At this week's IFVP Conference, there was quite a bit of exploration of handwriting and manual typography.
There was a bit of a divide between those who (rightfully) reverently adhere to the time-honored discipline of typography, and those of us who's ideals of lettering came from R. Crumb, Bugs Bunny, Schoolhouse Rock, Calvin and Hobbes, and The Electric Company.
This book does a great job bridging the gap.
[As reviewed on Amazon]
Heller and Ilic's book, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age,
Examples range from magazine covers, traditional advertisements,
film festival posters, album covers, book covers and other media/art.
There is a wide range of styles covered, and though there is not a lot
of text that accompanies each featured piece, the descriptions of the
work are insightful to how (in the opinion of the authors) the
text/design work, and in what ways. For instance, the authors comment
on one poster which used a childish scrawl saying, "Scrawl is most
effective when located with a generous helping of negative space, as is
portrayed elegantly in this poster etc.etc."
Though you might not agree with their observations, you will most
definitely get something valuable out of your disagreement, wether it
is a better sense of your own visions and style/likes/dislikes.
All in all, this book is worth the money. It is bound to inspired you to break out a pencil and your sketchbook again.
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