seven centuries later by Florentine humanists.” (9) (more…)
18/05/08 – A selection of excerpts and principles from Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style [Part 1 of 2]:
Foreword
“But when I set myself to compile a simple list of working principles, one of the benchmarks I first thought of was William Strunk and E.B. White’s small masterpiece, The Elements of Style.” (9)
“But the underlying principles of typography are, at any rate, stable enough to weather any number of human fashions and fads.” (10)
“The essential elements of style have more to do with the goals typographers set for themselves than with the mutable eccentricities of their tools.” (ibid.)
I THE GRAND DESIGN
1.1 First Principles
1.1.1 Typography exists to honor content.
“Typography with anything to say therefore aspires to a kind of statuesque transparency. Its other traditional goal is durability: not immunity to change, but a clear superiority to fashion.” (17) (more…)
13/04/08 – Excerpts from Alan Bartram’s Futurist Typography and the Liberated Text published 2005 by Yale University Press:
Introduction
“The Italian Futurist poet-typographers were literary people, as were the very different Russian artists; and, just as for the 1960s protest designers, content came first and created form. Aesthetics merely refined the design.” (7)
“An ability to use a computer makes no one a typographer, and provides no substitute for the fiery imagination adn visual sensibility possessed by Marinetti. His ‘new array of type’ transformed the very grammar and syntax of the sentence, created a unique poetry, a new mode of communication.” (8)
“[...]at least one noteable precendent, the original 1897 version of Stephane Mallarme’s Un Coup de des. And, about the same time Marinetti’s work was published, Apollinaire was experimenting with his calligrammes.” (ibid.) (more…)
Excerpts from Josef Muller-Brockmann’s Grid Systems in Graphic Design: A Visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers and Three Dimensional Designers first published in 1981:
Foreword
Modern typography is based primarily on the theories and principles of design evolved in the 20′s and 30′s of our century. It was Mallarmé and Rimbaud in the 19th century and Apollinaire in the early 20th century who paved the way to a new understanding of the possibilities inherent in typography and who, released from conventional prejudices and fetters, created through their experiments the basis for the pioneer achievements of the theoreticians and practitioners that followed. (7)
The principle of the grid system presented in this book was developed and used in Switzerland after World War II. (ibid.)
But there was no publication that showed how the grid was constructed and applied, let alone how the design of the grid system was to be learned. This book is an attempt to close the gap. (8) (more…)
14/03/08 – Excerpts from Emil Ruder’s Typographie first published 1967:
Introduction
There are two essential aspects to the work of the typographer: he must take into account knowledge already acquired and keep his mind receptive to novelty. (5)
There must be no letting up in the determination to produce vital work reflecting the spirit of the times; doubt and perturbation are good antidotes against the tendency to follow the line of least resistance. (ibid.)
It is the intention of this book to bring home to the typographer that perhaps it is precisely the restrictions of the means at his disposal and the practical aims he has to fulfill that make the charm of his craft. (ibid.)
Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty. A printed work which cannot be read becomes a product without purpose. (6)
He [i.e., the typographer] is not free to make his own independent decisions; he must depend on what went beforehand and take into account what is to come. (8)
But the typographer does possess this ability to stand back from the work, and it is very useful to him in his craft since critical distance is a virtue in a typographer. The typographer must be able to take the impersonal view; wilful individuality and emotion have little place in this work. (ibid.)
The many active contacts between people from every country today leave no scope for type faces with a pronounced national character. (10)
The craft of the typographer, like any other, necessarily reflects the times. The age gives him the means with which to satisfy the needs the age creates. (12)
The creative worker, on the other hand, spares little thought for contemporary style, for he realizes that style is not somethign that can be deliberately created; it comes all unawares! (ibid.)
More than graphic design, typography is an expression of technology, precision and good order. (14) (more…)
Excerpts from Jan Tschichold’s Die neue Typographie (1928):
Introduction
“The ‘form’ of the New Typography is also a spiritual expression of our world-view. It is necessary therefore first of all to learn how to understand its principles, if one wishes to judge them correctly or oneself design within their spirit.” (7)
“The illustrations in this book, with few exceptions examples of practical work, prove that the concepts of the New Typography, in use, allow us for the first time to meet the demands of our age for purity, clarity, fitness for purpose, and totality.” (ibid.)
“Modern man, whose vision of the world is collective-total, no longer individual-specialist, needs no special reminder of the rightness of being closely aware of such related activities as modern painting and photography. I therefore thought it desirable to say something more about this new way of viewing our world, in which our spiritual conception of the new forms are linked with the whole range of human activity.” (8)
Growth and Nature of the New Typography
a) The new world view:
“Construction is the basis of all organic and organized form: the structure and form of a rose are no less logical than the construction of a racing car –both appeal to us for the ultimate economy and precision. Thus the striving for purity of form is the common denominator of all endeavour that has set itself the aim of rebuilding our life and forms of expression. In every individual activity we recognize the single way, the goal: Unity of Life!” (13)
“Typography too must now make itself part of all the other fields of creativity. The purpose of this book is to show these connections and explain their consequences, to state clearly the principles of typography, and to demand the creation of a contemporary style.” (ibid.) (more…)