The Printer's Devil

With Halloween in the wings, I thought it was prime time to share a clip from an early Twilight Zone episode from 1963 about a printer's devil who offers to save the collapse of a town newspaper in exchange for the soul of Douglas Winter, the editor of The Courier. Burgess Meredith plays Mr. Smith, a devious old linotype operator who takes the job of a printer's devil far too seriously. As the prince of darkness, he generates scoops by creating carnage with his keyboard. Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, but this edited clip is all I could find of this episode. Still worth a watch however, just to see Meredith in the role as the satanic linotype operator with the crooked cigar—all in glorious black and white. Kind of reminds me of Dick Cheney, with exception to the full colorization. Here is host Rod Serling's soft-spoken introduction to the Printer's Devil episode from the Twilight Zone season 4 episode: 
      Take away a man's dream, fill him with whiskey and despair, send him to a lonely bridge, let him stand there all by himself looking down at the black water, and try to imagine the thoughts that are in his mind. You can't, I can't. But there's someone who can—and that someone is seated next to Douglas Winter right now. The car is headed back toward town, but its real destination is the Twilight Zone...Da da da dahhh, da da da dahhh...

A Paper Valentine

Set designer Kelly Angood is as good as they come when it comes to paper engineering. Last week I reported on her DIY pinhole Hassleblad camera she designed and made available for downloading. There is more—she has also created a totally functional replica of the adorable Olivetti Valentine typewriter—60s logomark and all. Using a cheap German typewriter for the interior guts and carriage, she encased it with a bright red corrugated cardboard framework to recreate the Valentine which was originally designed by Ettore Sottsass and introduced on Valentine's Day in 1969 by Olivetti. Angood then engineered an entirely functional paper keyboard, screen-printed the keys, fashioned metal parts with aluminum and used Lazertran, a waterslide transfer decal to recreate the ruler. Once her bright red gem of a typewriter was complete, she produced a monotone french-folded book to explain and document the entire production process. It has a red thread stitch binding and a flood of solid red tucked inside each folded page. Angood's red replica marvel is a wonderful paper valentine to Sottsass and his jewel of a typewriter. Watch it in motion here.

The original red Olivetti Valentine designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1969. He called his plastic portable typewriter an anti-machine machine. It also includes an exterior storage case which is not displayed here.

Pre Texting

Click image to enlarge.

The printing press of the Royal Irish Rifles. This remarkable photograph of a military field print shop, complete with an iron handpress, appeared in The Navy and Army Illustrated in 1897. The copy accompanying the photo claims a good many of the regiments' monthly newspapers generally provided results for football and cricket matches, reports of dances, suppers, theatricals, notices of promotions and official regimental notices. What, no gossip column? This image gives new meaning to the term lead soldiers.
:: A great find via Typesticker's photostream.

Say it Like You Mean it

Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.
Poem by Taylor Mali.

Moveable Type

More typographic erosion from San Francisco designer Jason Permenter. This is the third in his series, each of which explores the effects of erosion and weathering on the printed word. The text itself is taken from a 1971 essay on experimental typography by the German designer and typographer Wolfgang Weingart, and is set in Adrian Frutiger's Univers typeface. I have reported on his earlier eroding texts in a previous post. Get your copy here before they erode away entirely.
::Thanks SwissMiss!

Built to Chill

Ephemeral ice typography by Vancouver BC artist, Nicole Dextras who takes words to the frozen North and exposes them to the cold elements. Over time, guess what? They melt and disappear, just like the ephemeral words vanish into thin air as we speak them. The photographs at least freeze the words in time and insulate them from the elements. Each 7' tall letter is created with wooden forms and they are transported to locations and set out on frozen rivers or lakes. Holes were augered into the 2 to 4' deep ice and water pumped into the forms. Words are left to freeze and the wooden forms are later released to reveal the fragile and frozen letters of ice. According to Dextras, "Legacy refers to the landscape as being the heritage of the inhabitants of this (Yukon) region. The gold that was found here a hundred years ago is what attracted people to come to this remote area. Now the inherited legacy of this pristine landscape is theirs to protect and pass on." Other installations include smaller frozen words with tints of color which fade with time. You can see a video of one of Dextra's icy word installations here and view photos of her Frozen Typography here.

Early Book Marketing

The first italic type design originated in Venice, Italy when this edition of Virgil was published in 1501 by Aldus Manutius of the Aldine Press. Aldus actually commissioned type designer, Francesco Griffo to punchcut the first italic typeface for his book. I believe Aldus also originated one of the earliest creative marketing plans at this time as well. He cleverly chose to base the italic upon a popular form of cursive handwriting which was quite fashionable amongst his many educated customers. He also was the inventor of the semi-colon which I have reported upon previously on Letterology. One thing Aldus might have overlooked however; it appears he was so busy marketing his book, he forgot to add a decorative drop cap on the verso page.
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Doh! Update alert!
Being a Renaissance guy, I couldn't believe Aldus could just overlook adding initial caps in Virgil. It then dawned on me that of course he printed a placeholder cap—For Placement Only—and had it in mind to add the beautiful hand-painted ornamental drop caps post printing. I did further investigations and found a few images of the book in the archives of the British Library and there is even an illuminated border. The physical description of this book actually reads: 8vo, 228 leaves, on vellum. With illuminated initials and illuminated border to the first page of text. (Meaning just the front matter?) No credit to the artist who created all of the page illuminations however. Typical!

Manly Typesetters

Oh, to walk through the aisles of this vast government office and watch these typesetters at work. My cold fingers begin to crack just thinking about it. From a Harris & Ewing glass negative, Washington, circa 1910. Purchase a hi-def image of The Typesetters at Shorpy.

Typographic Erosion

Can text on paper be subject to geophysical forces of nature such as erosion or earthquake? See for yourself. Designer Jason Permenter demonstrates scientific proof that it most certainly can.

Try to Do This With an E-Book

The New Zealand Book Council (yes, they have a council to promote books and reading) made this spectacular ad which makes a book come alive. Books are not even close to being dead! They're not even sleeping! Thanks Justin!

Alphabet Soup