Essay: Typocurious, and how to stay that way. By Peter Bain Your first reaction is probably amazement at how many typefaces there are. After further investigation, it dawns on you that there may be more to type and typography than just scrolling through a list of available fonts. The challenge of trying out all those styles beckons. You vow never to use Arial again... With computers, type users can be players in a typographic culture, not just font fans. If this sounds impressive, that’s because the opportunity is there. To provide you with maximum stimulation and nourishment, about 13 items were selected for the typographically curious. The introductory descriptions that follow are meant to inspire you to seek them out at bookstores, libraries, and on the shelves of typofriends. Advanced grasshoppers will want to join in the fun, comparing their own picks with these personal choices. That popular eurostyle Shopping for new furniture can be intimidating. You might want something with a modern look, but aren’t sure where to start. You’ll be relieved to know that typographic design does have its own modern masters. One name worth learning is that of Jan Tschichold, who championed the avant garde, only to become more conservative when his tastes changed. He recorded his formidable knowledge in various publications; his manual for moderns is a must-read. Noticed that sans serif type is the height of fashion? The influence of so-called swiss design, or European-trained designers and teachers, encouraged this trend. In Basel, Emil Ruder formulated his rationale for going sans serif. His engagingly illustrated typographic manual continues to inspire. This is a useful stop on the way to grids and Joseph Müller-Brockmann.

Jan Tschichold. Asymmetric Typography. Trans. by Ruari McLean. New York: Reinhold Publishing; Toronto: Cooper & Beatty; and London: Faber, 1967. Emil Ruder. Typography: A Manual of Design. Teufen AR, Switzerland: Arthur Niggli, 1967, 1st ed. Sulgen/Zurich, Switzerland: Verlag Niggli, 2001, 7th ed.

Seeking to become a better person? Take a fulfilling path toward humility and greater attention to detail. Be led from the darkness of ignorance into the light of self-knowledge concerning careful line breaks, word spacing, and the differences between composition standards. Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style is a commendable reference, yet your most humble compiler maintains a few quibbles. Accessible guidance for typographic seekers is available from Betty Binns, who mindfully explores the rhythms of body copy, and from Geoffrey Dowding, who heightens our awareness of both text and display type. These helpful gurus show why the fussy stuff really matters.

Betty Binns. Better Type. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1989. Geoffrey Dowding. Finer Points in the Spacing and Arrangement of Type. London: Wace and Co., 1966. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, revised edition, 1995.

Old school Back in the day when display type could be expensive, you had an alternative. You could invent a new style or rework an existing one, hiring someone (or yourself) to draw the letters needed by hand. Handlettering artists developed insights into typographic shape and weight as valid today as they were in the heyday of vinyl LPs. Aspiring type designers now look to Fred Smeijers’ Counterpunch, Walter Tracy’s Letters of Credit, and Doyald Young’s Fonts and Logos. But David Gates lays

Typocurious 777 down a solid groove, deftly explaining aspects of letterform design others may not cover. In an expressive mode, Tommy Thompson plays through a range of scripts, improvising on past masters.

David Gates. Lettering for Reproduction. New York: Watson-Guptill, 1969. Tommy Thompson. Script Lettering for Artists. (originally The Script Letter, 1955) New York: Dover Publications, 1965.

Breakthrough Eighties and Nineties hits When some upstart Bay Area designers wanted to get noticed, they opted for the print version of college radio. They named their indepen- dent zine after their experiences crossing borders. Desktop publishing was beginning, so technology got thrown into the mix, too. The result was a magazine that had an explosive impact. The first 32 issues of Emigre were in a large format that seems luxurious today. It was a powerful platform for presenting work from outside the mainstream of graphic design, and provided room for new criticism. Emigre had a similar interest in new approaches to typography and type- face design. If you’ve never had a chance to go through the back issues, you don’t know what you’re missing.

Emigre, since 1984.

Experimenting on the reader Guinea pigs and readers have more in common than you might think. Any reader who isn’t the originating designer becomes a kind of test subject, usually without suffering any adverse effects. But you may wonder just where the boundaries of legibility and readability fall. If you want to get a better understanding of these concepts, a tour of the typographic laboratory is in order. Herbert Spencer was an inquisitive, accomplished designer/editor/author who sought out typographic experimentation. While there are newer treatments of the psychology of reading, his book remains a key introduction to studies of reading.

Herbert Spencer. The Visible Word. New York: Hastings House and London: Lund Humphries, 1969.

An unexpected tour There are fine books on the history of typefaces, charting when they were first cut or used, and what we still may not know. But the history and variety of letterforms is far deeper. Artists working with letters have been busy over the past two thousand years. Their efforts, whether cut in stone, worked into metal, woven in fabric, or written on vellum, can be astonishing. This is a tour going around the corners and down the

778 Typocurious side streets of letterforms, without neglecting familiar landmarks. The notes in these books, whether in the main text or following the pictures, are your expert commentary. Both Nicolete Gray and Jan Tschichold want to make sure that you appreciate the sights.

Nicolete Gray. A History of Lettering: Creative Experiment and Letter Identity. Boston: David R. Godine, 1986. London: Phaidon Press, 1986. Jan Tschichold. Treasury of Alphabets and Lettering. New York: Reinhold, 1966; New York: Design Press, McGraw-Hill, 1992; and New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Essay questions What is typography for, really? Why print something? What purposes does that serve? Gutenberg’s invention of movable type changed Western society. Elizabeth Eisenstein’s readable, scholarly account of the original demand for and effects of print offers a valuable perspective on this true paradigm shift. It will spur your thinking into the roles of electronic writing. Robin Kinross takes a different tack, examining typography in the context of design and practice, with special attention to the past century. The story of how designers and typographers developed their ideas makes his book compelling. The reproductions are carefully captioned, adding a visual counterpart to the narrative. If you read both books, you’re sure to be a hit at cocktail parties near campus.

Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. London and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979. Robin Kinross. Modern Typography: An essay in critical history. London: Hyphen Press, 1992.

A few closing words Blah, blah-blah blah, blah blah-ah, blah, bluh. Without words, type wouldn’t be any fun; it wouldn’t have much meaning, either. Language is the flip side of typography. How the two relate, and exploring the methods used in typography, are the subjects of Cal Swann’s deceptively simple book. He covers everything from decision-making charts to linguistic theories of meaning in a clear, unpretentious way.

Cal Swann. Language and Typography. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1991.

Write on, and keep on typographing.

Peter Bain is principal of Incipit (www.incipit.com), a New York design studio whose practice is built upon letters. Projects undertaken for clients include custom typefaces, logotypes, handlettering, and typographic design. Bain has studied, specified, collected, curated, and lectured on typography, and still likes it.

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