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The Handwriting of Type Designers

Posted by kdawson on from the slow-down-you-move-too-fast dept.

jamie found this blog post wherein an Australian Web technologist, Cameron Adams, wondered whether the handwriting of his favorite type designers encoded some sort of influence on their designs. So he wrote to them and asked for a sample. The result will make you slow down and appreciate the beauty and the aesthetics of type. Or else it won't.

8 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. I'm facinated by sleeping123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm always criticized for my sloppy handwriting, and it's refreshing to see that the experts in the field of readable, beautiful type can be just as "lazy" or sloppy as me.

    1. Re:I'm facinated by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ...can be just as "lazy" or sloppy as me.

      I wonder how often these folks write in longhand, and how old they are. I started typing in the seventies, and have noticed that my handwriting hasn't so much changed as lost finesse and regularity as I transitioned to the modern full-time keyboard.

      I can't recall the last time I wrote out a full sentence. I probably haven't done more than a dozen in the last ten years. It's just notes and lables now. People born since the Mac probably have vastly fewer pen-miles than I did at 24. That's got to have an effect on how they approach the drawn charater.

  2. Lost Art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That would be an interesting poll:

    How many words per day do you write with "pen and paper"?
    o) 0
    o) 1-5 (passwords on post-it)
    o) 6-20 (milk, breat, ramen, condoms, beer, ...)
    o) 21-200 (still in school, you insensitive ...)
    o) >200 (i do it for a living!)

    lsr@#suechtler

  3. Re:Is it really surprising... by Darkness404 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not really, think of it this way, if you are going to be making letters that will be reproduced thousands and millions of times, you are going to try to make each one look the best, if you are writing a card, it doesn't really matter as long as it is somewhat readable.

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  4. Re:In related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Their hands were actually cut off for their poor and uninspired ripoff of Helvetica.

  5. Re:Is it really surprising... by arigram · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I disagree. I found their writing really beautiful. Handwriting in the end, isn't different from drawing (nor drawing is much different from handwriting) so you have to look at them artistically and study their lines, shapes and relationships like you would do with a free hand sketch. Apart from revealing their personality (as for any of us), handwriting is the best proof that everyone has an artist inside of us. And an art critic, as well. :)

  6. Interesting by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There are some interesting correlations there, comparing relative x-height and the feel of the typography from person to person. I'm not a professional typographer, but I teach basic typography units as part of computer graphics courses.

    I'm guessing a pro typographer could easily see correlation among the examples. Designer-types often express in their handwriting what they desire their overall "vibe" to be. Since typography is abused so much, and there are so many edge cases to look after, it's only natural that the fonts that result look more stilted and less artsy than the handwriting that may have inspired them.

    Related principle: Design students learn very early on not to set large bodies of type with decorative fonts.

  7. Re: the beauty of type by LMariachi · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You have no idea what you're talking about. As evidenced by your reference to "creative use of whitespace" and "web sidebars" (?!). Those things have exactly nothing to do with typography, they're hallmarks of the sorts of wankers who have "Web Designer" on their business cards. Actual good typography is very difficult to execute and ultimately invisible. No, you don't simply want the "maximum amount of words on a page," because that would be utterly fucking illegible. Packing those words in to a compact yet legible form is where the unappreciated artistry of typography does its invisible thing. Those pages of miniscule stock quotes in the newspaper? Why you can read them without going blind? That's because of typography.