I knew I wanted contrasting typographic design for the two halves of the quote, so as to accentuate the juxtaposition of technology advances and craft processes.
I started working from a typographic stand point looking at what is defined as a 'modern' font, such as bodoni and didot. However, some of these forms looked more roman than 'modern' and I played around with the presence of serifs and the width and balance of the glyphs. This just seemed to create more classical forms that has a bit of a quirky and uneven feeling to them. I then got thinking about my audience (mostly students) and what they perceived as defining technology in today's culture. Instantly I thought of Apple products and the sans serif neutral, lower case forms that represent it and its interface design. I then started to sketch Helvetica like forms, looking at the squared off rounds and parallel terminals. This was really tricky because it is a style which lends itself much ore readily to digital rendering (which I suppose is why I am using it) but once I had it, I knew it was right for the job. On the board its self I will increase the tracking to create a greater suggestion of distance and isolation in the forms.
From my idea generation stage I knew I wanted something calligraphic in form to counteract the 'modern' type in the later part of the quote. This got me thinking about the connectivity of the cursive copperplate style calligraphy. I did some research into the history of this style.
I found this summary of the copperplate style and origin.
The English writing masters of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, wrote with an edged quill, producing the script known as "English Roundhand", hence the name on Mitchell's square-edged nibs, to this day.
The following extracts are from "Penmanship made easy" by George Bickham (calligrapher & engraver) London 1733.
"Make all your body strokes with the full & all hair strokes with the corner of your pen".
"Make the nib of your pen for the Round & Round-Text and the breadth of the full stroke and that part lying next ye hand something shorter and narrower".
In other words, in the downstroke of the small letter "t" for example, the stroke was even from top to bottom, determined by the width of the edged nib, until narrowing at the foot when the nib was turned upwards onto the left corner to form the hairline stroke.
For the production of copy books for teaching writing, the writing masters passed their work to engravers who were able, with the engraving burin, to clean up any irregularities. These engraved "Copper plates" were used to produce the copy books which showed lettering which had been drawn (by the engraver) and not handwritten.
In a sense, Bickham's instructions, as above, were rather unfair, as they applied to the method of his original hand lettering which he had subsequently engraved in preparation for printing. These instructions do not apply to his improved, engraved lettering which appeared in the printed copy book!
With an edged pen, it would have been extremely difficult to replicate the twists and turns and accuracy of the engraver's work, so sharpened, pointed quills were developed in an attempt to emulate the swelled strokes of the burin, opening the tines under control by applying varying degrees of pressure to downstrokes.
As they were more consistent and durable, metal nibs were developed and are still used to this day. The handwritten lettering thus produced, has become known as "Copperplate" in reference to its origin, but strictly speaking, it is handwriting based on the engraver's copy of original English Roundhand text.
This is esentially different from the version known as Engraver's or Engrosser's script, as exemplified by Dr Vitolo on the Zanerian site. Using the same flexible, pointed nibs, his drawn lettering is very beautiful and is probably as close as possible to the original engraved exemplars of the past.
The following extracts are from "Penmanship made easy" by George Bickham (calligrapher & engraver) London 1733.
"Make all your body strokes with the full & all hair strokes with the corner of your pen".
"Make the nib of your pen for the Round & Round-Text and the breadth of the full stroke and that part lying next ye hand something shorter and narrower".
In other words, in the downstroke of the small letter "t" for example, the stroke was even from top to bottom, determined by the width of the edged nib, until narrowing at the foot when the nib was turned upwards onto the left corner to form the hairline stroke.
For the production of copy books for teaching writing, the writing masters passed their work to engravers who were able, with the engraving burin, to clean up any irregularities. These engraved "Copper plates" were used to produce the copy books which showed lettering which had been drawn (by the engraver) and not handwritten.
In a sense, Bickham's instructions, as above, were rather unfair, as they applied to the method of his original hand lettering which he had subsequently engraved in preparation for printing. These instructions do not apply to his improved, engraved lettering which appeared in the printed copy book!
With an edged pen, it would have been extremely difficult to replicate the twists and turns and accuracy of the engraver's work, so sharpened, pointed quills were developed in an attempt to emulate the swelled strokes of the burin, opening the tines under control by applying varying degrees of pressure to downstrokes.
As they were more consistent and durable, metal nibs were developed and are still used to this day. The handwritten lettering thus produced, has become known as "Copperplate" in reference to its origin, but strictly speaking, it is handwriting based on the engraver's copy of original English Roundhand text.
This is esentially different from the version known as Engraver's or Engrosser's script, as exemplified by Dr Vitolo on the Zanerian site. Using the same flexible, pointed nibs, his drawn lettering is very beautiful and is probably as close as possible to the original engraved exemplars of the past.
This original tool the burin is the source of many of the forms that copperplate calligraphy is based on. I found a few images that showed the burin.
Source: http://www.imcclains.com/catalog/engravingtools/burin.html
It can be seen how this hard diamond like shape would be turned and twisted to create the flowing line weight variation of copperplate. Even the angle of the tip, bares strong resemblance to my copperplate nib.
Developed throughout the 16th and 17th centuries copperplate, otherwise known as english roundhand, has gone through many iterations. In the 18th century it truly became popular through the work of calligraphers such as George Bickham. A sample of who's work can be seen below.
What clearly defines this style is its italic nature and excessive flourishes. Because of the time that this style became popular it is strongly associated with the regency era and the romance of letter writing so documented from novels of the time. This lends an air of romance to the style.
Taking this information I practiced re creating some of the more simple letterforms. It was very tricky, and although I din't manage to recreate anything to a hight standard, the mistakes really did help me to understand the intricacies of the letterforms.
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There are certain associations of copperplate lettering with the regency era and the control and formality that we connect with it. This is why I want to play around with this style slightly to make it a bit more playful and open, in order to bring together associations of history and tradition with self expression and freedom represented by craft in this situation. I did this by adding a slightly flexible baseline to the mix. Not so much that it intrudes on the legibility but enough to suggest a playfulness. I also kept the flourishes to a minimum because I already knew that I wanted to include ornamentation on this board and I didn't want to overpower it. You can see the layout thumbnails above. I want to create a sense of two opposing sides with this board and as such the top and bottom are in high contrast to one another. The ornamentation for the top (or craft) will relate back to the second board and the Morris quote, as such it will be symmetrical vine like patterns that curl around the letterforms. I also want to make this ornamentation warm tones and colours so that I can contrast this with slightly artificial and cold colours on the lower half of the board. I want to create a pattern of some sorts which evokes the idea of technology and an alienated future, I think this will come from mother bird or pixelation images, but I really don't know whether this will work well in chalk. So, I have decided to leave this slightly open and work it out as I am working on the board.
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