In Eleganti FashionDidone Typefaces and Richard Avedon In Elegant Fashion Didone Typefaces and Richard Avedon ii In Elegant Fashion Didone Typefaces and Richard Avedon Designed by Erin Borst iv Copyright © 2015 by Erin Borst Acknowledgments v All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the prior permission of the publisher except for The information found in this book has all been taken from various online the use of brief passages in connection with a book review. sources. These sources are compiled from a combination of blogs, news sites and data sites. The images used have also been taken from various Printed in the United States of America sources on the Internet. Big Apple Publishing, 2015 ISBN 503-0-0489-0067-0 2243 7th Avenue New York, NY 10027 USA In Elegant Fashion Didone Typefaces and Richard Avedon Didone Typefaces contrast between thick and thin lines (horizontal parts of letters are thin in comparison to the verti- Didone is a typeface category recognized by the cal parts), an unornamented, “modern” appearance. Association Typographique Internationale (AtypI), MPeriod examples include Bodoni, Didot, and and part of the VOX-ATypI classification system. Walbaum, while modern typefaces along the same It emerged in the late 18th century. The category is lines include Computer Modern, Surveyor and also known as modern or modern face (in contrast Filosofia. It remains very popular in the printing of to old style serif, which dates to the late Greek, as the Didot family were among the first to medieval era). set up a printing press in the newly independent MIt is characterized by straight (hairline) serifs country, and in mathematics, aided by the status of without brackets, vertical orientation of weight Computer Modern as the default typeface of the axes (the vertical parts of letters are thick), strong typesetting programmes TeX and LaTeX. D 2 3 Audrey Hepburn and Twiggy, photographed by Richard Avedon. Avedon, photographed with Twiggy. Early Life Inspired by his parents’ clothing businesses, discipline and what’s beautiful about rigour, as a boy Avedon took a great interest in fash- what’s compelling about craft.” Richard Avedon was born on May 15, 1923 ion, especially enjoying photographing the in New York City. His mother, Anna Avedon, clothes in his father’s store. Young Dick’s inter- At the age of 12, he joined the YMHA came from a family of dress manufacturers, est in magazines started early: “My parents (Young Men’s Hebrew Association) Camera and his father, Jacob Israel Avedon, owned put the New Yorker in my crib. I saw Vogue Club. He would use his family’s Kodak Box a clothing store called Avedon’s Fifth Avenue. and Vanity Fair around the house before I Brownie not only to feed his curiosity about His father was a critical and remote discipli- could read.” He took one of his first photo- the world, but also to retreat from his personal narian who insisted that physical strength, graphs aged nine when he was taken to a life. The photographer’s first muse was his education and money prepared one for life. concert given by Rachmaninoff and waited younger sister, Louise, a beautiful subject. Jacob Avedon insisted on the value of self-re- by the stage door afterwards with a box cam- Two years younger than he, Louise Avedon liance and on one occasion allowed young era. By coincidence, Rachmaninoff lived in was a precocious beauty. During her teen Dick (then about twelve) to drink a bottle of the same apartment building as the Avedons, years, however, she struggled through psy- wine, inflicting a terrific hangover but also and Richard Avedon later recalled listening chiatric treatment. And, eventually, becoming a lesson on the dangers of alcohol. Self- to the Russian musician practising hour after increasingly withdrawn from reality, she was reliance, in fact, proved of more immediate hour - “Maybe that’s where I learned about diagnosed with schizophrenia. She died value to Jacob Israel, for his business failed in Kate Moss, aged 42 in a mental institution. Avedon was the Depression and he was forced to carry on photographed by Richard haunted by her death, and by her beauty. Avedon. in much-reduced circumstances. In an interview published in 1985 in the MBaskerville’s types, compared with their Old Style (or Garalde) predecessors, are marked by high contrast between thick and thin strokes, so much so that one commentator declared Baskerville was “blinding the nation.” The Moderns or Didones take this contrast to further extremes (just about as far as one can take them). MThe first Modern typeface is attributed to Frenchman Firmin Didot (son of François- Ambroise Didot), and first graced the printed page in 1784. His types were soon followed by the archetypal Didone from Bodoni. The Italian type designer, punchcutter and printer Giambattista Bodoni (1740-1813) drew his influence from the Romains du Roi (with its flat, unbracketed serifs) Didot, used in the Harper’s Bazaar logo. 4 5 magazine Egoiste, he said: “Louise’s beauty his interest in fashion photography: “One was the event of our family and the destruc- evening my father and I were walking down tion of her life. She was very, very beautiful. Fifth Avenue looking at the store windows,” She was treated as if there was no one he remembered. “In front of the Plaza Hotel, inside her perfect skin, as if she was simply I saw a bald man with a camera posing a her long throat, her deep brown eyes. All very beautiful woman against a tree. He lifted my first models - Dorian Leigh, Elise Daniels, his head, adjusted her dress a little bit and Carmen, Marella Agnelli, Audrey Hepburn took some photographs. Later, I saw the pic- - were brunettes and had fine noses, long ture in Harper’s Bazaar. I didn’t understand throats, oval faces. They were all memories why he’d taken her against that tree until I got of my sister.” These early influences of fashion to Paris a few years later: the tree in front of and family would shape his life and career, the Plaza had that same peeling bark you see often expressed in his desire to capture tragic all over the Champs-Elysees.” beauty in photos. Avedon attended DeWitt Clinton High School Avedon later described one childhood in New York City, where one of his class- moment in particular as helping to kindle mates and closest friends was the great writer Harper’s Bazaar cover, James Baldwin. In addition to his continued photographed by Richard Avedon. interest in fashion and photography, in high and the types of John Baskerville (high contrast), for vertical (rationalist) axis, the Moderns have even whom he showed great admiration. greater contrast. MIn fact, if you grab a Baskerville, take away the MWhat are they good for? There’s something rather brackets that join serifs to stems, thicken up the clinical about the Moderns, especially in the roman vertical strokes, you’ll be left with something that capitals. Their vertical axis coupled with strong hor- resembles a Didone (though don’t expect it to izontal stress furnishes them with the stiffness of be pretty). toy soldiers on parade. They are elegant, and like all MThe romans of the Modern types owe very little, things elegant, look unhurried, calm, and in control. if anything to the earlier calligraphic forms; they They’re generally not suited to setting extended are too precise, too sharp, too clean. Whereas the text, as the verticality of the letter forms interferes One of Avedon’s most Old Style types are Neoclassical, the Didones are well-known works, with the text’s horizontal rhythm. The letters don’t Romantic. Though both forms share a common Dovima with Elephants. lead our eyes across the page, but rather up and 6 7 down. Unsurprisingly, Bringhurst brings some clar- a visually impaired dog. If you know the beautiful, ity to the subject when he writes, “Romantic letters yet austere architecture of Tadao Ando, then mixing can be extraordinarily beautiful, but they lack the a Didot with, say a Blackletter is akin to draping flowing and steady rhythm of the Renaissance one of Ando’s monoliths in a giant lace doily. forms. It is that rhythm which invites the reader to enter the text and read. The statuesque forms of Didot Romantic letters invite the reader to stand outside and look at the letters instead.” Certainly one of the more renowned font groups, MThe Moderns need lots of space (white space and this well established font family group was named inter-line space), so give them extra leading and for one of the most famous Parisian printing and generous margins; and if you pair a Modern with type foundry families, the Didot family. They ran a another face, then make sure it’s not a fussy one, or series of highly successful print shops and found- your page will look like a circus poster designed by ries from the mid 1700s for over two hundred years. Elizabeth Taylor, photographed by Richard Avedon. Didot, used in the Gior- gio Armani logo. 8 9 school Avedon also developed an affinity for becoming a photographer.” He spent most acclaimed art director of Harper’s Bazaar. poetry. He and Baldwin served as co-editors of his service at Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn Avedon and Brodovitch formed a close bond, of the school’s prestigious literary magazine, taking thousands upon thousands of photo- and within one year Avedon was hired as a The Magpie, and during his senior year, in graphs of servicemen for their ID cards.