Articles & Essays

• The Eszett

  Mark Jamra

  Every glyph in a typeface has its history. Some, like the Euro symbol, are mere infants when compared to letters of ancient Phoenician origin. The eszett, that most German of all contemporary…

• The Design of Rumba: Concept and Process

  Laura Meseguer

  Most typeface families are designed along an axis of weights ranging from light to bold, but what happens when a family is designed along an axis of expressiveness? Laura Meseguer’s graduation project…

• Father Truchet, the Typographic Point, the Romain du Roi, and Tilings

  Jacques André, Denis Girou

  Father Sébastien Truchet (1657–1729) is recognized as a mathematician (especially for “Truchet tilings”); however, very few typographers know that he is the real inventor of the typographic point or even that he…

• Giambattista Bodoni: Biografia

  Alessandro Segalini

  A concise biography of one of the most prolific type makers and printers of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Here is Bodoni’s life in brief, year by year, in which his…

• Type Rules: Basic Fine-Tuning and Tweaking

  Ilene Strizver

  This is chapter seven of Ilene Strizver’s book Type Rules! The Designer’s Guide to Professional Typography, second edition. Here, the author provides the reader with some of the basic tenets of typographic…

• The Story of Perpetua

  Tiffany Wardle

  The story of the Perpetua typeface (and Felicity Italic) is one of ideology, politics, commerce and creativity. The thread which runs through it all is the collaboration between two passionate and headstrong…

• The Experimental Type Designs of William Addison Dwiggins

  Tiffany Wardle

  A thorough and interesting dissertation about the lesser-known type designs from the man who brought us Electra, Metro, Caledonia and the term “graphic design.” Tiffany Wardle provides us with a brief biography…

• The Golden Age of Hand Lettering in American Advertising

  Nick Shinn

  This article provides readers with a look at the period in early magazine advertising when hand lettering was prevalent. Influential lettering artists/type designers are considered, in particular T. M. Cleland who was…

• Technological Shifts in Type Design and Production

  Malou Verlomme

  The straightforward title might lead some to believe that this is a technical and rather dry dissertation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Malou Verlomme’s treatment of his topic is engaging,…

• Punch Cuts: The Modern Page, 1843

  Nick Shinn

  Through the example of Punch magazine, this article sets a frame for looking at the origins and characteristics of Victorian typography in an art historical and socio-economical context. Nick Shinn examines the…