It was an interesting read, although it was rather long and I suffer from a shortened attention span of late. The article went into an explanation as to the difference between Typography and Lettering, Lettering being drawn elements of type (whether by hand, in a computer program, etc.) not traditionally developed for the use in actual printing. So basically it's like when you made the word "Mom" all pretty and curly and whatnot on your Mother's Day cards as a child because you thought it looked pretty and hoped she would too (although my mom didn't care either way). Whereas with Typography, it deals moreso with the aspects of how a typeface interacts together and how to arrange it with the idea of making legible print or online type for the purposes of reading.
The history lesson was interesting, although some of it I knew before. I honestly wish I could have seen more examples of Illuminated manuscripts. I follow a couple history blogs on Tumblr and a couple of artists who still do illuminated manuscripts, and I have to say those things are absolutely beautiful. Doing something like that requires so much patience and skill, I don't know if I could possibly possess any of that.
I did hear about the illuminated manuscript of the bible that was recently completed, though. I was pretty sure they had it on the Today show a couple of months ago, and I was just constantly amazed by what all they did with the materials and how beautiful it looked.
Anyway, the second part of the journal entry was to find hand-lettering we find inspiring from the links in the blog and upload them onto here and talk about what we liked about them, so here we go:
NOTE: Funnily enough, some of these blogs are actually run through tumblr, so guess what I'll be following?
- I found these absolutely beautiful. The idea of sitting there and basically imprinting onto the paper to give it dimension with that slight pop of color is just astounding. I'm very much a sucker for decoratively curled ascenders and descenders, so seeing lettering like this is really alluring to me. I think what I like best from this example is the fact that the negative space is what I pay attention to most. It's like those raised forms are what are creating the letter-forms instead of the imprint and ink.
- I'm also very fond of this one here. I like the idea of taking old-styled lettering and updating them with some flourishes. Once again I'm also heavily drawn to the negative spacing in the letters, and the raised and imprinted surfaces of the paper. I can't say much in terms of things like ascenders or descenders as the examples don't have much in terms of that, and since they're not side by side I can't comment on things like x-heights or whatnot either, but they are extremely visually appealing to me. I'd probably use them on something like invitations to parties or as the lettering into leather-bound diaries.
- I like Simon Walker's piece for Gold Top Cider on his portfolio page here. I always felt like condensed fonts commanded so much more attention than just giving something a bold element , and the slight shadowing to the characters with the different colored shadows emphasizes them well to me. My only issue with condensed typefaces is the fact that they're so much harder to adjust and use when you're creating things around them. You almost have to restrict yourself to smaller spaces so they feel effective.
- I'm also fond of this font here, by Claire Coullon. I noticed throughout most of her typeface examples that she has elements within them that connect them in certain places, almost like it's a signature to her. But I thought this particular typeface was effective with the connection of the elements in the characters with bowls and such. The connections seem almost flawless between the two, like someone who is doing calligraphy but without that unnecessary sharp edge to it.
I ended up bookmarking the article, because I find the links relevant and I like looking at other people's work to inspire me. It was a good read, and I found a new blog to follow on Tumblr, so I'm happy.
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