the cancelleresca script

”An important humanist and scholar of the Italian Renaissance, Aldus Manutius, established a printing press in Venice at the age of forty-five to realize his vision of publishing the major works of the great thinkers of the Greek and Roman worlds. . . .
In 1501 Manutius addressed the need for smaller, more economical books by publishing the prototype of the pocket book. . . . [This] was set in the first italic type font. . . . Italic was closely modeled on the cancelleresca script, a slanted handwriting style that found favor among scholars, who liked its writing speed and informality.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

the spaces between the letters

“It was not Florence, where the wealthy Medicis scorned printing as inferior to manuscript books, but Venice . . . that led the way in Italian typographic book design. A Mainz goldsmith, Johannes de Spira, was given a five-year monopoly on printing in Venice, publishing his first book . . . in 1469. . . .
Nicolas Jenson, who had been Master of the Royal Mint of Tours, France, was a highly skilled cutter of dies used for striking coin. He established Venice’s second press shortly after de Spira’s death. . . .
Part of the lasting influence of Jenson’s fonts is their extreme legibility, but it was his ability to design the spaces between the letters and within each form to create an even tone throughout the page that placed the mark of genius on this work. The characters in Jenson’s fonts aligned more perfectly than those of any other printer of his time.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

the evolution of alphabet design

“In 1498 [Albrecht] D’rer published Latin and German editions of The Apocalypse illustrated by his monumental sequence of fifteen woodcuts. . . . D’rer’s Apocalypse has an unprecedented emotional power and graphic expressiveness. . . . At age twenty-seven, D’rer earned reknown throughout Europe. . . .
His first book [as an author], Underweisung der Messung mit dem Zirckel unt Richtscheyt (A Course in the Art of Measurement with Compass and Ruler), [was published] in 1525. . . . The third chapter explains the application of geometry to architecture, decoration, engineering, and letterforms. D’rer’s beautifully proportioned Roman capitals, with clear instructions for their composition, contributed significantly to the evolution of alphabet design. Relating each letter to the square, D’rer worked out a construction method using a one-to ten ratio of the heavy stroke width to height. This is the approximate proportion of the Trajan alphabet, but D’rer did not base his designs on any single source. Recognizing the value of art and perception as well as geometry, he advised his readers that certain construction faults could only be corrected by a sensitive eye and trained hand.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

Why is Pink a Girl Color and Blue a Boy Color?

Gothic lettering

“The Book of Revelation had a surge of unexplained popularity in England and France during the 1200s. A scriptorium at Saint Albans with high artistic standards seems to have figured prominently in this development. At least ninety-three copies of the Apocalypse survive from this period. . . .
The Douce Apocalypse, written and illustrated around A.D. 1265 is one of the many masterpieces of Gothic illumination. . . . The scribe used a lettering style whose repetition of verticals capped with pointed serifs has been compared to a picket fence. Textura (from the Latin texturum, meaning woven fabric or texture) is the favored name for this dominant mode of Gothic lettering. Other terms, such as . . . the English blackletter . . . are vague and misleading. During its time, textura was called littera moderna (Latin for “modern lettering”).”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

The value of a book

”In 1424, only 122 manuscript books resided in the university library at Cambridge, England, and the library of a wealthy nobleman whose books were his most prized and sought-after possessions probably numbered less than two dozen volumes. The value of a book was equal to the value of a farm or vineyard.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

The games of kings

“The origins of woodblock printing in Europe are shrouded in mystery. . . . Playing cards and religious-image prints were early manifestations. . . . Card playing was popular, and in spite of being outlawed and denounced by zealous clergy, this pastime stimulated a thriving underground block-printing industry, possible before 1400. . . . Playing cards were the first printed pieces to move into an illiterate culture, making them the earliest European manifestation of printing’s democratizing ability. The games of kings could now become the games of peasants and craftsmen.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

The watermark

“The watermark, a translucent emblem produced by pressure from a raised design on the mold and visible when the sheet of paper is held to the light, was used in Italy by 1282. The origin of this design device is unknown. Trademarks for paper mills, individual craftsmen, and perhaps religious symbolism were early uses. As successful marks were imitated, they began to be used as a designation for sheet and mold sizes and paper grade. Mermaids, unicorns, animals, flowers, and heraldic shields were frequent design motifs.”

—Phil Meggs & Alston Purvis, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 2006.

On the Road: The Original Scroll

the pearl was there

“[Neal] and I suddenly saw the whole country like an oyster for us to open; and the pearl was there, the pearl was there.”

—Jack Kerouac, On the Road: The Original Scroll, 2007.