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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.

5 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:In related news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

  4. 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. :)