Art in letter form

“Art in letter form begins where geometry ends.”

—Paul Standard; quoted by Edward Rondthaler in Life with Letters, as they turned photogenic, 1981.

Anybody can draw one letter

“Anybody can draw one letter; some people can draw two; but it takes a real designer to draw three.”

—Harry Payne; quoted by Edward Rondthaler in Life with Letters, as they turned photogenic, 1981.

All must be in tune

“I look for unevenness, for letters that are over- or under-weight, for any inconsistencies that might flag the flavor. Every letter must be independently legible so that if it is seen out of context it will not be misread. Finally the entire alphabet must be ‘in tune.’. . .
    The oboe is the first instrument you hear when a symphony orchestra begins to ‘tune up.’ The oboe gives the pitch. It has great penetration and can easily be heard by all the other instruments. Now comes a surprising coincidence: the letters O B E in the word OBOE and the lowercase letters o b e —or preferably o d e —are, by the nature of their design, key letters that give the pitch to which other letters of the alphabet may be tuned. O B E and o d e carry a big load in determining the character of a style. They are not dramatic shapes like a or g or s, but they sound the pitch clearly. First they must be in tune with each other, then the remaining letters should be in design harmony or in artistic balance with these three. All must be in tune.”

—Edward Rondthaler, Life with Letters, as they turned photogenic, 1981.

[I]f the alphabet is your hobby

“[I]f the alphabet is your hobby you’re in the best company of all: Aristotle, Plato, Shakespeare, Gutenberg, King James, Samuel Johnson, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, A. Lincoln, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Zapf, Eugene Ettenberg, Norman Cousins, Tom Wicker, Winston Churchill, and Franklin Roosevelt too—all of them and many other greats have shown their expertise in using the alphabet superbly.”

—Edward Rondthaler, Life with Letters, as they turned photogenic, 1981.

she lived too Fast

Please enjoy for a few moments the luxurious lettering of a time
gone by. . . . I noticed while I was assembling the previous post that
my selections
tended towards the cleaner, more ‘progressive’ international style that
would come to prominence in the United States in the 1960s. This bolder
and squarer
modern style is actually rather scarce in the catalog, which, in
general, fairly revels in the flair for frippery that the ’50s are
famous for. So here’s a second helping of specimens from the same
1955 Photo-Lettering catalog.

Life with Letters

These type specimens were gathered from an 18-page reproduction of a 1955 Photo-Lettering catalog in Life with Letters, as they turned photogenic by
Edward Rondthaler, 1981. In 1955, as Ed puts it, ‘[p]hotographic lettering
was still so new that many art directors were unaware of its potential
or skeptical of its viability.’ Nevertheless, photo-typesetting proved
to be that medium that carried a tradition of typographic excellence from the era of metal type into
the digital age.

a sparkling with rings

“‘Now, missis, she wanted me to do dis way, and she wanted me to do dat way; and finally I got kinder sarcy, and says I, “Now, missis, do jest look at dem beautiful white hands o’ yourn, with long fingers, and all a sparkling with rings, like my white lilies when de dew’s on ’em; and look at my great black stumpin’ hands. Now, don’t ye think dat de Lord must have meant me to make de pie-crust, and you to stay in de parlour?”’”

—Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 1852.

The symbol-making function

“The symbol-making function is one of man’s primary activities, like
eating, looking, or moving about. It is the fundamental process of the
mind, and goes on all the time.”

—Susanne K. Langer; quoted in Language in Thought & Action by S.I. Hayakawa, 1940.

the use of symbols

“Man’s achievements rest upon the use of symbols.”

—Alfred Korzybski; quoted in Language in Thought & Action by S.I. Hayakawa, 1940.