Kerning Learning

Learn to kern with KernType. Typographical tutelage brought to you by Mark MacKay and Maria Munuera of Method of Action.
:: Thanks Bonnie!

Thou Shalt Not Copy

There were few textbooks available to young students in the 18th and 19th centuries. Instead, students would use blank books, more commonly referred to as copybooks, to copy their teacher's lessons entirely by hand. Many of these early books were made by hand, until the local stationers eventually began supplying ruled and plain copybooks, often with advertisements on their wrappers. 
      My photos of the penmanship copybook shown above are from a 2008 exhibit, 350 Years of Books for Children at the University of Washington's Suzallo Library. Penmanship exercises were a common form of copybooks. This one is from a Hampstead, Massachussettes student, Tristram Little, and dated 1823-1826. I do love the text in it; Be careful to keep your book very clean.

The copybook above is a math book from the same exhibit and it belonged to Catherine Palen, in 1825. This was also at a time when students were expected to hand-copy their arithmetic problems from the blackboards. Catherine must have been a serious over-achiever. No one decorates titles like this at the top of their pages unless they're aiming for extra credit. Nice layout I might add. I'd certainly give her an A+ regardless of her square roots.
      Although this next copybook below is undated, I would suggest it is from the early 1700s. Based upon the unlined paper, the lettering and penmanship style, and the puritanical text, it appears to be at least this old. I purchased this book years ago from a rare book dealer and it had no documentation. The pages appear to have been very fragile, so someone went to great lengths to preserve it by glueing it on a similar weight and kind of paper in a professional manner. Some of the original pages were separated and the remnants of these are glued in place onto new pages as well. The restored booklet is only 4 pages measuring 5 x 6".

Below is a great example of a typical 19th century copybook. This one belonging to Eli Lee Harrison, is estimated to be from around 1850, according to Pat Pflieger at the Merry Coz where I found this example. It was produced by the L.S. Learned Company (love the name) of New England. The woodcut images on the front and back covers portray the Pilgrim's landing on the shores of Cape Cod near Eastham, MA (lovely place I might add). The inside pages are pale blue and filled with Eli's rather poorly-executed penmanship exercises such as this odd little verse; Idleness and ignorance are the parents of many vices. Well ok, I'll take less ignorance, but I could surely use a lot more of the idleness vice.

Legacy of Letters Tour in Italy This Summer

If you have a love of the letter and a wish to see them in the wild, check out the 2011 Legacy of Letters tour in Italy this Summer with artist / design historian Paul Shaw and translator Alta Price. The tour of Emilia-Romagna and the Veneto takes place between June 29th to July 10th and includes a three-day calligraphy and letterpress workshop at the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione in Cornuda. Immerse yourself in the history and work of Giambattista Bodoni and Fortunato Depero during this 8 day tour and visit libraries and museums which are rich in extraordinary lettering examples. The tour will appeal to calligraphers, typographers, graphic designers, art historians, artists architects and anyone with a passion for letters. You can view photos of last year's tour and learn more about this Summer's tour here.

Flourished Fraktur

Type designer Dan Reynolds includes this typographic jewel on his Flickr photostream. He explains—this elaborately embellished M is from a 19th C British sketchbook filled with many other romantic lettering samples of work. It was shown to a class of students in the University of Reading's typography program several years ago by retired professor and scholar Michael Twyman, who is now Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies at the University. Former student and designer Michael Hochleitner, of Typejockey in Vienna, also shared a photo of this same letter and images of Michael Twyman's lecture. Oh how I would have enjoyed sitting in on that session! This is for my type buddies—Joe, John & Juliet. (Team Cap J)

Style File

Design&Typo le site, has a rich archive of internationally renowned design work provided by Peter Gabor, the French designer and consultant behind D&T. Originally prepared as course material for his design students at ESAG Penninghen, a graduate school of design in Paris, it quickly transformed into an impressive design research archive which he has generously made available to the public. Care has been taken to present each work as originally printed and intended. You can find the work of Robert Massin's La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Soprano); and Hermann Zapf's beautiful typographical compendium, Manuale Typographicum; and Bradbury Thompsons' brilliant series for Westvaco Inspirations for Printers, the paper promotions he produced in the mid-1950s for Westvaco, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company. It was this series where Bradbury introduced his Alphabet 26, a monoalphabet based upon Baskerville where the upper and lowercase letters were identical, and case was expressed through letter size only. Even today, the Westvaco Inspiration series are still considered to be some of the most progressive examples of graphic design ever produced in the later half of the 20th C. Don't miss these.

Type Americana Conference

Some of the nation's best type designers, historians and educators of typography will be assembled at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle for the two day type conference, Type Americana on November 12th/13th. The conference focuses on American Type Design and celebrates the work of Morris Fuller Benton, W.C. Dwiggins, Frederic Goudy and Beatrice Warde. In addition, Thomas Phinney will discuss The Rise & Fall of American Type Founders, which for decades was the largest and greatest supplier of type in the US. Saturday provides the opportunity to get ink on your hands and print with some wood blocks from the Hamilton Wood Type collection in SVCs wonderful print studio. Or hand draw and digitize some letters under the guidance of one of the greats of type design, Sumner Stone. Bookend the conference at a showing of the documentary film about the making of the first simultaneous production of a metal and digital font – Stern Pro. Learn, have fun, and immerse yourself in all things type at Type Americana. More information and registration can be found here. To learn more about the film, Making Faces, and to watch a preview, see my previous post here.