Volume 21–2.pdf

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JEFFREY FISHER: For the Bloomsbury Poetry
Classics Fisher brilliantly and stylishly interprets
through his handwriting the classic cover and
jacket designs of the King Penguin series.
AT ONE TIME, formal typography was the
mainstay of all printed work. The computer,
of course, changed all that to the point where
modern typography became loose, unstructured
and available to the masses. As a result,
many graphic designers today are increasingly
using handwriting as a contrast to computermanipulated
type and as a new way to show
expressive graphics. This is not simply a reactionary
return to script for its own sake but
a means of achieving color, texture and contrast
in layouts that require individuality.
One needn't return to the pre-Gutenberg
days of illuminated manuscripts to find the
influence of handwriting in graphic arts. In
fact, more recently when type was hot, heavy
and expensive, handwriting was a way to
squeeze a few extra dollars from tight produc-
JAMES VICTORE: The lettering for Racism is a
doodle with such power and strength that it
translates not only the word, but the emotion.
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JEFFREY FISHER: His Soho Square book jacket
is a veritable painting wherein handwriting is
both type and texture.
Lion budgets. In the early ig4os, for example,
ALEX STEINWEISS, the designer of Columbia
Records' album covers, wrote out his headlines
in sinuous curlicues to save both time and
money. His distinctive lettering was later called
Steinweiss Scrawl and was ironically issued as a
Photo-Lettering, Inc. typeface. Likewise when
PAUL RAND designed covers for Direction magazine
during this same period, he too used handwriting
to express immediacy and to eliminate
expenses. In the early 195os when playwright
and artist EDWARD GOREY was a young book cover
designer at Doubleday, he also saved typesetting
costs by writing out all his text, from headlines
to credits. Although larger words were drawn to
roughly approximate existing type, the rest was
stylized handwriting which over time developed
into his signature style.
33
Getting Personal Unlike calligraphy (or
hand lettering, for that matter), handwriting
has no claim as art, craft or science but is rather
an ad hoc means for creating cheap yet expressive
design. Handwriting did come close to
being art when used in Polish and Czech posters
in the early 196os and '7os, when typesetting was
restricted by government decree and handwriting
in design was a way of both circumventing
officialdom and signaling defiance. During the
197os handwriting also enjoyed a revival of sorts
in American and British record album design
where it was used to suggest the autograph
of the recording artist pictured on the front or
back. Handwriting appeared in publication
design as headings for stories or columns, such
as letters to the editor, to imply a personal relationship
with the reader. In the late 198os hand-
JOSH GOSFIELD: Blends painterly lettering—
a mixture of naïf and modern form—with
his narrative painting in a totally integrated
composition.