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I LOVE TYPOGRAPHY

Emigre No. 70, the Look Back Issue

Reviewed by James Puckett In 1983 Rudy VanderLans, Zuzana Licko, Marc Susan, and Menno Meyjes began Emigre, a magazine about “…the global artist who juggles cultures, travels between them, and who is fluent in the cultural symbols of the world. An émigré.”[1] Early issues meandered through essays, interviews, fiction and poetry. VanderLans directed wild layouts […]

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Art and Text

Reviewed by James Puckett Artist Joseph Kosuth’s 1965 work One and Three Chairs presented a static composition that represents an idea three ways. It was heady stuff, addressing what conceptual artists saw as a crisis of reconciling the realization of concepts with the concepts. One of the three material representations in One and Three Chairs […]

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Graphic Masterpieces of Yakov G. Chernikhov: The Collection of Dmitry Y. Chernikhov

Reviewed by James Puckett Yakov G. Chernikov (1889–1951), was a Russian artist, designer, and architect learned in classical and modern styles. As a draftsman he was on par with Piranesi and Rembrandt; his most forward-thinking drawings resemble the style of Yoshitaka Amano. This combination of knowledge and skill made him one of the most accomplished […]

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Type: A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles

Reviewed by James Puckett I was excited when Taschen announced the first volume of Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, described as “This exuberant selection of typographic fonts and styles traces the modern evolution of the printed letter”*. Such language, including the title, is disingenuous, because this book is not a history.

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Nineteenth Century Designers & Engravers of Type

Reviewed by James Puckett “The truth of the terse but expressive ‘dead and forgotten’, comes home with peculiar force to the searcher after information about the individuals who have developed the art and craft of typefounding.” – William E. Loy The Industrial Revolution is often seen as a black hole in the history of typography. […]

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The Typographic Desk Reference

A Brief review One can never have too many books about type and typography. One of the most recent additions to my own library is Theodore Rosendorf‘s The Typographic Desk Reference or, if you’re in a hurry, simply TDR.

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Designing books: practice & theory

A Brief Review Abook that carries the names Jost Hochuli and Robin Kinross on the cover is enough to get just about anyone’s synapses salivating.* Designing books: practice and theory, published by Hyphen Press is the best single volume on the subject of designing books. Why save it for the concluding remarks. Hold this book […]

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FontBook

Book Review Recently I received through the post something large, yellow and weighing 3kg. No, not a genetically modified banana, but FontShop’s FontBook, an the encyclopaedia of type. This book really should come with a health warning: my postman almost had a hernia delivering it, and very nearly sprained his wrist attempting to hold it […]

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Counterpunch

Book Review by Dan Reynolds Several Reading University classmates of mine from the typeface design programme share a small house. On the dining room wall is a poster that reads: To be blunt, and it is good advice to serious newcomers: do not make the mistake of being afraid to be labelled ‘conventional’, ‘traditional’, or […]

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Logo, Font, and Lettering Bible

Book Review By Cody Curley Welcome to my review of the Logo, Font and Lettering Bible by Leslie Cabarga. There was some talk of this book in the comments of a past article on this beautiful blog. Someone mentioned something of the cover; I think it was me. Anyway, I think it is an absolute […]

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Typeface Categories

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