Typography confronts us everywhere: in books and newspapers, on road signs, product packaging and political leaflets. It is ubiquitous to the point of mundanity. But while the typeface might be secondary to the message, it remains crucial to the way we respond. Fonts spark emotions; they evoke eras and ideologies. Some, like Edward Johnson's for the London Underground, have become iconic. Others, like comic sans, are loathed. Each one has its own place in history. The ABC of Typography traces 3,500 years of type, from Sumerian pictographs, through Roman calligraphy, to Gutenberg, the Bauhaus and beyond. Brimming with insight and anecdote, this witty and well-informed graphic guide explores the historical, technological and cultural shifts that have defined the look of the words we read, as well as introducing the artists who have marked typography's long history.

A charming and indispensable tour of two thousand years of the written word, Shady Characters weaves a fascinating trail across the parallel histories of language and typography.

Whether investigating the asterisk (*) and dagger ( ) which alternately illuminated and skewered heretical verses of the early Bible or the at sign (@), which languished in obscurity for centuries until rescued by the Internet, Keith Houston draws on myriad sources to chart the life and times of these enigmatic squiggles, both exotic (

) and everyday (&).

From the Library of Alexandria to the halls of Bell Labs, figures as diverse as Charlemagne, Vladimir Nabokov, and George W. Bush cross paths with marks as obscure as the interrobang (?) and as divisive as the dash ( ). Ancient Roman graffiti, Venetian trading shorthand, Cold War double agents, and Madison Avenue round out an ever more diverse set of episodes, characters, and artifacts.

Richly illustrated, ranging across time, typographies, and countries, Shady Characters will delight and entertain all who cherish the unpredictable and surprising in the writing life."

Few have left a deeper impression on the world of typography than Jan Tschichold (1902-74), one of the most outstanding and influential designers of the 20th century. Not only was he was a master in his field, but he wrote a number of highly influential books and became instrumental in promoting the modernist design strategy called the New Typography. This substantial volume covers Tschichold's life and career, placing the designer's vision firmly in the rich cultural and historical context of his era. Tschichold embraced avant-garde ideas from movements such as the Bauhaus and De Stijl and made them accessible to working designers and printers, stressing clarity in communication, with form and function going hand in hand. The contributing writers discuss the designer's major influences and the highlights of his varied career, including his seminal poster designs, his groundbreaking work with Penguin Books, and his creation of the classic typeface Sabon. Lavish illustrations - archive photographs, many published here for the first time, as well as copious examples of Tschichold's work - accompany the text, confirming that Tschichold's heritage lives on in the digital age, and proving that he is amongst the greatest typographic designers ever.

Insightful quotes written in Tibetan calligraphy are paired with photos of Buddhas from around the world to create this collection of timeless iconography. Calligraphy has held an honored place in the spiritual traditions of Tibet. Monks dedicate their lives to mastering the many subtleties of the art, often spending years transcribing sacred Buddhist manuscripts. The carefully composed lines and deliberate spatial awareness in each work of calligraphy within Sacred Scripts encourage reflection, mindfulness, and meditation. Within these pages, sacred mantras, seed syllables, and Buddhist quotes are presented in authentic Tibetan scripts. Photos of Buddha statues from around the world complement the calligraphy and create an ethereal mood of serenity. Addressing the stresses of our modern world and the demise of spiritual languages, Sacred Scripts provides insight and inspiration for attaining inner peace and well-being.

This book is a pioneering study of temporal typography and time-based calligraphic art written in the Arabic system of writing. Inspired by the innate qualities of Arabic script as well as certain practices in Islamic calligraphy and contemporary calligraphic art, the book devises five broad categories of temporal behaviors for Arabic characters in time-based media. It goes onto expand the vocabulary used to describe Arabic script's appearance in time-based media and proposes a theory to help artists, practitioners, and theoreticians push the boundaries of temporal text-based art. Furthermore, it tackles questions of legibility and readability, and seeks to understand how temporality of Arabic text influences the creation of meaning. This book will therefore appeal not only to animators, designers, and artists, but also to commentators and scholars who deal with temporal text-based art written in Arabic script.

'Takenobu Igarashi is a master-mentor who taught me the ABCs of form (and life)' John Maeda In the mid-1970s designer Takenobu Igarashi began a prolific, decade-long exploration into possibilities of three-dimensional typography. His first experiments with axonometric lettering appeared on magazine covers, posters, and record sleeves - taking influence from the avant garde typography of the 1920s but rendered afresh as bold sculptural letterforms. Timeless, arresting, and technically dazzling, Igarashi's signature style demonstrates a mastery of three-dimensional type and perspective draftsmanship, refined long before the introduction of computers into the design industry. A to Z offers an exhaustive guide to Igarashi's experiments with typography, featuring not only his celebrated print and physical works - many photographed specially for this publication - but also a first look, using never before seen archival work, at the plans, drawings and production drafts behind his iconic works. Spanning early print works, hand-drawn experiments, self-initiated sculptural pieces, and highprofile 3D identities for a range of international clients and institutions, A to Z is a long overdue overview of one of the most revered but least celebrated graphic designers of the 20th century.

In the ambitious dream of a futurist reconstruction of the universe pursued by the movement founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, which ranged from the arts to the most diverse aspects of life, the renewal of postal communication methods also found its place, with proposals that covered the entire sector, from postcards to letterheads and envelopes, from stamps to interpersonal correspondence. Futurism, in fact, has not limited itself to using the post office network to spread its ideas in every part of the world, but also created a new postal style, conceiving many solutions of modern graphics and even post-postal correspondence via computer and cell phone, made up of synthesis, laconicity, conventional symbolism and abbreviations. The book explores this little-known chapter of Futurism through the material of the Echaurren Salaris Collection, the richest in the world with regard to magazines, posters, books and futurist documents, as well as an indispensable reference for the knowledge of this movement. Text in English and Italian.

This comprehensive collection offers a thorough overview of typeface design from 1628 to the mid-20th century. Derived from a distinguished Dutch collection, a series of exquisitely designed catalogues traces the evolution of the printed letter via specimens in roman, italic, bold, semibold, narrow, and broad fonts. Borders, ornaments, initial letters, and decorations are also included, along with lithographic examples, letters by sign writers, inscription carvers, and calligraphers. The first part of the book covers pre-20th-century typefaces, with texts by editor Cees de Jong and collector Jan Tholenaar. The second part deals with the period from 1900 to the mid-20th century, and contains a historical outline by Alston W. Purvis. Featured type designers include: William Caslon, Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke, Peter Behrens, Rudolf Koch, Eric Gill, Jan van Krimpen, Paul Renner, Jan Tschichold, A. M. Cassandre, Aldo Novarese, and Adrian Frutiger.

Providing oodles of inspiration and hours of fun, this is the go-to book for fans of hand-lettering and calligraphy. Beginners can start right from the basics and follow step-by-step tutorials on letter formation, spacing, design, and embellishments before moving on to recreate 40 alphabets in a range of styles, from elegant scripts to modern geometric forms and charming, quirky letters. Use your skills to add a personal touch to everything from invitations to scrapbooks, doodles to wedding stationery and journals to posters. Accompanied by over 75 full colour illustrations, this book offers hours of fun and oodles of inspiration for hand-lettering beginners and experts alike.

Winners of the annual international Graphis Design Awards Immerse in a powerful visual journey through the eyes of over 500 award-winning graphic designers from around the globe. In one of the most coveted industry award competitions, Graphis Design 2023 celebrates design excellence through the captivating and influential work of the past year from solo designers and global firms. Juried by acclaimed international designers, these works can be seen across animation, branding, books, entertainment, packaging, posters, product design and other disciplines. This inspiring collection of work revolves around all categories of graphic design, demonstrating once again the importance of design in culture, commerce, and lifestyle. Read about the creative process from Platinum and Gold Winners regarding their assignments and the approaches they took to reach their award-winning solutions. This book is essential for designers, art/creative directors, illustrators, design firms, advertising agencies, professors, students, and all creators alike who share a passion for design. Featuring fine art quality print, full-page images of Platinum and Gold Award-winning work, Silver Award-winning work and Honorable Mentions are also presented. Honorees include Platinum winners Mike Hughes (Mike Hughes Creative Direction + Design) from Canada, Vishal Vora (Sol Benito) from India, Hoon-Dong Chung (Dankook University) from South Korea, Ivan Bell (Stranger&Stranger) from the U.K. and U.S., and ARSONAL, Jim Ma (Bailey Lauerman), Carmit Makler Haller (Carmit Design Studio), Clinton Carlson (Clinton Carlson Design), INNOCEAN USA, Trevitt McCandliss and Nancy Campbell (McCandliss & Campbell/Wainscot Media), PepsiCo Design & Innovation, and Antonio Alcala (Studio A) from the U.S.

This book is concerned with the eighteenth-century typographer, printer, industrialist and Enlightenment figure, John Baskerville (1707-75). Baskerville was a Birmingham inventor, entrepreneur and artist with a worldwide reputation who made eighteenth-century Birmingham a city without typographic equal, by changing the course of type design. Baskerville not only designed one of the world's most historically important typefaces, he also experimented with casting and setting type, improved the construction of the printing-press, developed a new kind of paper and refined the quality of printing inks. His typographic experiments put him ahead of his time, had an international impact and did much to enhance the printing and publishing industries of his day. Yet despite his importance, fame and influence many aspects of Baskerville's work and life remain unexplored and his contribution to the arts, industry, culture and society of the Enlightenment are largely unrecognized. Moreover, recent scholarly research in archaeology, art and design, history, literary studies and typography, is leading to a fundamental reassessment of many aspects of Baskerville's life and impact, including his birthplace, his work as an industrialist, the networks which sustained him and the reception of his printing in Britain and overseas. The last major, but inadequate publication of Baskerville dates from 1975. Now, forty years on, the time is ripe for a new book. This interdisciplinary approach provides an original contribution to printing history, eighteenth-century studies and the dissemination of ideas.

Beautifully illustrated with a covetable rose gold foil cover, Modern Calligraphy is a step-by-step workbook for those wanting to learn this super trendy form of lettering. Written by Lucy Edmonds, the founder of Quill London, the book will guide readers through the first steps of pointed pen calligraphy, encouraging you to spend an hour a week developing and practicing the new skill. Designed for complete beginners, the book offers tips, tricks and techniques on the materials required and how to use them properly, how to approach the modern calligraphy letterforms, and most importantly explores ways to develop our own modern calligraphy style. You'll learn about inks and how to make your own, brush calligraphy, and what you can do with your new skill - from envelope addressing and event stationery to beautiful dinner party menus and gift tags.

In this beautiful and extraordinary zen calligraphy book, Shozo Sato, an internationally recognized master of traditional Zen arts, teaches the art of Japanese calligraphy through the power and wisdom of Zen poetry. Single-line Zen Buddhist koan aphorisms, or zengo, are one of the most common subjects for the traditional Japanese brush calligraphy known as shodo. Regarded as one of the key disciplines in fostering the focused, meditative state of mind so essential to Zen, shodo calligraphy is practiced regularly by all students of Zen Buddhism in Japan. After providing a brief history of Japanese calligraphy and its close relationship with the teachings of Zen Buddhism, Sato explains the necessary supplies and fundamental brushstroke skills that you'll need. He goes on to present thirty zengo, each featuring: An example by a skilled Zen monk or master calligrapher An explanation of the individual characters and the Zen koan as a whole Step-by-step instructions on how to paint the phrase in a number of styles (Kaisho, Gyosho, Sosho) A stunning volume on the intersection of Japanese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist thought, Shodo: The Quiet Art of Japanese Zen Calligraphy guides both beginning and advanced students to a deeper understanding of the unique brush painting art form of shodo calligraphy. Shodo calligraphy topics include: The Art of Kanji The Four Treasures of Shodo Ideogram Zengo Students of Shodo

Now back in print, "the ultimate book-lover's gift book" (Los Angeles Times) In 1561-62 the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay (died 1575), imperial secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created Mira calligraphiae monumenta (Model Book of Calligraphy) as a demonstration of his own preeminence among scribes. Some thirty years later, Ferdinand's grandson, the Emperor Rudolf II, commissioned Europe's last great manuscript illuminator, Joris Hoefnagel (1542-1600), to embellish the work. The resulting book is at once a treasury of extraordinary beauty and a landmark in the cultural debate between word and image. Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historical scripts for a work that summarized all that had been learned about writing to date-a testament to the universal power of the written word. Hoefnagel, desiring to prove the superiority of his art over Bocskay's words, employed every resource of illusionism, color, and form to devise all manner of brilliant grotesques, from flowers, fruit, insects, and animals to monsters and masks.

This volume catalogues manuscripts from and in Wales.

Attractive sourcebook of copyright-free, immediately usable typefaces recalls old-fashioned print styles found on posters and broadsides. Includes eerie Monster Outline, Raindrops and Wilcox Initials; the glamorous Diamond Inlay, Startime, Golden Era and much more. Varied sizes; mostly tall, fat and bold shapes.

Type designers are fanatical; living, breathing and eating type as they strive to create fonts capable of withstanding the test of time. This new book aims to be the definitive resource for aspiring typographers with profiles and interviews of ten internationally renowned typeface designers on the state of typography. While they work with different alphabets or characters - Roman, Cyrillic and Chinese - they share a common bond as they work to improve visual communication. Also included is a showcase of contemporary applications. What's your type?

The Designer's Dictionary of Type follows in the footsteps of The Designer's Dictionary of Color, providing a vivid and highly accessible look at an even more important graphic design ingredient: typography. From classic fonts like Garamond and Helvetica, to modern-day digital fonts like OCR-A and Keedy Sans, author and designer Sean Adams demystifies 48 major typefaces, describing their history, stylistic traits, and common application. Adams once again provides eye-catching illustrated examples, this time showcasing the beauty and expressiveness of typography, as employed by the world's greatest designers. Organized by serif, sans-serif, script, display, and digital typefaces, this book will be a vital guide for designers, teachers, or students looking to gain a foundational understanding of the art, practice, and history of typography.

Copiously illustrated by foremost script designer, this complete course covers all the basics for commercial artists: tools, materials, various letter styles, etc.

Pushing the boundaries of design, from MacBook to letterpress Dafi Kuhne is a Swiss designer who works with analog and digital ways to produce fresh and unique letterpress-printed posters. Using very different kinds of instruments, from a MacBook to a pantograph, for his compositions, he pushes the boundaries of design. Never afraid of getting his hands dirty in his creative workshop, Kuhne embraces the labor involved in the entire process of creating a poster from initial idea to finished product. Fusing modern means with the century-old tradition of the letterpress, he forms a new vocabulary on how to communicate through type and form in a truly un-nostalgic way. Never retro, his work is a clever response to the search for new ways of graphic expression: true print.

A rich sourcebook of type styles, from Liberty and Hannover to Virginia Antique in upper and lower-case alphabets, plus numerals.

"Creative Lettering & Beyond" combines the artistic talents and inspirational tips and tutorials of several professional hand letterers and calligraphers for a dynamic and interactive learning experience. After a brief introduction to the various tools and materials, artists and lettering enthusiasts will learn how to master the art of hand lettering and typography through engaging, easy-to-follow step-by-step projects, prompts, and exercises. From the basic shape and form of letters, to cursive script, spacing, and alignment, artists will discover how to transform simple words, phrases, and quotes into beautiful works of hand-lettered art. The interactive format and step-by-step process offers inspirational instruction for a wide variety of fun projects and gift ideas, including hand-rendered phrases on paper and digitally enhanced notecards. Artists will also discover how to apply lettering to linen, coffee mugs, calendars, and more. Numerous practice pages and interactive prompts throughout the book invite readers to put their newfound lettering skills to use, as well as work out their artistic ideas. Covering a variety of styles and types of lettered art, including calligraphy, illustration, chalk lettering, and more, artists will find a plethora of exercises and tips to help them develop their own unique lettering style. With comprehensive instructions and fun, inspirational exercises and projects, "Creative Lettering & Beyond" is a must-have resource for anyone who wants to learn this beautiful and stylish art form.

In this volume honoring the well-known scholar of illuminated manuscripts, 38 senior scholars have contributed essays of their research, with b/w plates of the highest quality included for their illustration. There are essays on marginalia, the interaction of text and image, cultural context, and workshop methods. Seven essays are included on artists and scribes (one is in Italian), with contributions by Lilian Armstrong (Wellesley College, Massachusetts), Benjamin David (Lewis and Clark College, Portland, Oregon), and Lawrence Nees (U. of Delaware). Indexes are included of manuscripts, printed books, artists, scribes and painters, owners, and patrons. A complete bibliography of Alexander (Institute of Fine Arts, New York U.) is also provided.