A quarterly Review of International Visual Communication Issue number 8, 1974 icographic 8

Price per issue 1 .5 US dollars Contents include Stamp on it-some aspects of Easier than ABC-some experiments design with a 'plastic' Published in London by the One for one world­ Communication in an environment Six thousand years of writing International Council of Graphic the pioneer work of CK Bliss and by an environment How to design in Chinese (without Design Associations TyposAsia 74 The roots of the problem really being able to read it)

icographic A quarterly Review of International Introduction Visual icographic 8, 1974

Executive Editor Patrick Wallis Burke Almost all of our contributors to Communication in an environment this issue draw our attention to ways and by an environment Contributors to issue number 8 Patrick Wallis Burke of writing other than that of our Peter Kneebone Hartford Davis familiar Roman . Sato Keinosuke And it is salutary for most of us to The author makes a plea for a much Peter Kneebone recognise that there are some �ystems broader consideration of the many Rene Ponot of writing, such as Chinese or Arabic, factors that are involved in inform­ Stuart Rose that are used by a large section of ative signing within a human Henry Steiner the world's population-millions of environment. Peter Watson people, to whom our alphabet is Countries, cities, towns and villages completely unfamiliar. each have their own corporate Published quarterly by The International Council of idnetities, however irrationally they Associations One writing for one world-the may have been acquired. But they all correspondence to pioneer work of C K Bliss also have to contain a great deal of 7 Templeton Court Patrick Wallis Burke public information, usually in the Radnor Walk, Shirley form of signs. Croydon CAO 7NZ, England The author discusses the differences Much more skill and knowledge is between alphabetic and pictographic required to ensure that the visual Paper supplied by courtesy of Culter Guard Bridge modes of recording human experi­ identity of the information system Salisbury Square House ence. In alphabetic systems, words satisfactorily relates to the visual Salisbury Square, London EC4 come first, ideas second, whereas in identity of the environment. Cover printed on ideogrammatic forms of writing, the Hi-Fidelity Art Board 280g/m idea is paramount. Each is The roots of the problem Text printed on a thought-picture, not merely a unit Hartford Davis Hi-Fidelity Art Paper 118g/m in the systematic dissection of the sound-structure of a language. Following a visit to Sweden, the Printing of issue number 8 Pan Litho Sales Limited And since ideogrammatic writing is author gives some disturbing facts 172-176 The Highway not linked to speech-sounds, it can about the Swedish paper-making London E1, England achieve a universality that is industry, which is now reaching its impossible with.a phonetic system. 'limits to growth.' Design and layout of issue number 8 Patrick Wallis Burke The author believes that the work of Yeung Wai-tung C K Bliss is important because he TypoAsia 74 forces us to consider whether there Sato Keinosuke Acknowledgements to School of Graphic Design might not be entirely new ways of Ravensbourne College of transcribing language-ways that The author gives a brief account of Art and Design could lead to one language for one the first meeting of typographical world. experts from Asia, which was Subscription rates sponsored jointly by the Asian 'Stamp on it' -some aspects of Cultural Centre for Unesco, and the Countries within Europe US Dollars 5.00 postage stamp design Tokyo Book Development Centre. Subscription rate for 4 issues Stuart Rose (including postage) Six thousand years of writing The author, who is Design Adviser to Rene Ponot Countries outside Europe US Dollars 10.00 the British Post Office, gives a short Subscription rate for 4 issues historical survey of British postage The author surveys the development (including postage 2nd Class Airmail) stamp design, from the first-ever of the art of writing from its earliest stamp (the Penny Black of 1840), beginnings, and demonstrates the Recommended price per copy 1.5 Dollars (USA) to the present day. clear relationship between the 60p (UK) He then goes on to discuss the various appearance of a and We deeply regret that rising printing 5.25 OM (FGR) difficulties that accompany the design the materials and tools used in its costs, rising paper costs, and of the many commemorative issues production. His article is generously increased postal charges have made Subscriptions must include four that are now produced in Britain. illustrated with examples of writing it necessary for us to raise the cost issues. Unless the publishers are He believes that too many people taken from the Engraving Room of of this journal. notified immediately after the look at stamps as works of art and, the French State Press in Paris. Alf existing subscriptions, however, appearance of the fourth issue that in so doing, fail to appreciate the will be completed at the old price. a subscription is to be discontinued, skill of the in solving the it will be treated as renewed. many difficult graphical problems posed by the subject. The text, or extracts from it, and the , can only be Easier than ABC-some experiments reproduced with the Executive with a 'plastic' language Editor's consent. Peter Watson No responsibility for the loss of MSS, or artwork can be The author briefly describes the work accepted. of Dr Hodges of California State University, who has been studying the problem of how to help low-IQ, non-verbal children to develop their ability to communicate. She has achieved some remarkable successes by means of a plastic language kit, made up of various coloured, shaped pieces of plastic, which the children use to symbolise various objects or actions. We show here a sample tourist folder adapted from one published by CK Bliss. It should be pointed out that his system is copyright (1942-1966), and that further information can be obtained by writing to him at the following address: Seman tograph y- Blissymbol ics Publications (Non-profit), 2 Vicar Street, Coogee, Sydney, Australia

Read the symbols line by line, not haphazardly here and How to use the "line letter." there, and see how quickly you can combine them to new meanings. Children succeed in their first lesson. Alphabetical letters are formed by lines. By adding one horizontal line to F we get the different sound E. Here are 30 international symbols already used all over In much the same way we can use the "Line Letter" the world for the forming of hundreds of pictorial symbols as shown below: 1234567890+ X > NUMBERS AND MATHEMATICAL SIGNS f7 __. O D * t ELECTRIC STAR 11 DIRECTION SUN MOON LINE REPEAT LIMITS LJ D MARKS I I OPEN. OPENING CLOSED. ENCLOSURE lightning line repeated, copy, print special openings see below

The symbols for open and closed can be used for banks, consulates, etc. together with symbols for time and days E:Jll d / 1i -wm (see below). MAIL SAFETY MUSIC CROSS OUT MEDICAL TRADE letter international note obliterate Aesculapius sign Mercurius sign sign cancel simplified simplified

Here are 29 Blissymbols

! ® 6 (9 LUGGAGE ENTRANCE-fl WHEEL TJME r-1-+ EXIT A DOOR MAN EXIT FIRE WOMAN GROUND DOOR \r-r MAN n An earth, basis dial special opening flame /'.. C) � h r, � ::J CHAIR TABLE ROOM ROOMA::J WAITER ROOM MAIO ::JtLIFT STAIRS BED !::J lA ll ROOF HOUSE LIFT ::JATIENDANT cabin steward V � V p 6 WINGS FIRE WATER VESSEL SHIP FLAG :Jh 2 � of bird :J :::( :J WAITING :::1, flame wave basin. held ROOM WRITING ROOM BAR ROOM WITH 2 BEDS outline outline (airplane) lounge (chair) pen drink glass outline Some of these symbols are already combinations, as for instance: a house can be symbolised by roof over ground, a ship by vessel over water, etc. But it is simpler to use an auxiliary Outline Symbol for house, ship and other meanings as shown throughout this folder.

0 (:) 9-- "" :E � <:::::J <\> 10 '1 WATER BOWL L PLANT WATER SHOWER BATHROOM HOT PULL PAPER MOUTH ? NOSE EAR EYE HANO speech hearing sight smell touch see later wave coming down tub t)asin and/01 flame TOWEL vegetable, fruit toilet radiating heat

By putting the Action Symbol on top of the symbols above, we indicate the Action (verb) of these pictured ::J_____.::] .a. _::J? things, as to see, to smell, to touch. STREET SHOP TRAVEL BUREAU FLOWER SHOP With this, children wrote whole sentences in their first pointer at ground room open to shop for travel flower bulb outline lesson. next to house street

D A PEN PAPER EMOTION REASON CONSCIENCE POST OFFICE LETTER BOX AIRLETTER TELEGRAM writing page heart skull higher reason house of letters wings electric letter

The higher mind above the individual mind (skull outline) indicates God, parents, teachers, who instill TSl

2 icographic 8, 1974 One writing for one world­ the pioneer work of C KBliss

Patrick Wallis Burke

Experiments conducted by teachers have shown that Why are the symbols so simple? And the Lord said, behold the children grasp these pictorial quicker than Blissymbols Because the I ine elements can be put on any typewriter people is one, and they have all one words. They can read new combinations they have by removing the capital letters, but leaving the small language; and this they begin to do: never seen before, and they can boldly and logically letters for names and ordinary correspondence. and now nothing will be restrained combine new meanings they need when writing to An I BM ball typewriter is even better. from them, which they have penfriends who speak other . imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, and they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the r-13 �5 :J1 hg h83 earth: and they left off to build a CAR BUS RAILWAY AIRPLANE SHIP PLATFORM No.3 CAR 5 COMPARTMENT 7 SEAT 9 WINDOW SEAT city. trolley steam, electric wings Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the �-I 6al C), L)3¢ · I I· <91· C91·-I 11111/ earth: and from thence did the Lord TRAM STOP RAILWAY STATION AIRPORT HARBOUR WHARF No.3 BEFORE AFTER TIME DELAY LATE ARRIVA\. TRAIN No. 7 scatter them abroad upon the face of CANCELLED all the earth. house, wings ship dot befor2 and after time arrival after time after line crossed out So runs the biblical account of the way in which Adam's early language D D.a :JD.a. DJ<9al was changed into the confusion of PAPER TRAVEL TICKET TICKET OFFICE TIME TABLE TRAINS tongues we know today. room book (2 pages) and dial The Book of Genesis, in which it occurs, is probably one of the oldest stories in that extraordinary rag-bag sun moon 24 hour of Hebrew poetry, history, anecdote, sun moon time dial car for time withi� pointer liquid for coming up over earth and devotion, that now forms the coming up over . irth limits (dial outline) at ground driving wheels basis of present-day Christian mythology 0 o OD ...b ....0<92030 It has all the marks of being a trad­ SUN MORNING DAY MOON EVENING NIGHT TIME 'a.JO p.m. TAXl,HIRE CAR PARK HERE CAR MECHANICAe SERVICE STAT GASOLINE itional story, known to the Israelites long before its ancient author set it down. The story begins abruptly. Aeiei-EJ G-6 D� We are not told who is speaking, nor SPRING SUNDAY MONDAY HOLIDAY JANUARY FEBRUARY PORTER LUGGAGE CHECK IN CHECK OUT LUGGAGE LOCKER who is being addressed and, whenever WITH KEY I heard it as a child, it always gave sun over earth, happy day moon indicates month me the uncomfortable feeling that 1st day of week 2nd day, etc heartlifting joy 2nd month, etc. I I should not be listening. T! a,. � If this vengeful Lord was intent on STOP! LOOK I LISTEN?! I MEN AT WORK ROAD REPAIR FORD creating a wide variety of spoken ahe�d eye ear man with hammer mad in,urupted under wate1 languages he was remarkably successful. It has been estimated that there are now at least 2,800 different 0 0 0 languages being spoken in the wor:d v � �hs�is & !�! lfl 1�! a ... ,- today, not counting minor dialects. HOLD RESERVATION RESERV. SEAT 6 RESERV. FLIGHT I RESERVATION LOOK OUT I LOOK UP ! LOOK DOWN ! LOOK RIGHT ! CANCELLED DANGER I LOW DOOR I STEPS I RIGHT CORNER! in the paper held in hold (see foregoing symbol) Human language is rooted in speech. cross�d out eye and safety sign underpass unjer bridge eye, corner outline widest sense All known societies, no matter how 'primitive' they may appear in other respects, possess fully developed languages. Human beings may tread the earth Blissymbols can be typed and cabled by Facsimile Tele­ naked, and clutching all their gram without any telegraphic coding, decoding, and material possessions in one hand, but without translation into any language. +I o-..., -I they are never dumb, in any sense _, _, o-..., of the word . . I YES! DON"T TOUCH DRINK WATER DON'T DRINK! Here is an example of a Facsimile Telegram; NO! And learning to speak is our most positive negative hand mouth wave negative, mouth remarkable intellectual accomplish­ ment. Very few of us, indeed, ever manage to do anything quite as clever !��1::J2��� -101 ��! !0\-!o_J:Jo_J again. Present-day research in PLEASE RESERVE I ROOM l IEDS IATH GARAGE ARRIVE SUNDAY N ! DON'T SPIT! NO SMOKING SMOKERS'ROOM phonetics, or into the neurology and Hli� vGJfT�GE negative mouth, cigarette, fla,nc physiology of speech, only increases friendly appeal (heart) reservation symbol paper held in hold 1st dav safety sign negative, mouth one's wonder at the astonishing of week skills that are mastered. Yet we all take it completely for granted. In speech we exchange ideas and safety sign flame ear flame flame crossed out flame outline feelings. We hang out pennants of sound; thread together the meaning­ ful sound-units we call words. I- -I 1111 -i, The ideas imprisoned within the DEPARTURE ARRIVAL EXPRESS TRAIN CHANGE TRAINS,..r MEDICAL DOCTOR FIRST AID BOX PHARMACY HOSPITAL words are the common property of THROUGH+ + arrow stops at line post through train step down and step up Aesculapius sign (snake around rod) shop open to street level Aescuiap all mankind, yet the wording systems

3 Burke: One writing for one world -the pioneer work of C K Bliss

used to convey them are as diverse as 0 the cries of the birds. l i A\ D\ __:]\ �\ MEDICAL DOCTOR FIRST AID BOX PHARMACY HOSPITAL FOOD WAITER DINING ROOM DINING CAR MENU CARD Since words die as soon as they are Aesculapius sign (snake around rod) room open to street level Acsculap mouth and Mother Earth explanation for food symbol see before uttered, man has long sought ways of trapping them; making them permanent by such means as writing and printing. In essence, the problem facing the STANDINGL WEAK LYING SICK PAIN UNHAPPY AMBULANCE inventor of a writing system is to find human being knees bent knees drawn up (downhearted) Aesculapius sign a satisfactory eye language to act as a substitute for the primary ear DANISH DELICACY COOKING BAKING FRYl"IGT SOUP language. food, A study of early writing systems happy taste fire under fire under fi re under wave in plate shows that our modern scripts Danish flag in biack pot with water oven plate (grill) developed from pictorial represent­ 3 3g and white ational signs of various kinds. 6SHIP EMBARKATION ...,b(9yggg� TIME 8-10 o.m. :J d;a_ DECK 3 CABIN 39 DISEMBARK A few numbers next to the special food symbols indicate At the outset, they were a completely all usual meat, fowl, fish, fruit, vegetables, (see below) distinctive way of recording human into ship and 24 hour time dial level inside ship out of ship experience. They were true eye languages. Pressures in the development of A spoken language, however, gradually ?!! � � �204 ,ct ,ot y 02 ALARM!b ABANDON �l SHIP PROCEED UPSTAIRS TO DECK 2 BOAT 4 '°1risRESERVATION ANIMAL DOMESTIC ANIMAL BIRD TROUT turned these scripts into phonetic or TABLE No. 6 safety, ear ship crossed out lifeboat showing oar 4 legger animal under roof fish partly phonetic systems. explained before But once writing disengages itself from pictorial representation it various meats expressed by numbers 2 beef, 3 mutton, 4 pork, etc. becomescompletely dependent upon bird I chicken, 2 turkey, 3 duck, etc. fish I carp, 2 trout, etc. the spoken language and develops into a more or less faithful recording of the sounds of speech. r"\ �6 °'1 �1-b,-1 :9- 1 �4 It becomes visible ear-language. 1 � t;p REASON MENTAL LINE SELFISH RESPONSIBILITY'B ORANGE STRAWBERRY GRAPr3 POTATO TOMATO LETIUCE SELFI OTHERS'2 fruit, vegetable below, and represent I am No. I skull drawing a line thinking thinking, carine I apple, 2 pear, 6 orange, etc. vegetable above ground two solutions of the same basic second to me in your mind o! myself for others problem. Phonetically written words, however, cannot draw upon the same stores of vegetable vegetable below ground, I potato, 2 radish, etc. meaning as ideograms. vegetable above ground, I tomato, 2 bean etc. Phonetic and syllabic alphabets use vegetable, leaves only, I cabbage, 4 lettuc�, etc. essentially arbitrary symbols to represent a compartively compre­ MOUTHo?� EAR LANGUAGE TELEPHONE COIN OPERATED TELEPHONE vegetable below, vegetable above ground hensive spectrum of the sounds that i make up a given language. Speech sounds are split into their components and letters are coined or °' berry, I strawberry, 2 raspberry, etc. FRUIT6 BERRY borrowed to represent these sound INTERPRETERi.� INFORMATION .T?'""''AI ENQUIRY 1t· MAN FLAG P STATE FRANCE berry on stick (grapes) no. I components. flag over :eterritory�;: tricolore man of language man open for Questions carbon dioxide bottle veg. aoove ground no. I freezing into cuoes Faced with various groupings of (mouth, ear) in black and white fru,t letters and knowing each of their sounds, one can utter back the word. The word, however, is meaningless; 2 1 no more than a label attached to �AR QJISH�P!T Bo�u ��� :9- c�sE �§JUICE O :!!water section Of;!� WATER TOMATO JUICE some idea, object or event. pay here !oil�J station of'state (flag over territory) book (2 pages) The function. of the word is merely paper into state of state for travel that of triggering off in one's mind � �H the idea for which it stands. �°il ��2 DRINK STRONG WINE BEER A::CDRINK In alphabetic systems, words come GLASS DRINK berr_y on stick (�rapes) no. I WAITER first, ideas second. OH chemical for alcohol berry on stick (hoo) no. 2 In ideogrammatic forms of writing, on the other hand, the idea is paramount. A C)0 De �2 L)c, 6e� �NAME ADDRESS � !� PLEASE �...,_SIGN YOUR POLICEMANA SECOND HOUSE FULL CINEMA Each ideogram is a thought-picture; NAME AND ADDRESS PRJ'T�f10N T���w BALCONY an entity, not a unit in the system­ �'6?,'fe word written pointer on place on earth man who protects for shows to see (eye) second level basin, hold show house, electric atic dissection of the sound-structure (pen) and spoken (mouth) friendly appeal (heart) of a language.

It is difficult for anyone familiar only with the common European languages to appreciate the differences between alphabetic and ideogrammatic languages. C)0 TRADE MONEY J; J., d L)C:>_:;+ l PAY IN d C)i PAY OUT BANK JJ d Yet there does exist a language m EXCHANGE MUSIC OPERA CONCERT6? HALL STADIUM, RACES spoken by more people than any simplified Mercurius sign house of money banks no money symbol needed notr show house with music to listen only (ear) arrows other, and with a literary tradition indicate competition of over 35 centuries, which is ideo­ grammatic , not alphabetic, in CJi..a.. A COIN MONEY dL\.....D PAPER MONEY e1i oi MUSICIAN DANCING NIGHTLY TRAVELLER CHECK d 12Ad SINGER CHECK Aod construction. 12 MAN BAND pageom outline tra�el (wheel on ground) If we look at the structure of the disc outline horizontal page man and musical note mouth music, legs and feel, moon over earth

4 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974 Author's address: Ravensbourne College of Art and Design, Bromley Common, Kent, England

Chinese language, we find that it is But for all its tortuousness, Chinese electronics firm, and was impressed that allows only a small role to visual not conspicuously complex. can be wonderfully apt and vivid: by the pictorial symbols in radio sequence as a mark of mental effort In many ways it might be said to be Much more importantly, it has the diagrams. and organization. In Western literate simpler than the Western languages. advantage that the written language 4 Later, as a victim in Dachau and society it is still plausible to say that It has little 'grammar' as we know it. can be understood by speakers of Buchenwald, I saw how words can something "follows" from something, Verbs are not conjugated; nouns are totally different dialects. trun men into killers. I tried "words" as if there were some cause at work not declined. Gone are the syntactical of an international language-music. that makes such a sequence. rituals that have plagued western This is one reason why it is difficult My good wife smuggled my It was David Hume who, in the schoolchildren for generations. to 'Romanise' Chinese. instruments into the camp, and with eighteenth century, demonstrated Since it is not the primary purpose of To do so would merely separate the them I won the hearts of my jailers that there is no causality indicated the to render various Chinese tongues from each and my freedom. in any sequence, natural or logical. sounds, the Chinese written language other. 5 We fled to China, and there I was The sequential is merely additive, has developed independently from Just look at the way in which the fascinated by what Lin Yutang called not causative." the evolutionary changes that have Roman alphabet is used in languages "The Second Great Wall of China.'' taken place in the spoken language. like English, French and Hungarian. its picto-ideographic . He goes on to say that; This has made it possible for the If I wish to conjure up the concept I scaled the wall and looked into a written language to provide a Iiterary of 'square.' then I must write either wonderland where people of differ· "Today in the electric age we feel continuity across thousands of years, "square," "carre" or "negyszog." ent languages could read the same as free to invent non-lineal logics as as well as binding together the diverse If I were to show an Englishman, letter, book, and newspaper. we do to make non-Euclidean cultures of China. a Frenchman and a Hungarian, 7 Chinese scholars told me that the geometries. Even the assembly line, a picture of a square, they would main unifying factor that welded as the method of analytic sequence Although the sounds of the language each recognize it at once. many tribes and invaders into the for mechanizing every kind of have changed considerably over the And this is what the Chinese ideo· largest nation on earth was this making and production, is nowadays centuries, the written characters have grams do for Mandarin, Wu, Xiang, script. They said that a yielding to new forms." (1) changed little. Cantonese, Kejia, Gan, Min, European Nation would have been a A modern Chinese man would not be Mongolian, Tibetan, Formosan reality many centuries ago, If English· Bliss' preoccupation with the able to understand the spoken and Japanese speakers. men and Estonians, Frenchmen and development of a different form of language of Confucius. Yet he can Finns, Greeks and Germans, Romans communication is understandable. read and understand Confucius' Language may be primarily spoken and Russians, etc., had such a script We inhabit a planet that is changing written characters just as they were sound, yet writing does not have to which they could·read in all their at an increasing rate. set down over fourteen centuries be tied to the demands of rendering languages. Increasingly, due to modern earlier. the sound-patterns of language. 8 I studied Chinese history and was communication devices, we have On the other hand, few Englishmen What we succeed in communicating amazed by the racial and religious already been driven to the expedient could translate even a twelfth-century is determined only by the means we tolerance of the Chinese. Could that of inventing new systems of recoding English text, since they would be use for communication, and Western all-encompassing script be the cause? our existing alphabet. faced with a phonetic rendering of an sounds and forms are only one 9 This Chinese script moved the Perhaps there may be better unfamiliar language, much closer in among many. It is only an historical great mathematician Leibnitz approaches along quite different character to German than is their accident that has led to the Roman (1646-1716) to predict the invention lines. He demonstrates that picto· present-day speech. alphabet being the major for of a simple "Symbolis Universal is" graphic writing can make use of our present-day communication. in which pictorial symbols could be visual sense in order to give access to Chinese characters have a more direct At this present time, when men operated in a simple symbolic logic. human experience-that it can give connection with their meaning than from every country are meeting 10 I did not know that Leibnitz' pictorial expression to oral meanings. do English words. every day, there is a need for some speculation was considered Certainly, he forces one to consider If we write down the sequence of form of common language­ impossible to realize. And so, whether there might not be letters that spells "horse," it has something that is capable of convey­ "where ignorance is Bliss, it's folly to entirely new ways of transcribing meaning only through the mediation ing ideas, regardless of language be wise" I started in 1942 and language. of the sounds that each of the letters barriers. published in 1949." Ways that will lead us, he believes, makes. to one writing for one world. It would I ittle real difference Charles K Bliss, the inventor of Since then, Bliss has published a to English-speakers if we adopted Semantography, is a pioneer in this number of works relating to the Cyrillic alphabet, or the Shaw field, whose remarkable work Semantography. In these he has alphabet, to render the same sounds, deserves rather more serious further developed it as a logical, since the shape of the letters bears attention than it has had so far. semantic-even ethical tool. no relation to the concept "horse." The information which accompanies Although he sees it only as an The Chinese character "horse" means this article is taken from a tourist auxiliary medium, to be used only horse without any reference to the folder which he has produced, and it where the language barrier has to be sound of the word. serves as a useful introduction to the bridged, he believes that its symbolic It still bears an echo of the animal system that he has developed. logic can be a help to many people. that inspired the early symbol. Charles Bliss was a graduate of the And I think that he is probably Form and meaning are much more University of Technology, Vienna, right. Like him, I have found that closely linked. and also studied· at the Austrian exposure to a language like Chinese Federal Training and Research has a decidedly liberating effect Throughout history, the Chinese lnsitute in the Graphic Arts, Vienna. upon one's conception of the nature language has been notoriously of language. difficult to learn. Way back in 1930 He has give the following Certainly, I was startled to discover it was estimated that only three description of the stages that led how parochial my grammatical million newspapers were sold in him to Semantography (Greek for habits were. China, to be read by only one person "a meaningful writing"); Marshall McLuhan believes that our in twenty-five. phonetic modes of writing have led Certainly, under the communists, "1 I was born in 1897 in the Babel us to a lineal, sequential form of the Chinese have made considerable of old where 20 nationalities awareness. He observes that; progress in increasing Iiteracy. hated each other, because they spoke They have instituted some simpli· and thought in different languages. "Consciousness is not a verbal process. fication of the written language, 2 As a boy, mad about chemistry, Yet during all our centuries of Selected references reducing the number of written it was a revelation to learn that H 0 phonetic literacy we have favored characters to three thousand and means water in all lnguages. the chain of inference as the mark of Marshall McLuhan, Understanding modifying the more complicated 3 In 1922 I graduated in chemical logic and reason. Chinese writing, in Media: The extensions of Man, ones to make them easier to from the University of contrast, invests each ideogram with Routledge and Kegan Paul, memorise and write. Technology in Vienna, entered an a total intuition of being and reason London, 1964

5 This article is an edited version of one originally appearing in the Japanese magazine 'Graphic Design.' We are grateful to the publishers Kodansha Ltd and to its Editor Katzumie masaru, for their permission to publish it here

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Some examples of the logotypes of various Asian newspapers. Reading from top to bottom, these An example of Bengal script from a are: India {Hindi), India (Bengali), handwritten collection of poems Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, {India, 1926) by Rabindranath Tagore and the Khmer Republic

6 icographic 8, 1974 TypoAsia 74 The majority of participating time to set type. They are also easy icographic 8, 1974 countries use Indian type letters. to damage or lose. For syllables that Sato keinosuke Syllables are formed by adding are used very frequently, the vowel The examples shown below are as vowel signs over, under, or on both signs are made integral with the follows: sides of the consonant. If typefaces character. As a result, there is a The upper two types are examples of are constructed with the vowel signs real need for studies of frequency those currently in use in Indonesia. integral with the character, the of syllables to be undert&ken. The top sample is in Bataksh, the number of pieces becomes extremely one below is Makassaarsch. large. Consequently, the vowel signs Both are produced by the Amster­ are cast separately from the conso­ dam Type Manufacturing Company. nants, as additional characters. There are a great many, and they are Below them are two typefaces very small, so that it takes a lot of designed in Japan. The upper one is for Thailand, the lower is for Laos

A first meeting of Asian typograph­ ical experts was held in Tokyo, Japan, in March 1974. =c_c:10�ro o:::oo o �.,..,o,...:..��ro-:--:z:-v..;--,xooo, oz It was sponsored jointly by the Asian Cultural Centre for Unesco ��, 00-07=,o...;�r���o,o::: z�v---.o,�o�-.::.. ??x (ACCU) and the Tokyo Book Development Centre (TBDC). The meeting also received the \??gX\-??X�??x--.::.,o=,o-.::.,--=-o \ 'Ot;"r'XV---.=5000O:::o\ cooperation of the Japanese National Commission for Unesco, the Japanese �x.:::.�x-=-o-.::.,o�x·

The meeting was attended by experts from India, Indonesia, Japan, Khmer Jf18q "' t ••• Republic, Laos, Malaysia, and Af��·.. 8µ\ f!A�\µ f A �p;p.\ f Thailand. In addition, technical advisers from Japan and Thailand, ._ . .,, and observers from the Khmer \ p_ p-> ��·-. \A Republic, took part in the �� fqf) f) �·-. /\,f q "re '"rAf··. discussions.

For some time now the Asian "' "' "' Cultural Centre for Unesco and the iaeqr Aft> ··. ,�; Afq�:-. f f t\��r··. � \� Tokyo Book Developm�nt Centre have been engaged in cooperative work in the development of new, non-Latin typefaces for use in Asia. n�������"��ill���,��ru��n�nuuu����n�LJ1�1����w0� During the course of this work they had found that throughout Asia :: 1 � [)1 j L LL 111 i there was, as yet, no well developed print culture and little understanding of the importance of good . This first meeting, therefore, was organized to meet certain important objectives-these being;

•• MM to exchange data and information @.- •.•I . concerning the present state of ? () typography throughout Asia, 2 to discuss what kinds of typography n2f)?22v���,u ,v� onnrilJlJUlUUUCJUULlwuh ,v - J tbs:Jm sSU1Jm.Jm�,w tJ would be most appropriate for use w in the printing of newspapers and in textbooks for primary and �1wtHi111�) secondary school education, 3 to discover effective ways in which regional cooperation might be .!J. f:H'.f4-{ Jl. :l,4'.o '.:2t.!/. � '&' <;;" : o/ M'.t<;>f:(( I( 1¥..,J.+( ( I(iknJ.+( I( lf ..,J. +( I .LJ.-i,+ I .LJ.-i,+ I .LJ.-i,+< extended in order to develop and improve typographical practice ,, , , ,vvv vv , , , ,vv vv,v�� J within the regions. 0�.u�&'.cSri:;;i,cuo1234567890 Prior to discussion, the meeting was told of the work being done by the Tokyo Book Development Centre, in the design and development of new :1'Jx.,"-:;!?""()o----=/+-x7=%©e..,.�** non-Latin typefaces. In 1969 work began on a new Thai typeface. During the past five years three new faces belonging to the same family During the meeting, experts Problems of type-casting were also uses 24.B5mm, Belgium: 23.68mm, had been completed. These were to presented reports on the state of the discussed. At present, different type­ France; 23.56mm, England; 23.32 be known as Unesco- Tl-Fine, typographical arts within their own founders used differing formulae mm, and Japan; 23.45mm. Unesco-TI-Bold, and Unesco-Tl-italic countries. There was also detailed for their type alloys. Since many of Such variations cause considerable of 19.5 point size. In addition, discussion of the particular problems the Asian countries have no type= problems to book producing agencies. Unesco-TI-Bold of 30 point, and represented by textbook production. founding facilities, it is vital that The meeting resolved, therefore, that Unesco-TI-Bold of 36 point had also It was conceded that the present extremely costly type should not all member countries should adopt been completed. supply of available typefaces was only be durable but give sharp a standard type-height, both in the In 1970 work began on the design of limited and inadequate. impressions. It had been found that manufacture of type, and in the a Laotian typeface. So far two new The meeting therefore resolved that very frequently joint characters ordering of type from outside have been developed, member co,mtries would collect set in certain foundry type, broke countries. Unesco-Li-Fine, in 24 point and down when run on high speed Unesco-U-Bold in 32 point. together'specimens of elegant type printing plant. Work has also been in progress since or calligraphy for further study by 1972 on a new typeface in Khmer the Tokyo Book Development It was also noted that different characters. Centre. countries supply type at differing type-heights. Holland, for example,

7 'Stamp on it' -some aspects The author, who is Design Advisor to the British Post Office, gives a of postage stamp design short historical survey of British postage stamp design, from the first= Stuart Rose ever stamp (the Penny Black of 1840), to the present day. He then goes on to discuss the various difficulties that accompany the design of the many commemorative issues that are now produced in Britain

Depending on where you happen to performance of the them­ postage and the penny post. be standing at the time, the very selves and by the technical compet­ Some five weeks were allowed for the mention of the words 'Postage stamp' ence of the printers. preparation of the designs, but in will conjure up a wide variety of All these factors have, in varying spite of that, 2,600 suggestions and meanings and stimulate a great degrees, influenced the design and designs were submitted, although number of differing reactions, some of production of stamps ever since the only forty-nine of them were them highly emotional. introduction of the Penny Black in concerned with an adhesive stamp. I suppose to most of us the words will 1840, and they are as significant Of these, only four were considered recall questionable deals in dog-eared today as they were then. worthy of development. swops, obtained by dubious acts from To most of us, perhaps, the best stamp There is no doubt that the over-riding some poor stamp dealer in the Strand, that has ever been produced. But in consideration in the production of and conducted with typical school­ our parlance it was not designed. this new label was security. boy threats behind the Pavilion during It was the piecemeal result of an And not surprisingly, for the 1d stamp George Dickinson entered some a school match. To others they will intellectual solution to a number of was a valuable commodity represent­ rather charming hand drawn conceits call up a vision of tweezers, spy= practical problems. ing about a third of the average that were, in fact, to denote different glasses and stamp albums with the labourer's daily wage. services. It was Dickinson, incident­ seductive hope of an investment in a But before we start to analyse these One of the four winners of the ally, who proposed printing stamps fortune to be gathered in old age. influences on the design of stamps competition, Benjamin Cheverton, in sheets on special security water= For many they just suggest an art= today, let us go back to the beginning had some interesting recommend­ marked paper. form which they may not understand and see how these same influences ations to make on this question of yet feel they know all about and for affected the production of early forgery. He wrote, "Now it so which they accuse the Post Office of stamps. happens that the eye being educated wasting its time and their money. Like so many bright ideas the Postage to differences in the features of the But to designers they will denote an Stamp was the result of the Reform face, the detection of any deviation area of , perhaps one Bill of 1832. One of the many in the forgery would be more easy, of the most sophisticated in the whole sociological abuses the Bill sought to the difference of effect would strike field of graphics, certainly a highly reform was that attaching to the an observer more readily than in the significant one in the performance of inefficiency, high cost and privileged case of letters or any mere mechanical one of the largest systems of package abuse of the Postal Service. or ornamental device, although he handling in the country. In his pamphlet "Post Office Reform, may be unable, perhaps, to point its importance and practicability" where the difference lies or in what it It is not for nothing, therefore, that Rowland Hill had set out his argumant consists." the Post Office received a Design for a uniform postage of 1d for a And what more familiar portrait than Award from the for letter weighing½ ounce for delivery that of the dearly beloved Queen? its 1972 issues of stamps, an award anywhere in the British Isles and Although the competition was a given not for their philatelic qualities almost as an afterthought had stimulus to inventive thinking the but for their excellence as printed suggested that if every house was immediate results were disappointing, examples of industrial design. fitted with a letter box and postage considering the great number of was pre-paid, I quote "the letter submissions that were made. Therefore, it is at stamps as objects of carrier would drop the letters and Perhaps the most decorative was an designthat I want to look, rather having knocked he would pass on as However, it may be interesting to look engraved design from Charles Fentor than as examples of fine art or indeed fast as he could walk." at what the four main prizewinners Whiting printed in two colours at their other functions as subjects for sent in, largely I admit, because some simultaneously from a combined set collecting and philatelic interest. The system Rowland Hill sought to are very pretty designs and very much of dies. His obsession with the And if from this standpoint I can reform was then a cash-on-<:lelivery a product of their time. security aspect of his design was tread rather more firmly, I was going system. Time was wasted in awaiting typical of many entries, but the to say "stamp", on some popular an answer at a house, argument with strong emphasis he placed on the misconceptions about stamps, so the recipient over payment, often numerical value was significant. much the better. repeated visits to get an answer resulted inevitably in a very heavy It has always seemed to me that there financial loss for the Post Office. exists a fundamental contradiction It was, therefore, this new concept of between the aims and objects of the pre-payment of postal charges that Post Office and those of the philatelist immediately influenced the design of �···+ GCMral·· P<>'l•1t••··· +� and collector. For whereas we will the new labels as they were first called. ·----�•:--o-r spend endless time, money and energy It is of some interest that Rowland • + + P.XCKEDING + in an attempt to achieve perfection, Hill himself had forecast the stamp as + HAU' + the philatelist in his pursuit of oddities, we know it by specifying a suitable + AN OUNCE. + mistakes and imperfections sustains a label as "a bit of paper just large 1 highly prosperous trade. Certainly enough to bear the stamp (that is the + 0oe 1'""'1· there is no other corner in the printer's cancellation) and covered at the back ·--·· I world where his errors are sought after with a glutinous wash which the user with such avidity. might, by applying a little moisture, ·-� attach to the back of the letter." James Chalmers, a bookseller and If we then accept the concept that the printer from Dundee, produced a postage stamp is first and foremost an Perhaps I should explain that Rowland straightforward typographic state­ So it was that William Wyon, who t object of industrial design, what are Hill's stamp originally assumed a ment. He had already submitted to engraved a bas-relief portrait of the the influences which affect its design continuance of the current practice the Post Office, some eighteen months young Queen from a drawing by and production and how significant whereby a letter when folded and before the competition was launched, Henry Corbauld for use on the Cit� are they in terms of the ultimate sealed on the back made its own cover some rectangular designs which he Medal struck in 1837, was result. without the use of an envelope. had proposed should be gummed on commissioned to engrave the dies Broadly there are, I suppose, five main Ultimately, Rowland Hill's recommen­ the back and used to seal the letter for a similar portrait to be printed I areas of influence. Those imposed by dations for reform of the Postal sheet. Perkins, Bacon and Company for u the operational requirements on a Service were accepted and, in Septem­ on the first adhesive stamp. stamp as an essential aid to the ber 1839, the Lords of the Treasury The background was machine processing of mail, those imposed by sent an invitation to artists, scientists engraved by a technique in current the choice of subject, by the type and and the public to submit ideas and use on bank notes and devised to quality of outside advice sought by the designs in connection with the forth­ reduce to a minimum all chances o Post Office, by the standard of coming introduction of prepaid forgery.

8 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974 Author's address: Postal Headquarters St Martin's-le-Grand London EC1A 1HQ England

Rowland Hill himself had recommen­ officers of the Department who may and mechanical, which is generated there is no second class value, we ded that "labels, if made of some be called to assist the Committee, by these stamps can have disastrous sometimes print the phosphor all paper difficult to imitate and like the but also from any persons, skilful in effects. over the surface when the back­ medicine stamps, printed from design or otherwise, of whose know­ The special, or commemorative ground colour is too dark to give a complex plates with various colours ledge and taste the Committee may issues, however, fall into a different satisfactory signal and compensate in the same impression, thus desire to avail themselves, for it has category. First, they will only relate by increasing the width of the white requiring the combined ingenuity of become most desirable, in the case of in value to four or five established margin. The reflection then comes the papermaker, the engraver and previous failures, that an amended service rates-first-class mail and from the margin and not from the the printer, would be secure against scheme should now be devised which possibly four air-mail rates. printed area. forgery" ... and here speaks the may hold out every reasonable We never publish in a non-tariff rate We have had to do that on two careful client ..."and the cost, only promise of efficiency and denomination. occasions recently; on the Reynolds 1d for 200." permanence." Then they are only available for a and Raeburn paintings and on the month at Post Office counters and Commonwealth Parliamentary Hand in hand with this obsession for Whoever it was who drafted these after that for only a year at our own Association stamp, designed by security against forgery went an instructions had an understanding of Philatelic Bureau in Edinburgh. Richard Downer. equal concern against the possibility the factors which govern the"design" Thereafter, you can only buy them In the sale of stamps at a Post Office of re-use. The printers had of stamps, which was quite through the trade. counter, the clerk must be able to recommended the use of black for remarkable for his period. Conversely, in spite of their compar­ identify the value quickly and with printing the engraved plates, but the The issue which resulted from the atively short life in Post Office hands, certainty and the customer, too, black cancellation mark was found to Committee's recommendations was they create far more problems in must be in no doubt that he has got be inadequate. So the ink on the in many respects a disappointment, their design and production than do what he paid for. cancellation was changed to red. and it is difficult to trace any close the definitives. Alas, the printer's ink was more association with the original brief. Operationally, of course, they have So much, then, for some of the permanent than the cancellation Admittedly, the values are now to conform to the same behavioural operational requirements of a stamp, which, with the help of a solvent, expressed in numerals instead of patterns as do the definitives, but none of which are so restrictive as to could be removed from the stamp. words, but the set lacks any clear questions of choice of subject, inhibit the designer in producing a After only one year, therefore, the consistency in the overall pattern. advice, and design competence apply satisfactory visual result, provided black penny had to be replaced with And so the pattern of stamp design more to them than to the definitives. they are kept well in the forefront a red penny and printed with fugitive was set for nearly the next forty Primarily, a postage stamp is a of his mind. ink, less permanent than the years and not only a change in reign receipt for the prepayment of a But when we come to the choice of cancellation, which now became was thought a sufficiently important postal service and it is the only subject for special issues, then we black again. occasion for a change in design and indication to the postal staff of the find ourselves in a far more restrict· poor Edward VII on his accesion had type of service the customer has ive area.The Post Office will receive During the forty years which had to content himself with having his bought. It must, therefore, denote anything up to two hundred passed since the introduction of the own portrait slotted into the same clearly the value of the service by suggestions from national organi­ Penny Black, new stamps had been frame vacated by his mother. portraying the monetary denomin­ sations, private people, influential produced of different values but ation in numerals, and by colour. bodies of one sort or another, laying without sufficient attention being Today we have become so used to It must be capable of cancellation to claim for an issue of stamps to paid to their operational efficiency. the idea of new stamps that it is prevent re-use and in a manner commemorate an event, a person or With the result that in 1884 the Post difficult to appreciate that it was not which will neither obliterate the an anniversary. Office was forced to set up a until 1925 that a special stamp was value recognition nor make illegible In addition, we compile our own list Committee of enquiry into the whole issued for the first time to celebrate the date on the date stamp. of what we consider to be suitable question of stamp design to quell a an occasion and that the opening by It must also for overseas mail denote subjects in terms of pubI ic accept­ growing tide of complaint from its King George V of the British Empire the country of origin. Traditionally, ability and political expediency. own staff and the public mainly on Exhibition at Wembley. since the first Penny Black, we have We are expected, too, to take some the confusion caused between values Once this revolutionary step of always used the sovereign's head to heed to what our marketing experts and colours which were hard to producing stamps for a particular identify British stamps and it has would have us believe to be suitable distinguish. It is fascinating to read event had been taken, it was natural appeared in varying sizes on every subjects, although I must admit that the terms of reference for that that others would follow, but the stamp we have ever produced, if they were to have it all their own Committee drawn up one hundred pace was leisurely, and it was not whether in a definitive or in a way, babies, dogs, pop stars and years ago: until 1966 when Wedgewood-Benn commemorative issue. football players would be the ideal " 1 It is of the first importance that, was Postmaster General that the pace subjects, all of them admirable and in any new scheme of Postage really got hot. Insofar as a stamp must indicate the wholly lovable in their own way, bu· Stamps which may be devised, there type of service that has been bought, not I think the best material for a should be a variety of colour, Let me explain the differences which it then becomes a significant postage stamp. form, and design as to render the exist between two types of stamps indicator in the sorting and traffick­ Out of all this wealth of advice and Stamps of different values easily currently in use in this country, th.e ing processes for that service. suggestion we have to choose six or distinguishable from one another, definitives and the special issues, for Any ambiguity, therefore, in the seven subjects, for that is the maxi­ both by Post Office officials and by the influences which affect stamp identification of its value or mum number of issues in a year the public, not only when first used, design generally are not common to confusion with other values can very which we can handle and which the but also after they have been both types. easily cause delay in the processing public can stomach. cancelled. First then the ordinary stamps, the of mail, whether by hand or by Increasingly, I believe, we are 2 The Stamps should be printed in definitive issue which includes now machine. becoming more aware of the influ­ so thorough and effective a manner some nineteen different monetary Nowadays, an increasing volume of ence of the subject on the ultimate as to prevent fraudulent use of them values. These are available all the mail is being sorted mechanically design result. Inevitably, there are after they have once passed through year round at all Post Offices and, by and, broadly, the system relies on some subjects which will defy even the Post. and large, the only philatelic interest I ight reflections from bars of a tolerable graphic solution, let 3 They should also be such in in them once they are issued, is phosphor printed on the surface of alone a good one. However worthy manufacture and design as to preclude technical rather than visual, changes the stamp which activate electronic­ they may be as subjects, as stamps the possibility of imitation. in printing cylinder numbers, and in ally a release device. The quality of they can only be mediocre. 4 Regard should be had to the the past, differences between that signal has a direct relationship It is not easy to define that area at desirableness of producing Stamps phosphor overprints on the front and with the hue of the colour on which all accurately, but my belief is that which shall have as much artistic types of adhesive on the back. the phosphor is printed. As a rule of the more conceptual a subject is, thE merit as is compatible with the first thumb we get a weaker signal at the less likely is it that we will produce three conditions. Operationally, these stamps are yellow end of the spectrum than we a good stamp. 5 The whole subject requires very highly vulnerable because they do at the blue end, and also where But what do we mean by a good careful and deliberate consideration, account for by far the greatest the tonal values are dark rather than stamp? with the help of information and volume of mail. Any embarrassment light. To answer that question in terms of suggestions, not only from practical to sorting operations, both manual On special issues, however, where graphic expression and aesthetic

9 Rose: 'Stamp on it'-some aspects of postage stamp design

resuIt is, I fear, too difficult for me in fields related to the arts and Just look at the first five stamps of But to pursue th is question of advice to explain, but it can, I believe, be crafts of stamp production. the reign-the new definitives. and the preparation of briefs. answered in terms of attitudes. Artists, critics, engravers and printers Five designs, five different designs In 1958 we issued these stamps in Miniaturist design demands a quite had all been consulted over the years by Enid Marx, Farrar-Bell, G Knipe, honour of the 7th British Empire specific approach. for it is more than to ensure that the best advice was Mary Adshead and Edmund Dulac, and Commonwealth Games held at a question of possessing the necess­ available, for then the Post Office with one more by Lynton Lamb for Cardiff. The Post Office brief to the ary skill and craftsmanship to paint laid little claim to being skilled in the high values. designers said nothing about within a very small area. If we accept matters of aesthetic judgement. I suppose at a time when these were representing athletics but insisted that a stamp designer must have a the only stamps in circulation, it was that some heraldic motif symbol­ tolerable standard of craftsmanship But the advice it sought tended to be a good thing to build variety into ising Wales had to be included. to be any good at all, it is his ability fine-art based and, there were times the issue. But in my view, the Post In 1970 we were asked to issue or not to analyse a subject and too, when it was glad to be able to Office rather overdid the '5 7 variety' another set of stamps for the 9th extract from it the one meaningful rely on the exceptional philatelic thing in the Regional stamps. Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. factor that will enable him to knowledge of the sovereign himself. It is interesting that the five regions This time our brief to the designers produce a good, or not-so-good It is not unusual to find that advice were given the power to design their said "athletics". but such was the stamp. on stamp design was sought from own stamps without any central change in the sociological climate, To my mind, stamp design is first Garter King at Arms, the Director of control. that we had to ask them to portray and foremost, an intellectual process the National Gallery and even as only those events which had a multi= and it is this capacity to crystalise a recently as 1948, on the occasion of But today we take the opposite view, racial complement of competitors. problem into one inevitable graphic the silver wedding of George VI the and when Arnold Machin was In 1970 we aimed to create a expression that makes the difference artists were told that the stamp commissioned to design a new visually related set by trying to find between a good and not-so-good would be printed in blue, because definitive range in 1966, we went for a literary common denominator­ designer. that was the colour thought by the consistency of design throughout and we found it in people. Admittedly, th is is true of all Royal Fine Art Commission to be the set, including the Regionals For what subjects could be more industrial design but it seems to be appropriate. adapted by Jeffery Matthews, and disparate than the signing of the more critical in the design of stamps I must say some funny things went the impressions on pre-printed Declaration of Arbroath in 1320, where the room to manoeuvre is on with that issue, because before stationery. the Sailing of the Mayflower in 1620, more cramped. they started work the artists were Machin had already made a new bas= the Anniversary of Florence But if we place this degree of told to go and look at some stamps relief portrait of the Queen for use Nightingale and the Founding of the analytical responsibility on the produced in Belgium between 1935 on the new coinage, and this formed Royal Astronomical Society, both in designer to find the solution, it and 1939 ( ten years earlierl of Queen the basis of his portrait for the 1820, and the signing of the Inter­ follows that the Post Office itself Astrid, Prince Baudouin, and Rubens, stamp. In choosing the more formal national Co-operative Alliance in must be quite clear in its own mind which had been contained within a profile pose he gave the stamp a 1895. what the problem is and how it simulation of a picture frame. greater feeling of dignity and This, I am afraid, is typical of the thinks it sees the solution. It was suggested (by whom I cannot authority than was possible with the problem the Post Office faces now Not in visual terms, necessarily, but establish) that a design of this earlier three-quarter photographic by having created in the past a in the way it believes the public will nature seemed appropriate for a head. precedent for issuing stamps mainly react to a certain point of view and personal occasion such as their His original concept was a bas-relief to commemorate a person, a place the way in which a particular Majesties' silver wedding. profile surrounded by some sort of or an event, rather than stamps graphic delineation will be seen as "What's on the wireless, dear? rococo decoration and he had devoted to a particular theme. the proper expression of a well= A beautiful picture of the King and prepared some preliminary designs Inevitably, in pursuing this policy, defined policy. Queen!" which were highly decorative. it finds itself in the embarrassing Fortunately, by the time we arrived The total effect, however, would position of having to issue a stamp Let me take a fairly obvious example at the silver wedding of their depend on the quality of the under pressure, whether it can be of what I mean. daughter, this sort of unprofessional modelling in the head and the right made to relate styI istically to other Christmas can be expressed visually, advice was no longer offered nor balance in the photograph of the subjects or not. For a number of either as great big kid's party, with sought. sculpture. Machin therefore carried reasons we prefer not to issue just toys and crackers and Christmas out a number of photographic tests one stamp of a low value at a time, trees, or as a sentimental picture of With the setting up of the Council of with the printers, Harrison and Sons, for the cost of distributing the stamp an England which never really Industrial Design in 1944, however, seeing his sculpture under a variety and providing all the philatelic existed with stage-coaches, deep a new body of design advice was of lighting conditions. But the Post services the trade expects with a new snow, fat jovial welcoming inn­ formed under its auspices in the Office and Machin were so delighted issue, is uneconomic. So we try to keepers and a roaring bright fire shape of a Stamps Advisory Panel, with th is very simple effect of the go for the omnibus set such as this, inside a half-timbered coaching inn, and for a number of years this panel head on its own that it agreed to in spite of the inevitable design or as a religious festival seen through was responsible for the design of drop the words 'Postage' and problems which follow. the eyes of the mediaevalist or stamps. But in 1968 it was replaced 'Revenue', and he gave up his I mentioned earlier the sort of brought more up-to-date with the by a Post Office Committee under original idea of a more decorative misconceptions that can develop in Mowbray version of a rather the chairmanship of a Post Office design. people's minds through a misunder­ different Palestinian scene. Director and composed of MPs, standing of the real problems All these options are open to the philatelists, designers and non= involved. If you believe that the designer. but it is essential tha·t both professional, but aesthetically design of stamps has everything to do the designer and the Post Office informed members. with art you will tend to look at it know which expression politically, At the same time the Post Office in much the same way as you look (with a small 'p') the Post Office created the full-time post of Design at a painting, and you will fail to could not tolerate. For unless this Director, and so took one more appreciate the most important sort of understanding exists, a significant step towards making itself factor which is the skill or non-skill designer cannot design with intelli­ more professionally informed on with which the designer has solved gence and certainly not with matters of stamp design. the problem posed by the subject. confidence. I find this whole question of the Arnold Machin admits to having Over the years I believe we have interaction of advice and direction been inspired by the original Penny Unless the distinction between art increased our understanding of the on the design of stamps a fascinating Black of 1840, which had been and design is quite clear in the mind necessity to be more professional in one, for there seems to be a very engraved from Wyon's bas-relief on of those who are concerned with the our dealings with the designer and definite relationship between the his commemorative City of London design, approval and production of certainly, the advice the Post Office character of the advice and the medal. The result certainly is, in my stamps, unless they think of designer. seeks itself is now far more know­ resulting style of design. view, one of the best stamps of the as solvers of problems and not as ledgeable of the problems of design. If we only go back twenty years to reign, having about it all the artists who are concerned only with Since the birth of the first postage the beginning of this reign, perhaps classicism and dignity of the first their own ideas, then their view will stamp in 1840 the Post Office has we can appreciate better th is change Victorian stamp. be biased in the direction of personal always sought the advice of experts of attitude towards stamp design. opinion (and isn't their opinion as

10 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974

good as the artist's?) and away from The first 'definitives' for the reign the direction of informed judgement. of Queen Elizabeth II

From time to time we find ourselves exposed, like all public corporations, to public criticism of our judgement. In a way the Post Office is in a difficult position insofar as it imposes on its public certain cond· itions of choice which the public I confess I always become a little cannot avoid. If you, as the public, suspicious when a stamp demands do not like our stamps, you cannot a caption to make the design go and buy the ones you do like intelligible, rather than to give somewhere else. information, and suspicious more Recognition of a monopolistic of the choice of subject than of position on the part of a supplier can the quality of the design. be frustrating to the public. The Post Office, to a point accepts, So far I have said nothing about therefore, that it has a responsibility, the final influence of the design in democratic theory at least, to of stamps, the technical compet· give the public what it wants, but in ence of the printer. doing so is aware that in practice Without doubt, it has been the that can be a fallacy. gigantic strides which the printer For just as the public is incapable of has made in improving his tech· arriving at a representative point of niques of miniscule reproduction view, even if it knew what it wanted, that has contributed so significantly so it realises that in most specialist to the development of stamp fields it knows more than the other design and production in the man. Certainly, it realises that it is United Kingdom. rarely wise, as one Postmaster= When you recall that the first two= General would have us believe, that colour gravure stamp was printed we should always aim to "please the in 1960 and the first multi= man on the Clapham Common bus." coloured stamp in 1963, you will appreciate how much has been At the heart of the public acceptance achieved in so short a time. of a stamp is public understanding, or the degree of public familiarity with the subject and, thereafter, the quality of subject recognition which Having spent all this time in trying to the designer builds into it. explain my views on what it takes to I spoke earlier of the dependence of create a good stamp, I would like to design quality on subject suitability. cite one or two recent issues which Let me pursue that further. I believe prove my point.

An attempt to create a visually related set of stamps with a literary common denominator, Lt 1970

This I believe to be a classic by �, David Gentleman ... as indeed were his designs for the Investiture of Prince Charles. There was, I believe, a fundamental They have a magical quality which mistake in the choice of the BBC as quite properly exemplifies the a subject, for we had been asked to somewhat fairy-tale character of give visual expression to what, for the whole affair. F ornnce NightingnlP- 1820· J 'II', most people, was an auditory experience, however manfully David Gentleman dealt with the problem. Similarly with Post Office Techno· logy in 1969. Each stamp by David Gentleman was a brilliant distillation of a very complex subject, but they were all relatively unintelligible until :•h-.g,'. you read the small type. You could argue that the design Royo/ /islronomicol Society 1820 becomes more intriguing, but to me it suggests that the designer was given an impossible job of making -� t graphically credible a subject which "' �--� las I iterary, rather than visual interest. --; r '.' ·119 11 Rose: 'Stamp on it'-some aspects Easier than ABC-some of postage stamp design experiments with a 'plastic' language

Peter Watson

Today Charlie W is a star pupil. A year ago he was a mental write-off to many people. He had an IQ of only 15 then (the average is 100), and the chances of him ever being able to look after himself or do any of the ordinary things which children enjoy seemed completely beyon him.

The chief reason was that, associated with his extremely low intelligence, The designers, Collis Clements and Ted Charlie was unable to talk at the age Hughes, took the point and they of seven, nor had he any prospect. aimed to create a relaxed sense of the involvement of the two young people Yet today Charlie is at school and is Peter Murdoch's jig-saw EEC gets I also include Marjorie Saynor's concerned. avidly learning new things every day. nearest to solving the insoluble and is 'Explorers', but for an additional Those of you who have seen some of He can communicate with the people a quite brilliant answer to a wholly reason in that they were painted Norman Parkinson's recent photo­ around him-children and adults-can unreasonable conceptual question; as miniatures, the same size as graphs will understand what I am play simple organised games and can and to make you realise, yet again, · the actual stamps. saying. Within the unbelievably tight even count. He is now behaving as the nature of our problem, one of the limits of production, they have though his IQ has been doubled­ least publicly popular stamps we have succeeded, and the stamp they even trebled-inside a year. ever produced. produced is exactly the result of the intellectual analysis of the problem He has been transformed because of that I have already outlined. a remarkable piece of scientific insight by psychologists at California I have told you only a tiny part of the State University. With luck, Charlie problems which face any postal will be just the first of many low IQ administration which takes the design non-verbal children suddenly to and production of its stamps discover, in a limited but priceless professionally seriously. For that is way, what I ife has to offer. exactly what the Post Office does today, and what is more, the support It all started with chimpanzees. it gets from the designers it A few years ago, psychologist David commissions is the highest commend­ Premack, at Santa Barbara-also in ation it can have for the rightness of California-started experiments on this policy. communication between chimpanzeei Woe betide anyone who tries to He had an idea to make a "language" "stamp on it." from pieces of coloured plastic Ted Ripley' 'County Cricket' is an I cannot resist a comment with which because the chimps could not speak. interesting one, for not only do these to close, on two somewhat contro­ For example, he taught them that a drawings of W G Grace go right to the versial issues, because in a funny way red triangle meant "apple", a yellow point, since Grace had been involved they sum up all the problems diamond meant "put" and a black in formulating the rules of the County surrounding the current Post Office square meant "table." He was then Championships, but they did in the policy on the production of special able to tell a chimp to "Put the end mislead people into thinking this issues of stamps. apple on the table," and the chimp We wanted to issue a set of stamps in was a set to commemorate the great would understand and follow his honour of the Queen's Silver Wedding cricketer, even though his name does command. Premack found that his last year. And why not? We operate a not appear.· chimpanzees could easily learn a service called Royal Mail and we did "vocabulary" of more than 100 not give her one for her wedding. words in a few months and had r.o The problem as we saw it was to give problem in stringing together the stamps a sense of regality without sentences of up to seven words. the royal pomp and circumstance. Not only did the chimps understand For when Lieutenant Mountbatten him; they used the plastic language married Princess Elizabeth she was to communicate among themselves. not then the Queen. How, then, twenty-five years later, can we convey It is one of those ironies of science the sense of this historic fact without that chimpanzees benefited before distorting it? anybody realised the system might Jeffery Matthews found the right have useful applications for people. Rosalind Dease's 'Tutankhamun' formula in designing a classic pose for In fact, it wasn't until last year that certainly deserves a place, as does the portraits but removing all the psychologist Patricia Hodges, of Richard Downer's 'Commonwealth adornments of royalty. To me, one of California State University, thought Parliamentary Association.' the best stamps of the reign. that what worked with chimps might work with retarded children.

Children with IQs of less than about 40 usually have no language. Some learn to understand basic word But come the following year and we like "stop," but few learn to actually want to produce a stamp for their use words themselves. This lack of a daughter's wedding. First, we must language makes their handicap even t avoid the repetition of her parent's The illustrations of design proposals worse because they cann·ot express o Silver Wedding, but for more than by James Chalmers, Charles Fenton, fully use their limited ability. obvious reasons. To try to invest this George Dickinson, and William 111,yon To Dr Hodges, therefore, they are in stamp with an undue sense of royalty are reproduced by kind permission a situation not unlike that of the would have been foolish and of the Reginald M Phillips Collection chimpanzees. She therefore visited unpopular. in the National Postal Museum. Dr Premack, looked over his colony

12 icographic 8, 1974 communication in an icocraphic 8, 1974 environment and by an environment

Peter Kneebone

When we speak of corporate identity aspects of environmental corporate we are probably thinking of systems identity, considered in the broadest . of products, services, events, and so sense. Firstly it presents more on, and the way in which they are complex problems, entailing differ­ AITA T identified and communicate ent priorities, than the more familiar Do you want an apple? No coherently with us, either as users or and evident corporate identity as potential users. A corporate programmes we have referred to, and identity, in this sense, is something may lead us to redefining what we of "talking chimps," and borrowed a finger them, chew them, lick them. which is designed (perhaps for the mean by corporate identity in this plastic language set. This way their limited intelligence first time, or perhaps revised and context. Secondly it is more enables them to realise the principle recreated more than once) to identify, evidently concerned with the needs For four months, with assistants, she of language-that words relate to coordinate and express the special of individual human beings. has been working with a group of other things in the outside world." character of the system in all its non-verbal children, aged seven to manifestations-both to its consumers When I speak of the corporate fourteen, who have IQs ranging from The scheme has been so successful and to those who operate it. identity of a socio-environmental 15 to 38. that Dr Hodges is thinking of To make me feel good about buying system I am not thinking, for producing elementary books for it, or feel good about working for it. example, simply of a municipal To begin with she and her staff used these children so that they can To make me recognise it instantly. authority which attempts to express concrete symbols like an apple or progress at their own pace. To make me want it. To tell me how itself visually in a coherently banana and then moved on to more She also thinks that the method to use it. To rationalise its functioning. designed way-through the use of a abstract terms like fruit. could be useful for autistic children. Also to make it more profitable. symbol, coordinated printed matter, At first a teacher would hold up, say, identical colours on , and so a red triangle and the child had to This may be her next research project, It may be applied as a cosmetic to on. These are some of the outward point to an apple in the middle of a but if any special schools, hospitals improve the appearance independent­ manifestations of the traditional bowl of fruit. Next the child learned or university research departments ly of the reality, or as a first-aid corporate identity programme. Their the shape that stood for "pick up" in Britain are interested in trying her dressing to enable it to continue purpose is to communicate a and learned to distinguish this from, approach, she can supply a film functioning without curing organic particular image of the special say, "peel." He or she were then showing how to go about it. defects, or as an adhesive to connect character of the system-the identity taught the distinction between Her address is the Department of artificially a number of dissociated it wishes to be recognised by, for "pick up the banana" and "peel the Psychology, California State elements. But a corporate identity whatever motive. Just as the clothes banana." University, Los Angeles, California programme should not only seem I wear are an expression of my 90036, USA. coherent. It should also express what identity-whether I have taken great They also learned to use the language is coherent in a system and help it to care over their choice or have themselves-to say, for example, be more coherent. It is the outward assembled them haphazardly. "I want a wash." manifestation and projection of a Within four months, three-quarters personality. As such it is not only a With a socio-environmental system of the children learned to construct graphic phenomenon, but may be the corporate identity is both the three- to seven word sentences. experienced through, for example, essence and the appearance. That is But Chari ie has been the star. human relations, human services, and to say that it is impossible to structural, spatial and audible means. disentangle the functions, the needs, It has surprised Dr Hodges and her Socially it is frequently designed to the relationships, the objectives and colleagues that the children's influence and inform particular target the values on the one hand, from performance on the "language" has human groups-economic groups, the visual whole and all its elements not been related to IQ. cultural groups, categories of on the other. This visual whole is Charlie shows this more than anybody. employees. infinitely rich and complex. It is Though he had the lowest IQ of any whatever we think of when we speak of the children, according to the What happens if we look now at man= of the overall 'character' or the conventional tests, he developed so made systems used and consumed by 'feel' of, say, a town. And it is made well in his use of the plastic symbols most of us most consistently, and up of everything from the climate that he made two important advances. with a minimum of real choice and the physical surroundings and exercised by us? approaches (such as mountains or First he has learned to count. He has We choose, or are persuaded, to buy motorways), to the spaces and the learned the symbols for numbers, for a Mercedes, or a floor polish, or a structures, to the letterforms, the adding up and subtraction, for festival ticket, or a seat on a images, the objects, to you and me­ "eq uals" and for "not equal." particular air I ine, or a toothpaste. the users of the system, of the He can now do simple arithmetic. Or we choose not to, or are not environment. persuaded. But where choice is severe­ Second, and potentially even more ly limited, and where we are Not only are we consumers of important, Chari ie is now at a school frequently placed by necessity, is in the environment (just as we are the for educationally sub-normal children the various socio-environmental users of a commercial system- (generally reckoned to have an IQ of systems in which we spend most of a make of soap or an airline), but we at the very least) and he is 50 our time-towns, villages, railway are also part of that environment­ learning the deaf . stations, and so on. Of course we may an element in that socio-environ­ Nobody expects he will ever be able choose to try to I ive independently mental system-a piece of the whole to speak with his tongue, but with of such systems, but economic, corporate identity that is projected. luck he will acquire a reasonable cultural, political and social pressures This is quite unlike the relationship vocabulary with the deaf sign and needs make it unlikely that many of a consumer to a product or a language. of us will. Perhaps it is only in the service to its corporate identity. pharmaceutical field, when my doctor When I consume a particular socio= The effect on a child of suddenly prescribes a specific product and environmental system I may be acquiring language, even in this dosage, that I am limited in my choice doing so by choice or by accident, plastic.form, is incredible, as and untouched by presentation or permanently or temporarily. Dr Hodges told me last week. reputation. On the other hand, of The impressions I receive may be "All of a sudden the child begins to course, my doctor may well have different from those you receive. expand and refine his internal I ife." been influenced in his particular I may feel I am standing outside it Dr Hodges feels that their success has prescription choice for just these as an observer, or I may feel that I come because the "language" they reasons. am inside it as an active participant have been using is so concrete. or perhaps as a victim. "The children can pick up the 'words,' There are two particularly interesting

13 Kneebone: Communication in an environment and by an environment

How the system has come to be what to direct, to warn, etc. That is to say Consider now some interesting wrong in this unless we try to make it is is also very complex, subject to there is a need for messages of a features of the question. a case for a static society with a many influences and the result of specific sort to exist. We can further static environment. It is, however, a variety of factors. It can be the say that there is a need for them to Public signs, and I am not thinking essential to understand that, while result of planning or accident, of be legible and unambiguous. exclusively of road signs, have been the signs are carriers of messages and growth, of sudden change, of policy However we can also observe that the so freely applied in many urban are sending out their particular imposed from outside or from inside, needs of the users are not always environments that they do not simply signals, the total environment in of administrative actions, or accurately understood by the stand out as carriers of useful which they stand is now itself send­ commercial actions, or group actions, deciders, that the actions of the messages. They also, by their profu­ ing out new kinds of signals because or individual actions. It can be all or deciders do not always reflect the sion, frequently cancel each other of the addition to it of the signs. some of these. In other words, it is users' needs, that the users do not out. While they have, automatically, Just as the valley with the railway evolutionary and relatively always understand the deciders' become part of the environment line running across it is no longer the unpredictable. It is different on intentions, that, in fact, there can because they exist in it, at the same valley as it was before the railway Wednesday and on Sunday. When be a conflict of needs and that the time they may clash discordantly came. the sun shines or when it rains. When means of transmitting the inform­ with the environment as it was, and I am old or when I am young. When ation often violattjs the needs of the pollute visually rather than clarify. This may appear obvious. Just like there are tourists or when there are environment. If the user, the What is remarkable is that we accept the fact that we are, with certain not. When, suddenly, some new individual, you and me, the public at the situation as complacently as we exceptions, talking about signs that notices are erected or a building is large, is not well informed and if the do. are not only applied to meet specific repainted. When new detours or environment is offended and its needs in a specific place but are one-way systems are applied in its identity degraded, then we find Two comparisons illustrate the point. common also to a very wide variety streets. ourselves reaching a self-defeating The first is between a relatively new of urban environments. Not only are crisis point. and somewhat older environment, the messages common to all the These environments exist as both created for travel, both in environments ('No Entry', 'Town expressions of different kinds of Visually, in the environment, these Amsterdam. At the airport, Schipol, Centre', 'Stop', 'Post Office' and so human needs. First there are the messages appear to us very often as the purpose of the environment has on, are identical messages in causal needs that determine the signs containing words and images. been correctly analysed and the different places). It is also important existence and fundamental character They tell us many things-or rather signs (all verbal and bi-lingual) are that they should be immediately of the environment-political, they intend to tell us many things. unusually large. They dominate the recognised as being the same. cultural, commercial, industrial, Where we are, where to cross the environment because our first need Consequently a considerable effort occupational, social. So the environ­ street, where to post a letter, which in it is to be informed and directed. has been, and is being made, to ment happens and evolves. Then way to turn, where to park a car, Environment and message are one. achieve visual standardisation­ there are the functional needs where to find the cathedral, when to On the other hand, although Dutch internationally as well as nationally­ relating to how the system operates stop, when to be careful, and so on. Rail have made a pretty good job of of very many signs, particularly in terms of its users. It is used by me, Of course these messages do not improving and coordinating the those that carry pictures rather than a person happening to be inside the always have to be communicated by confusion of the international rail­ words. Even if you do not under­ system at a given moment, and it is words or images. Many could (in way , they have applied stand a language, and even if the used also, as well as controlledand cases where the environment is still them with such abandon at the main shop bears no identifying marks, you directed or administered, by the being created) be built into the railway station that we no longer will always recognise a baker's shop deciders-those who role is to make conception and fabric of the read them. They have become a rich by its smell and by the contents of the system function and determine system-through a careful decorative element superimposed. its window. These are its dominant how it should function. Of course consideration of spaces, colours, The second comparison is between signals. Th is is not the case with all these two categories overlap, and I structural and human relationships, two attitudes to the urban use of other kinds of essential information. cou Id say that I participate in the and so on, in terms of orientation, road signs-in France and in England. evolution of the system and that direction and identification. This In England, on the whole, a certain So we are confronted with a I can, indeed should, play a could be so in new towns or restraint and logic are felt to have communication situation which (as significant part in determining how hospitals or airports or railway been active in the placing of the far as the signs are concerned) can ta it should function. The distinction stations. But this is rarely the case­ signs so that information is, again on four main visual forms-signs which between the two categories is, except in a few one-off situations the whole, where you need it without are part of an international system, however, useful because it points to like major exhibitions. being over-obtrusive. In France, signs which are part of a national two different communication needs. What is almost invariably the case however, you are too often assaulted system, signs which are part of a These are the need to receive is that new information is by an incoherent abundance. local system, and the many cases information and the need to transmit imposed, like a postage stamp, on where signs from these different information. an old system. Signs grow like There are curious contradictions categories are seen in combination weeds in our urban environment. implicit in the use of public inform­ with each other. So, to return to the I will limit myself to a single, but Like weeds they are unneccessary. ation signs. They are, as we have seen, question of environmental identity, vital, area of information. It is one First of all there are the names of part of each environment in which we find that a socio-environmental which has great influence on the streets and the numbers of houses they function and they also have to system has a particular identity identity of the environment and how and signposts on the roads between stand apart from the environment in (which is certainly corporate, we react and perceive this identity. towns and villages. Then, more and order to tell us how to use it. That is however irrational it may seem), Of course, in a sense, the environ­ more rapidly, more an more needs to say that the 'no waiting' sign, or that (because of the increasingly ment, though we may attribute a become apparent. the , or the town map, or complex needs of its users and its soul to it, has an identity only when the post box, once they are placed in administrators) it contains public we recognise, experience and interpret This has been due to various factors. the cathedral square are as much a information in the form of signs it. Consequently how we function Urban systems have grown larger part of the square as is the cathedral. which (in order to communicate within the environment, how the and more complex. The demands Though the cathedral may be bigger, effectively) are often conceived as environment helps us to do this, and made by both private and public visually the 'no waiting' sign may part of a general system with a quite how the environment is modified to have become more and strike us first. different kind of visual corporate make communication more effective more insistent. Tourism, national identity, and that the two ( the are all critical matters. and international, is no longer Perhaps this is something like the environment and the information) restricted to limited privileged presence of pylons and water towers cohabit to produce a system with a The communication referred to here sections of the population. and railway viaducts in the open changed identity. The result may be relates to the need to orientate Governments and local authorities countryside. Their presence relates to 'effcient and homogeneous, or it oneself, to be directed, to be warned, have become more conscious of a precise need at a particular point in may be disastrous. and to identify services, facilities and their duty to inform, direct and our technical-cultural development. features within a particular environ­ warn, even if they often do not Whether it meets the need is another Now what needs emphasising is that mental system. Conversely we could understand the nature of the matter. the problem of public information is say that it refers (on the part of the problems posed. not solved when we have created a deciders) to the need to orientate, There is absolutely nothing inherently system or systems of signs with a

14 icographic 8, 1914 The roots of the problem icographic 8, 1974

Hartford Thomas

clear identity and with every care As a rule of thumb forecast, it is said taken in matters of colour, image, that the demand for paper products letterform, proportion and so on. rises at about one-and-a-half times With every care also taken in terms the rate of economic growth in the of message content. It is essential to developed countries, say 6 per cent remember that these systems are (perhaps more) every year. going to be imposed on other systems It is improbable, to say the least, tha1 which they will then modify-perhaps the world's forest resources, already to help them function better, stretched to the limit in Europe and perhaps to make them more chaotic. North America, can cope with that.

There are many questions of vital So the hunt is on for faster growing importance. Where, how and why trees. The Canadian pinus contorta are signs applied? Are they applied which matures in 45 to 60 years is in contradictory relationship to being introduced in Scandinavia. each other? Can they be read in the Some Swedish companies are already context of all the architectural and looking overseas to the possibility of commercial information we are also the fast growing eucalyptus receiving? Are they cleaned or (which has the disadvantage of a renewed when they are degraded? weak fibre). Do they have to function by night as well as by day? What analysis What of technology? Are we getting has been made of the spatial and to the limits there too? social parameters of the problem in On the scale of the machinery, yes, each given context? What analysis where the object has been to has been made of the sequence in economise on high labour costs. which we need to receive messages, But there is still scope for the use of and also of their optimum frequency? new techniques.One is much more And so on, and so on. thorough collection of paper waste for recycling, which is already Otherwise walking through a town practicable. And 500,000 tons of can be like trying to listen to a paper waste is equivalent to one concert on the radio with interference mill ion trees. from three other stations in three different languages. What is most There are one or two other possibil­ important to remember is that it is ities. One is to use the whole tree, human needs that we are meeting, roots, branches, needles and all, that before we do anything we must instead of leaving the stump in the understand what these are-or we If you are looking for moral stories rate of say 5,000 to 6,000 trees a day ground, and stripping away the shall fail. about the way we live now you can with a typical working group of 50 to branches and bark as in present hardly do better than consider the 60 men.This will be replaced by practice. This is already being tried present state of the paper industry. conifer plantations. Not beautiful. out in the United States. Again, you can get more paper per Moral number one: we are already at And so on. I came back with these tree by grinding down the wood into the limits of growth when the growth rather sombre thoughts after a week a dust rather than stewing it in rate in demand for paper products in Sweden looking at some of the chef11icals to make pulp, which exceeds the growth of the forests. Swedish forests and paper mills, and involves substantial loss of fibre. talking to some of the people who Moral number two: the times are out head the industry and are responsible Mr Sverker Kastrup, who is vice= of joint, all of them. By which I mean, for its future development. chairman of the board of Swedisch for example, demand can swing from Pulp and Paper Association, and stagnation to boom in six months, but The Swedish industry is deeply executive vice-president of Svenska but it takes two or three years to concerned, and putting a very large Cellulosa, put it this way: build a paper-making machine, and effort indeed into the regener- "The availability of wood is going to up to 90 years to grow a tree; ation of the forests it fells. be a more restricting factor than currency exchange rates can alter by Svenska Cellulosa, which is the biggest anything else. Our forests will yield 20 per cent or more within the period forest owner in Europe, with forests more as reafforestation comes to of a one-year contract. covering an area about half the size of fruition, but it will be only a slow Switzerland, believes it should be expansion.The great expansion Moral number three: the scale of possible to double the timber volume period is behind us." things is out of joint, too.One new felled-but in 80 to 100 years. paper-making machine, churning out Currently it is planting 20 to 50 For a world which is everywhere .. newsprint paper 26 feet wide at a rate million tree plants a year- hell-bent on accelerating its rate of of 1,000 yards a minute without stop but Scandinavian pine and spruce take. growth, and for a world which signali for a year at a time can more than from 70 to 90 years to mature. its wealth by the amount of paper meet the current excess demand on a and packaging of every kind that it paper producing company-but if two That is the baffling nature of the time uses, that is, or ought to be, a other companies also build new scale. For the next twenty years sobering thought. machines, this could lead to financi­ Sweden's forests will be suffering Oil, plastics, paper ... where do we ally crippling over-capacity, for one from insufficient replanting in the next come up against the limits machine costs around £15 millions. early decades of this century. It is to growth? argued that this shortfall can be met Moral number four: what kind of a in the next twenty 'years by a once­ world do we want to live in, anyway? for-all cutting of the remaining over= Standard of living is closely linked to age forests. Unhappily, the effect of the quantity of paper products that would be to bring the forest consumed.To meet the demand for potential back to the current level of paper, juggernaut felling machinery supply around 1995. And what will can now clear mature forest at the have happened to demand by then?

1! Note to contributors Six thousand years of writing Rene Ponot

icographic would like to include a The general public is surprised and The materials and the tools considerably larger selection of impressed to learn that many people material from our Member wrote "in the past" on a wide variety And "only" 400 scripts is still a lot. Associations in future issues of the of materials. Doesn't this happen For it would not do to think that all magazine. nowadays and in many extraordinary are equally original. The majority are Accordingly the Executive Editor ways? The man in the street can have content to have forgotten their would like to receive articles from few preconceived ideas about it. ancestry. They have evolved in a members, or suggested experts in Does the mother who dishes out a certain area in accordance with the member countries. ladle-full of soup containing dozens requirements of a certain language Wherever possible, we would like to of letters of the alphabet, ask herself and, what is more important, in group submitted articles into an issue whether the pasta is a material for relationship to their specific materials that bears upon a particular theme. writing? and tools. It would be helpful if such contri­ butions were thought of as attempts It is because the public clearly has an It is essential, therefore, always to to add to the collective knowledge of interest in the variety of forms bear in mind on what and with what our organization and to the raising of of writing that has led me to discuss people write. design standards via cognitive, rather them. And I cannot do it more than intuitive judgements. effectively than to choose some of the On what? Graphic design has been slower to more attractive samples of writing accumulate 'ergonomic' data than from the Engraving Room of the Among the fifty or so examples that some of the other design professions, State Press, which has one of the I have chosen can be seen writing on so that we would welcome reports of richest typographical collections in papyrus ( Egypt). I inen (Egypt), any investigation that could add to the world. (1) tablets of baked earth (Mesopotamia), an understanding of the processes of stone (Mesopotamia), marble visual communication. The ability to write is universal (Greece), copper (India), leather (Dead Sea area), deer-skin (Mexico), Articles can be from 2,000 to 6,000 It will be necessary, before anything birch bark (India), agave (Central words (depending upon the extent of else, to limit my subject matter. America), bamboo (Polynesia), illustrative material). I am not going to try to procede to palm leaves (India), wood They may be submitted in either classifications nor establish relation­ (Scandinavia), silk (China). ivory French, German or English. ships, still less to make up a family (Au tun in France), wax tablets It would be particularly helpful if tree (searchers will find too many (Egypt and Western Europe). summaries in the remaining two hidden reefs). languages could be submitted with Moreover, I would not be able in With what? the main text. just a few lines to give the slightest insight into the history of the types It is obvious that the implements Listed below is a selection of that I am going to show. But I can used for writing on each of these suggested headings. The list is in no display them and attempt to explain materials cannot be the same: reed, way definitive, it is intended merely the why's and wherefore's of some of brush (of papyrus or animal bristles). to trigger off responses from possible their peculiarities. stylus and spatula, goose-feather, etc. contributors. In any case, nothing prevents me from inviting the reader to share the The material and the instrument are Aesthetics (ethical or descriptive), wonder and enjoyment that one decisive. Art movements in relation to visual feels at the sight of this ability to communication, Animation, Book write. The art which bears witness, It is easy to understand that two Design, Creativity, Cartography, in the words of Marcel Cohen, to all individuals in their search for a Cartoons, Computer typesetting, the systems that make visible that system of writing will conceive their Computer graphics, Corporate image, which is expressed by words. signs in a totally different way, Children's books, Concrete poetry, according to whether one is using a Colour theory, Colour printing, It is saying in another way what reed on papyrus and the other a Design philosophy, Design practise, Etiemble asserts when he points out stylus on clay. Education, Education of graphic that between the different types of designers, Educational use of visual script and their beauty there exists an And if, instead of devising their own communication, Ergonomics of ancient-one might say, congenital­ writing, they confine themselves to visual communication, Film, Film= affinity. Beauty, the quest for which, reproducing an existing model, the setting, Graphic design schools, in writing, is not the privilege of any results will be equally dissimilar. Graphics in , coinage, race or nation. (2) After a certain time, the nature of entertainment, heraldry, music, the material will condition the actio magic or the occult, popular culture, Experts put the number of languages of the implement in such a way that religions, sport, science, -travel, currently spoken in the world at no resemblance will exist any more stamps, seals, transport, etc. 2,800, without including dialects of between the original and the repro· Human communication, Information lesser importance. (3) ductions, nor between the repro­ theory, International languages, Of these, many do not have a script, ductions themselves. Legibility research, Methodology, or use a borrowed one. Magazine and newspaper design, On the other hand, some languages do I could also add to the list of Psychology of perception, Printing have their own script, the decipher­ materials for writing: glass, bone, processes, Photography, Semiotics, ment of which, whether it has been lead, iron, etc, without forgetting Traffic signs, Television and video­ accomplished or not, remains an parchment, vellum and, of course, tape as media for visual communi­ indispensible part of the work of paper. cation, 'Underground' publishing. researchers. The length of the list is not import· ant. All were not materials that wer Please address all contributions or Although the number of scripts­ invented That did not prevent then enquiries to the Executive Editor, some 400-is well down on the at the time, from playing an icographic, 7 Templeton Court, number of languages, it still remains important role. Although the shape Radnor Walk, Shirley, Croydon that thousands of signs, all with a or form of the signs result initially CRO 7NZ England. longer or shorter life, have served to from the material and the impleme fix graphically the thoughts of man one should not overlook their for more than six thousand years. further development which can pla everything in question.

16 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974 Author's address: 7 Rue Theophile Roussel 75012 Paris France

For example, when paper came into indicate with almost complete Scripts in their temporal context soon as one mentions vertically common use, or when the position certainty the direction in which this written scripts, from top to bottom of the hand holding the goose feather script was written. One can certainly It also seems a good idea to put and moving from the right. However, changed, people witnessed produce exceptions-we shall not these scripts in their context in time, this case is not unique. Not so well predetermined transformations in fail to do so-but it is certain that even if summarily. I shall confine known, Manchu (32), and Phags-pa style, but not the birth of new even a superficial search would reveal myself to putting a date alongside the (39) are written in the same way. writing systems. Nevertheless, this additional influences, such as a name of each example. This will But we shall see that there is nothing does not prevent the inexperienced change in the direction the papyrws generally be that of the oldest known particularly surprising in this. eye from perceiving a different or parchment is held in relation to document (in the case of inscribed Phags-pa is nothing more than an .. script. the hand of the writer. characters) or that of the first use of attempt at phonetic notation of the stylus (in the particular case of Chinese. In 1620 Kublai Khan, the Which comes back to saying that it A last point arises: the characters manuscript characters). "Great Khan" of Marco Polo, is very difficult to determine, with reproduced on these pages are typo­ founder of the Mongol dynasty in regard to script, how much its form graphic. They have thus, a priori, The majority of these scripts are China, summoned to his court a is due to the material on which it is lost some of the spontaneity of the alphabetic, but some have remained great Tibetan Llama whom he found, unless one is certain that this scripts that served as their model. at earlier stages of evolution. commissioned to produce this new material is the one for which it was script intended for the Mongol invented. Similarly they have been subjected This is so in the case of Egyptian (22), people of China. to various deformations of which Hittite (23) and Mayan (33) hiero­ As for Manchu, we have just noted All peoples have bowed down to the some are inherent in the need to glyphs, Ninivite (36) and that it had been created some twent',I glories of stone inscriptions. restrict the symbol to a rectangle Chinese signs (11) that are ideo­ years earlier in 1599 to replace But should we conclude that such making up the face of each typo­ graphic, made up with some phonetic Mongol. writing that has come down to us in graphical sign, and others result, elements. Libyan (30), that has still not been exclusively epigraphic form, has never despite the ability of the engraver, adequately interpreted, is found been used in other ways? because it is not always possible to Other scripts have gone as far as a reading both from left to right and This particular form may be no more reproduce on the steel punch the syllabic notation and the majority from top to bottom. than an occasional adaption to stone graphic fineness born of the handling have even undergone semi-alphabet­ of that which the scribes in question of an implement to which the isation. Among them: Cypriote (13), Let us also remember that Egyptian normally put on to different material. engraver's tool bears only a chance which is of unknown origin, but is hieroglyphs (22) appear according to Material which, alas, was perishable resemblance. found in inscriptions probably circumstances in both vertical and and of which time has preserved engraved between the sixth to the horizontal lines. Horizontally, they nothing for us. Before all other It remains for us in turning to the third century BC. are read from right to left or from information, it is undoubtedly the fifty scripts which follow (listed Manchu (32), derived from Mongol, left to right. This depends upon the knowledge of the material of alphabetically for convenience) to which dates only from the beginnings signs representing persons or animals creation and transformation that emphasise some of their peculiarities of the seventeenth century (the when the heads always point toward: helps us to understand better which bear out some of the founding of an independent Manchu the beginning of the line. "why some languages and scripts observations that have just been empire), is also syllabic. have disappeared without leaving made. Similarly Brahmin (7), India's oldest The Mayan signs (33) offer examples any trace, or only the slightest trace script, and with it all those of that of using the horizontal as much as of them survive, while others, Scripts in space part of the world to which it gave the vertical. protected from the rigours of time, birth: Canarese ( 10), Gujarati (21), favoured by climate and on less Bearing in mind that names do not Kharoshthi or Kharotti (27), Nagari Southern Arabian (47) is 'boustroph· destructible material, have remained always give a picture, I shall begin by (35), Sinhalese (45), Tamil (49), edon', which is to say that it goes in intact and have been able to be placing the examples geographically. Tibetan (50), and others. the manner of an ox working restored for us in this modern age." (in Greek: bous)-one line going (4) Amongst the European scripts we Left and right, top and bottom from right to left, the next from left find: Anglo-Saxon (1 ), Etruscan (16), to right, and so on. The shapes give rise to restrictions Old Gothic (18), Iberian (25), As regards the direction in which The Hittite hieroglyphs (23), Runic (42), Slavonic (46). these scripts are written, everyone sometimes arranged in columns, are One also notices the directions of knows that European languages, generally boustrophedon when the scripts. Why do they not always The Near East and Mediterranean are of which Anglo-Saxon ( 1), Georgian written horizontally. Tifinag (51), of go in the same direction? represented by: Arabic (2 and 3), (17), and Slavonic (46) are shown unknown origin, is still used by the Aramaic (4 and 5), Coptic (12), here, are written from left to right. Tuaregs, a Berber tribe, for writing There are various reasons for this, of Cypriot (13), Estrangelo (14), But th is is far from being the general short inscriptions on objects or which the most obvious is the Eth iopean ( 15), Georgian ( 17), rule. Let us not forget, however, that stones, reading from top to bottom, question of being careful-that of Greek (19 and 20), Hebrew (24), some scripts with which we are less from right to left, or boustrophedon not damaging or destroying the signs Egyptian (22) and Hittite hieroglyphs familiar, such as Javanese (26), Khmer Certain 'directional' letters guide that have already been made. (23), Libya (30), Mandaean (31), (28), Laotian (29), Thai (44), to the reader. Nabataean (34), Ninivite which we can add all the Indian According to the material (clay, for (36), Palmyrian (37), Persian (38), scripts previously referred to (42), are characters used by example) or the instrument (eg, ink) Phamician (40), Punic (41), (Canarese, Gujarati, Nagari, Sinhalese, the various Germanic tribes before it will be possible for the scribe to Samaritan (43), Southern Arabian Tamil, Tibetan) also go from left to their conversion to Christianity, are be led to exclude this or that (47), Syriac (48), Tifinag (51), right. All except one-Kharoshthi (27), almost all engraved on rocks or direction that would cause him too Avestic Zand (52). introduced by the government scribes tombs in the form of inscriptions many disappointments. Moreover, of the Achemenide Persians after that are generally short. The longest once he is in possession of a perfectly In India and Central Asia they are Darius conquered the Indus (end of one presently known is made up of adjusted system, speed of execution joined by: Burmese (6), Brahmin (7), the sixth century BC) and being based no more than two hundred signs. will become his major preoccupation Cham (9), Canarese (10), Gujarati on Aramaic, is written from right to Their direction is not fixed, in that it and one will see the birth of one or (21 ), Javanese (26), Kharoshthi or left. can alternate, but left to right doe more cursives (from currere: to run). Kharotti (27), Nagari or Deva-nagari predominate. The runes are usually The hand wants to go more quickly (35), Sinhalese (45), Tamil (49), Also written right to left are Etruscan formed of a vertical stem to which than the equipment will allow and it Tibetan (50). (16), Arabic (2 and 3), Aramaic (4 are attached one or more bars, often happens that the letters lean in and 5), Cypriote (13), Estangelo (14), avoiding curves and reaching as far as the direction of the ends of the The Far East and Indonesia provide: Hebrew (24), Palmyrian (37), possible horizontally. This is lines. Thus every inclined script can Buginese (8), Chinese (11 ), Khmer Phamician (40), Punic (41), explained by assuming that the rune (subject to confirmation) be consid­ (28), Laotian (29), Manchu (32), Avestic Zand (52), and others. were originally engraved on wood, ered the cursive form of an earlier Phags-pa (39), Siamese (44). a material in which it is easier to cut script (existing or extinct) a.nd the Whilst finally from Central America bars at right angles or obliquely to direction of its inclination is likely to we have Mayan (33). Everyone thinks of Chinese (11) as the grain, than in line with it.

1 Ponot: Six thousand years of writing

L £FC:CJl up.e Dp.thc:ner brelenl>er Cr1rt �,:,,, l<.1(� .\1 l<."1'�rL v .\,, pmc:p.a · 1 reoFan 1 hunbeahc:ac:15 pmc:ra 5eap.e J,rer J,e Ptllelm peoll>e 1 rc:1hc:e €n5 '�'< '<1L� .\I J<.\L� ,:,,,,),, 5epcap.� rp1�c hcFchc 1 r pt�C polbbep.cnl> SJ,ylc co�c com on mannum · j; Fullncah L I .\I J<.\',:,,' on J,am pyp.p.erc:an YFele · pee: 1r on J,aml> 1L ) tt.\ .... "' j; mrenise menn rpulc:on on J,am YFele. s L L cp.un5e· J,ccomon rpa pc beF• v ,:,,. ... 1L , L,'<,:,,, , rtt.\ 1 Anglo-Saxon-9th century AD 5 Early Aramaic-4th century BC 9 Cham-4th to 15th century AD

- ., - .,_,,,. ,WI...... ,,, I -- ;:S � � ;i) e-� � � �, E;>j i )�\.:;.. � cJ··_..\�} i�_, e0 e0 9' .,,. :t -- "-- ee� �liSe- ��ee:i- j,�e.i.) ��a-: � ...2 �_;l:_; �' � v?"l' 1� �i �; .._c-:�If�.,,. 2 Arabic Naskhi-6th century AD 10 Kanarese (and Telugu)-Sth century AD

-=/t. Jfl:1 -HAf XH·A 1·c�t6cLcLJ:..10�-Kt e j:i;{ � ff .3:: .$. z i I.tH ctl>.LfAH E?6.tt.LcL�J,�< 1.:::-. iL JL U JJt -.ll 1Jt ffi .&w � � F-l' d lr��cl,IdHKT�.1dHnid ?�ti ll11 -=--:t::- � � � nm� ?ti .3::. rm ....1�L .LJ1c cbHE o �A? 6.ttJ,cl,tJ, r=,;D ·: b ½ � a .� .l *\ . ' 'f fc�Icl,8I.tctliLf8"ArGAr � g. .g ct,,(ao? o.tE� EJ,?trE-D.8d 1.t:• T � WE -ms � fl� 3 JArabic �L Kufic-7th orclj.=,j? 8th century AD 7 Brah mi-3rd century AD 11 Chinese in k'ai shu form-3rd century AD

W W ,/ ,/ . "\JJ "\11\°t -,-JO"' ,-J':"'Q)r"t'J.. �"\J� "\� H�pm bEi:t m!.&O'"t tl-Ul,. . . < L r�=� "1'j' �re�1 =�ror::: "'""" ,1�� if�r-� �7 r- i;iz . . . !.O"1'Cl>�l «'"TETI� sgmm �l,. "'-=' "°"� "'1-:-- --:'N�1 �OA� !";...., W rtl>��m nmpoc\7R'"TRC tg�m \1- ;"\°t� \ �<"::) 7W 1-JJ nt'"Tnuo;- bttt O"tnISY'"\ «�U' l ...... 7 ZHt ft t-7) �f 7 7"\t-1 :::o-.....:: "'" =�"-' O"� :::�=- r 4 Early Aramaic-8th century BC 8 Buginese-remote past (?) 12 Coptic-3rd century AD

Before "writing" them, the Babylonians drew their of the grooves and have a tendency to become hence theit name cuneiform (36). characters on clay tablets, using a bevelled reed. angular.· Also the scribes had early on made a Although clay had the advantage of being present change in their technique. The Palmyrian alphabet (37) which was used fron in abundance in Babylonia, it suffered the incon­ Instead of scratching the clay, they drew their signs the fourth century BC until the sacking of venience of being poorly adapted to work with a with rapid strokes on the tablet, the read being held Palmyria by Aurelius in 273 AD, is derived from stylus, but what could have replaced it? in the whole hand. The resulting impressions, Aramaic, from which it is distinguished by an The curves, for example, leave smudges on the edge of course, had the characteristic shape of corners, abundance of curves, loops and flourishes.

18 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974

i'tfi'"}'��t-� j tL'fJ'\t- t� • ,- }! 'JqL 8111g1:lrr. Cf,.'t/. '"1111'1/.;,1, 1"E JtJ''*� 1-\J, f 'Y'8 �t, 'Y'2 ;s'tl't{ttt-r: )J1111;s-i cf''t[qnln:m7 I....-nd111L-i.·7[11111-i111 d1111f!.,;s L 'l'tf." If f 'fff Ii'f tj •Qi-0 :J.'ftj 'Jt 't/. "''!�"';s't/.L,t lJ.,..;s.,..r -r:zhL zhm,-i • ''f� M ' 'Y'•j ' * , f )r* r, 1bUI( zh-i-r: dt "t: • J, 1l!.,i! 't 1111 'tf. at 1}1-,: : •j 'i � Ii'' f * 'f' fIi' ' * + -r:-i1d111l,.,..1l!.,_.m,-ittt, ;sr.dlll1(1'tf.;s., 13 Cypriots-5th century BC 17 Georgian-5th century AD 21 Gujarati-2nd century AD .,\N_,\ST�u.€INS _,\I\'_,\I '.� ,<'am �,< � - = c=> snN_,\]ls rntJ,s. sve <=>a .... a'l<.\ � -.m�,-,� ,<":\ )��= • • • �-�I � }I ) Il�_,\11]:GT.,\n. S .J\I i"K il � ,<}n:,.-,, A - J:.J\n�.J\ t?,ns. s.,\e1 1 �111111....;':l,,. �--r -...�'-..::...... ::Tl":\ ,<\s,0,, °'}n_-, ,< v\ D� J:_,\11�.,\ tJ,ns. STIJ5N.J\ I ),�•• �,. m}n.:nl-1 � }n�, ./':,, I 1.-----11 i� 14 Estrangelo-1st century AD 18 Gothic-end of the 4th century AD 22 -circa 3000 BC OlltJD:'ii°llli't11tfLC : P'lr rJAIKINIDCriYAI MnPelCi<[ oO:> 0 � I�! 0 ta.+ll>A f- I 'Pih1:: Ott. •t NOC APX lePeYCL:dAB IO YT, r � G£D 6'f- I bSl-�: 001\ti T: 'ii?°.,. TD IC An OTHCOI KOYM e N �It;=! yP - r� - APArel N OMeN DIC A9AHT � ®� - t,\f• ! (D��-00: P' 6\llt):). CeNOA YTDCKAITDnAAA!t--. tr @ 1-oo"-1.llf- "i �0-l = OD� nPDCKOCMHMACI NKAIT[ I� � l 15 Ethiopian-4th century AD 19 Greek (an inscription of 2nd century BC) 23 Hittite hieroglyphs-circa 1500 BC

::1111AJ,',13i-nl. AInI:tq3J111Al1IO r'n�11i1 ,v� 1'i'1�� i'11i'1' ':)J� _ 'Em,JV, 7m

The Chinese script (11 ), for which there is evidence The rounded shape of Laotian characters (29) is The influence of speed of texts going back almost four thousand years, has determined by both the material and the implement undergone a long graphic evolution. But it was the used. They are written on Latania leaves using a Clearly. the desire to write swiftly brings about brush that was decisive in finally giving the signs style and a flat rule as a guide. changes in the forms of the writing. their angular appearance by which we now know Sinhalese (45) also has recourse to the stylet, but Compare the "cursive" form of Gujarati (21) to them. And this was due to the way in which the the characters are written on palm leaves. the "carefully written" form of Nagari (351, from brush was held in the hand of the user. which it is derived-the horizontal bars forming the

19 Ponot: Six thousand years of writing

' 'V n,..,,,.r-, 'V ---- - JJ:)UU? '?J?truJ?'�nli)lu�:.5 � IJZII1 � �� , , fwJ (-) ??)1_ - - ' §l5w:�u, �.�u$'.2 ?'.2l5� � L11l]1. - - y ._... � -...1.:: ® }1 � '?J?truJ ?D;)urn'.2((lJ:)C1:)UU 0000= G � � (fuJ 25 Iberian-circa 60 BC 29 Laotian-in 9th century form 33 Maya-from 10th to 16th century AD

- (=ID C]= · fil�:JX$=( · 10�] · · · o+�n==·�o·n[=J· ·· ·· · · · =IIX=· fil�:JX$(· 1]0(�= ·O:Jm] >1 \Uh14 � Jl'P1 ,SW LJ'lf ,S1 �U4 1 l:CO==·$""" l:J l�CO=· l:J�.smm . XI IIC� tY� \UUl� ,,, 't' J:> ��j Jrt.51'U=4 �]· l�l ·IXXI I·11nx:J · :O-:-�I· 1001 0·$XX ·11 110=· �X� · :::11-1· 1(�]01 J::414 41.f33 QflJ SL! }SYJVI. ..Sll?J=J

26 Javanese-8th century AD 30 Libyan-2nd or 3rd century AD 34 Nabataean-1st century BC

l,r�� �.,I'"'() �"-,0 ,..,.

MP�V-F;- �,o-,:;-v ,..,. �,=;--M: 1-,,r=r'-11 )1)11ir'J '1f'r '-fTt:, r �r;:;-� ,..,. �� �� ,o� 1�TC1f')1F�Tf')11�fA) F;-V).i;:v ,..,. I\., I F,; o ..,.��-,,....,./ 1!;-o�,,o �� ,..,. ,oe-v,=;- J.i;:- 7ir=tl "l )"'Y\ 1F'1'?) 1ir=tl1F'1'? l,r"rw ...-i"n;,,l,r """�I' F 27 Kharoshthi-3rd century AD 31 Mandaean-3rd century AD 35 Nagari-in 13th century form

s�:;t5�t5sm��� ,1 �2�"" Tf � !s l + .... 4 :r: H � � �� � � (1 - - tE:m: -- ��W� � t5 �US��� ::m==EE E-1- ::m::,grr ::rm .... J' J � 4 ( .... + ((( --U EI!IEJ (::Tt ..;El t' G"n(?0�<':l�IG1����S"2�ffi�G .._, -�. C � �1� �w s1. � l 81 � < lf � *rgy'-l �� .. 28 Khmer-in 14th century form 36 Ninivite cuneiform-circa 3000 BC

tops of the letters have just disappeared. The exceptions that I shall leave unexplained, since varieties of local cursives written from left to right? I have not done enough research into the reasons, Further to be noted is the slant adopted by the are Coptic (12), Palmyrian (37) and Phmnician (40). As for Persian (38) from the end of the fourteenth cursive style of Estrangelo (14), written from right century AD, shown here, it only appears to lean in to left, and Georgian (17), Greek (20), Thai (44), In the case of Kharoshthi (27), the only Indian the opposite direction. It is, in fact, appropriate!y and Tamil (49), written from left to right. script written from right to left, is it not possible to called "suspended writing" (nesta'liq) because postulate a certain copying of Tamil (49), or other each word, written obliquely, starts above the line

20 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974

_jX�'Z..:JI !:JJ �'Z. 't.X!P �'t. J n �.H � @® <523i@063��6z<@<�oC�@03i - o� :::s)e)<5) X)J � r-:J�i6!1XX't.X)'Z.JJ't.W ��0� [email protected]� @c) )' ;:itQY\'t., rr-"'f )' Y\i,ox J'v't.i, r-J!:/'t.i -z.J,3�xxx �x �zj s5�. 0© @zl:®8 <8c® l-5� !:l 8©@c.o®. cc8 c.oro(5)m cm©© 8© '\f\Y\Xr-07'{_, Jr-''J )' OX/\AX ) -z. 3 't. n-\)XJ 't. x, 't.-J) 3, �n a5:lC ©© �zcdwe:i0:i @Cl CSJrro ��888 't.jj 't. 'v .::J 'Z.X) X't.S ..l!:1S 'l..:l/ jO't.,Qf'- )' X /\/101\'(_, X'L'/1) ' 0d' 8© ro@e) s©w. qo @\(�·a5) ct.:€ 37 Palmyrian-from 9th century BC to 272 AD 41 Punic-146 BC 45 Sinhalese-3rd century BC

Hl\r::H'1�r� - K'h OHO Kp1il\\A. npHAE MICO\(C'h 61, rpd,i.1, f I '11-.. · Hr::��· r Mr::fr::� f M I\X Go\[X4p1..61\H3'h Kl.CH ht\it-E ,\dCTI. 111l1K06'h ;t;E TO\( CT.t.AEIII.IJI. 111l1KO!il\1,. Hie M��MI\IX h'li n.t.TH C1iA1idWE TdKO 114 CT.t.AElll.1)11, f0,\111 Hl:11ti IXtrl M J1X��M H J11 � �J1�J1X,.l I J1 Ilp11.i.E ;t;Elld OT'h GM\dpHlit no4p11T'h 6C 1 �r 1'� n � 1> 1' �1'� � I\ h � �, D �,. Ad;t;AI. fl\11 mtTlt. - 1 �" �rt.I�n1>1n1>1, �r1n1 ri ��· Mh oy4e111t1JH &o 1Ero owi.1\11 &1.ax.t. ll'L r p, 38 Persian-end of the 14th century 42 Runic-1st century AD 46 Slavonic-9th century AD

� . ,x.!:,11t�l.fo. �'X.�flf• ��e. �-- .._ � • 2.. !:I e. : 'X. !J � 2..?;;,,!:I qe.. � b,x. f,CDl',no�t,olnn. . . . . X /ia>Ii, no� /ia>IIi n nIY1o n I 'iXn A nl ��fo. e.�<$� . flf"'$,._/'V . �fo � '!::l�'X.flf'X.' �'X.�flf. 'X.���flf na>DX&on ID 'ill/iXI Ii nna>I i.,y l)IJ n Ii tvf'lfo. q!:J,X.: �!::le.f'l!::I�·,x.!JZ. n a>Ii,y n 11 /iol>fYI na>Ii,) 8111 X InH a>I ll !111te.e.Z.e.. �flt�• !J!Jz.. �e. All)llHll I 'inlol>f Y)ll H la>Yn Ii Ina>l)X

39 Phags-pa-13th century AD 43 Samaritan-circa 900 BC 47 Southern Arabic-6th century BC

' ...,.. �

40 Classical Phoenician-circa 13th century BC 44 Siamese-after the 5th century AD 48 Syraic-1st century AD

to finish below it, so that the downward movement then read from right to left. not need explaining, but doubtless it was not useless prevails over the forward one. to show that their beauty is not the mere triumph An aesthetic function of efficiency of ingenuity or fantasy. It is that beauty born of a Finally, Syriac (48), also called Jacobite, assumed gesture that must conquer in order to convince. its particular appearance of a script inverted Have I said enough to make it clear that the Curiosity aroused by the sight of so many signs towards the left for a similar reason: the scribes diversity of written forms has nothing gratuitous different from our own, can all too often give rise wrote the signs from top to bottom and they were about it? Their beauty, which speaks for itself, does to a feeling of condescension, or superiority. Ponot: Six thousand years of writing This article was first published in How to design in Chinese French in the magazine 'Communication et Langage', and (without really being able = are grateful to them and the to read it) author for their permission to publish this translation Henry Steiner

The designs shown in this article were And yet their effectiveness is not to r be questioned. Some are familiar to diJi> y.-nL;@&)mw-Qur ;l>GJ'ur,0'i done by me during the past few years, millions of people, to whom our employing Chinese characters. twenty-six letters seem equally cf,j!) i9 m16"lf) (ttLJ - Q 6)Jj!) i9 �6"lf) I � mysterious. Since they are known to JD I have been practising in Hong Kong everyone, two last examples will for a dozen years and have used .!!)l provide a suitable conclusion for me. kJP-1ruG! di ®® w-ya.;�Q u ® e;,i Chinese typography or calligraphy on many projects either because we were 365 Muslims, of whom only 65 atD 6l/sl)ffi/5_gjJw-rlr'f�@® dif!JL.f communicating to a Chinese-reading millions, take note, have Arabic as a audience, or because of their mother tongue, read and write aff,rrj;jjlrrwrru9� -&lifti ffelLJ rr/EJdi appropriateness, or because of their Arabic (when they are I iterate). J exotic flavour. () 0 0 r't /§1Wffi di a-sT \.91 6cflfl �T -d)/ffiJD tLJ, The problem of China is more dtf.fb In the accompanying examples, it will be noted that the same devices apply complex. The script is made up of 49 Tamil-19th century stylization such a large number of signs that the which one would employ in designing average person does not have the with European typography. time to learn how to use them. Among these are; contrast of size or Of the 50,000 to 80,000 that have texture or style, emphasis through - colour, substitution of pictures for been used over the years, 8,000 are ...... still in use at present, of which """ T T letters. 1,000 are needed for basic reading. ,;Lr\ z It is thus all too clear, but none the � T T ,;�r�r; It is difficult, if not impossible, to less true for all that, that for 750 combine sizeable areas of Chinese and English text on one page in a visually million Chinese to be able to read T T T T T � � � satisfactory manner, and I avoid it and write is to be able to decipher � � tjq and draw these characters. 5 whenever possible. But it is feasible in very small doses and in some of the illustrations can be noted combin­ ations using either harmony or contrast.

Chinese characters are, however, a joy 50 Tibetan-7th century AD for the designer used to the disciplines of European typography. They can be set vertically, or _ horizontally, reading either left-to­ 't• _ _ I . I .IO::>Tifinagh-1st century AD sixty-five ancient or modern scripts. The author and icographic extend their thanks to the Director of the .\1 "" -»"" "" State Press for having given them �.,.,1.,,,.,,1 · �Q,)1 • "';'4,K, \\J e) • � "" permission to take out the o illustrations in th is study from their o o sample work entitled The Engraving ;E\Y. � . .,.,d,>, ·eJJd,Jt ·"""Y Room of the State Press, 0 (Paris 1963). JJ, . �""" 0 0 , • ""l.»J.IJ�� 2 Etiemble, Marcel Cohen, in /'Art de l'ecriture Unesco Exhibition of ��J,t.,» · -"'\V""b' • l!l) 50 pictures, 1965) ,.,.,1.,,,.,,1 · 3 Pei, Mario A: The World's Chief »£� . ""'"''£1-"'('4""" . ...,)('4�)d,J5 Languages (Allen and Unwin, 1949) 52 Avestic Zand-13th century AD 4 Doblhofer, E: le Dechiffrement des ecritures (Paris, Arthaud, 1959)

5 A printing type has on its upper face (or surface face), the type face Right hand : or reproduction sign in relief and Lavatory signs. Most Chinese in reverse. The type face, or characters have too many strokes to printing part, can thus more or less adapt to the dotted alphabet that completely take up the surface I designed for this building's graphics face according to its shape This is a case of pure luck

22 icographic 8, 1974 icographic 8, 1974 Author's address: Graphic Communication Ltd Printing House 6 Duddell Street, Hong Kong

Left hand illustration: Many complex Chinese ideographs are built up of simpler ones. In this logo for a Japanese antique dealer, the character 'Sumi' contains within it the second character of the name 'Sumi Da.' Thechange of colour brings it out of hiding as can be seen on the front cover of this journal

Right hand illustration: A tin for peanut oil. The three radical strokes of the character for 'oil' have been replaced by photo· graphs of peanuts. Thus the composite ideogram communicates instantly to the Chinese clientele for whom this package was designed

Right hand illustration: The Chinese number 3, consisting obviously of three strokes, makes a perfectly legible date in this greeting card

Left hand illustration: A section of the New Testament in Chinese with the characters meaning = 'Peace on Earth' enlarged in the left -··r-.,..1-Jkw,-...,r.,1,4•(- 1..tlt�h...,. panel. The squareness of Chinese - typography gives this Christmas card its visual harmony

Right hand illustration: The character meaning 'jade' somewaht resembles the capital letter E, which it replaces in this logo fora jeweller

Left hand illustration: The common outline and the Helvetica· like design of the Chinese characters gives a unity to this exit sign-part of a set of architectural graphics

Right hand illustration: The cover of an annual report for a Hong Kong newspaper. The report was done in Chinese throughout and took full advantage of the characteristics of Chinese typography. The title runs vertically (the ability to do this must make European designers envious) and in keeping with tradition the report opens from the left-or what in many areas would be considered 'the back of the book.' Is one of the family a friend of yours?

So one's an old friend. All five of our branded lines are friends Let's see why. of somebody. So if you can rely on one, you First you like the way the paper runs. can rely on the lot! Fast. Trouble-free. It's because we're not a giant that we can Well it must to remain such an old friend. make such a statement. Then you get the product when you need it. Big enough to make five national names. Which must mean your paper stockist is But not big enough to lose control on qua I ity on-the-ball. from making to making. No·ne of this happens by chance. So how about meeting four new friends Culter Guard Bridge make papers that from Culter Guard Bridge? print for maximum impact. And picks a Not all at once of course. Just when stockist who answers your phone with a fast you need them from your nearest stockist. delivery of Hi-Fidelity Art. We supply so many there's bound to be That's not your old friend? one in your neighbourhood. That's just the point.

1111Papermakers I

! ICOGRADA

The International Council of Graphic Design Associations was founded in London in April 1963. ICOGRADA is an association of independent Member Associations. Membership is open to societies of professional graphic designers and organisations concerned with the training of designers and/or the raising of graphic design standards. Member associations are elected at the biennial General Assembly, which elects also the Executive Board, determines policy and over­ all activities and agrees financial arrangements.

The aims of ICOGRADA are:

to raise internationally the standards of graphic design and professional practice by all practicable means. 2 to collect and exchange information on professional, educational and technical matters. 3 to improve graphic design training and to assist the interchange between countries of graphic designers, teachers and students. 4 to organise exhibitions, international assemblies, congresses and symposia and publish documentation on graptiic design and visual communications technology, including a News Bulletin. 5 to act as an international forum for co-operation and exchange of views between designers, organisations representing professionals from allied and other fields and those of commerce and industry. 6 to encourage the betteruse of graphic design and visual communication as a means to improve understanding between people everywhere.

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