March 2011 – Shady Characters

Can you help trace these graphic designers?

March 29, 2011

The first of two interrobang articles is well underway, but before it’s published I’d like to do everything I can to trace two particular graphic designers who were active back in 1962.

First is Larry Ottino of New York, author of The Art of Lettering with Pen & Brush and a specialist in hand-written scripts produced using brushes and pens. I’ve been unable to find contact details for either Mr. Ottino or Lester Rossin Associates Inc., the erstwhile publisher of his book.

The Pilcrow, part 3 of 3

March 20, 2011

¶ Taking pride of place at the head of every new paragraph, the pilcrow had carved out a literal niche for itself at the heart of late medieval writing. Boldly inked by the rubricator, pilcrows grew ever more elaborate and time-consuming to add. Unfortunately the deadline is not a modern invention; occasionally, time would run out before the rubricator could complete his work and the white space carefully reserved for the pilcrow went undecorated. With the advent of the printing press, the volume of printed documents to be rubricated grew exponentially and it became increasingly difficult to attend to them all. The pilcrow became a ghost, and the indented paragraph was born in its stead.1

Coming soon: The Pilcrow, part 3

March 16, 2011

The third and final part of the story of the pilcrow is in the works. We’ll be covering the pilcrow’s place in modern typography and in particular how the controversial sculptor Eric Gill used it in his hand-printed book An Essay on Typography. Take a look at the first and second parts of the story to refresh your memory, and check back this Sunday for the final entry!

The Pilcrow, part 2 of 3

March 6, 2011

Compared to Rome’s traditional pagan religion, Christianity was altogether a different beast. Whereas paganism relied on oral tradition and its practices varied according to local custom, Christianity instead emphasised conformity and written scriptures.1 If Judaism had been the prototypical religion of the Book, Christianity embodied this ideal with an unprecedented vigour, possessing a symbiotic relationship with the written word which simultaneously drove the evolution of punctuation and benefited from a concrete, written dogma. After all, the Word of God had to be transmitted with as little ambiguity as possible.2

Coming soon: The Pilcrow, part 2

March 2, 2011

Part 2 of the story of the pilcrow is coming along nicely. Picking up from where part 1 left off, it’ll cover the influence of Christianity on the development of punctuation before moving onto the pilcrow itself. Here’s a somewhat tangential excerpt that I hope doesn’t give too much away: