Thinking with type

HUMANISM AND THE BODY

In fifteenth-century Italy, humanist writers and scholars rejected gothic scripts in favor of the lettera antica, a classical mode of handwriting with wider, more open forms. The preference for lettera antica was part of the Renaissance (rebirth) of classical art and literature. Nicolas Jenson, a Frenchman who had learned to print in Germany, established an influential printing firm in Venice around 1469. His typefaces merged the gothic traditions he had known in France and Germany with the Italian taste for rounder, lighter forms. They are considered among the first—and finest—roman typefaces.

Many fonts we use today, including Garamond, Bembo, Palatino, and Jenson, are named for printers who worked in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These typefaces are generally known as “humanist.”Contemporary revivals of historical fonts are designed to conform with modern technologies and current demands for sharpness and uniformity. Each revival responds to—or reacts against—the production methods, printing styles, and artistic habits of its own time. Some revivals are based on metal types, punches, or drawings that still exist; most rely solely on printed specimens.

Italic letters, also introduced in fifteenth-century Italy (as their name suggests), were modeled on a more casual style of handwriting. While the upright humanist scripts appeared in prestigious, expensively produced books, the cursive form was used by the cheaper writing shops, where it could be written more rapidly than the carefully formed lettera antica. Aldus Manutius was a Venetian printer, publisher, and scholar who used italic typefaces in his internationally distributed series of small, inexpensive books. The cursive form saved money because it saved space. Aldus Manutius’s books often paired cursive letters with roman capitals; the two styles still were considered fundamentally distinct.

In the sixteenth century, printers began integrating roman and italic forms into type families with matching weights and x-heights (the height of the main body of the lowerface letter). Today, the italic style in most fonts is not simply a slanted version of the roman; it incorporates the curves, angles, and narrower proportions associated with cursive forms.

free advice

Think more, design less.

Many desperate acts of design (including gradients, drop shadows, and the gratuitous use of transparency) are perpetrated in the absence of a strong concept. A good idea provides a framework for design decisions, guiding the work.

Say more, write less.

Just as designers should avoid filling up space with arbitrary visual effects, writers should remember that no one loves their words as much as they do.

Spend more, buy less.

Cheap stuff is usually cheap because of how it’s made, what it's made of, and who made it. Buy better quality goods, less often.

May your thoughts be deep and your wounds be shallow.

Always work with a sharp blade. Although graphic design is not a terribly dangerous occupation, many late-night accidents occur involving dull X-Acto blades. Protect your printouts from senseless bloodshed.

Density is the new white space.

In an era of exurban sprawl, closely knit neighborhoods have renewed appeal. So, too, on page and screen, where a rich texture of information can function better than sparseness and isolation.

Make the shoe fit, not the foot.

Rather than force content into rigid containers, create systems that are flexible and responsive to the material they are intended to accommodate.

Make it bigger.

Amateur typographers make their type too big. The 12-point default which looks okay on the screen—often looks horsey on the page. Experienced designers, however, make their type too tiny.