Just received my copy of Lettering & Type: Creating Letters & Designing Typefaces by Bruce Willen and Nolen Strals. Smaller than I had expected (7x8.5" with only 130 pages), but beautiful with lots of typographic eye candy and some useful information for beginning type designers and anybody else who wants to develop a more critical eye for the subtleties of letterforms. If you are serious about type design, I suggest getting Karen Cheng's book, Designing Type, in addition to, or intead of, this one. It's a lot more information (230 pages) for about the same price (on Amazon, at least).
It is amusing to me, and also somewhat validating, to see so many people talking about fonts, typography, and even type design on the web these days, especially when many of these people were not even born when I first started doing calligraphy, lettering and illuminating (during my "medieval" period) and later, digital type design. But, as typography (and photography) become ever more important tools for influencing people, it's inevitable that more people will become interested in type design. In fact, it seems that everyone and his grandmother is creating fonts these days! But, since I happen to think designing type is great fun, I welcome this trend.
Acknowledging that "mastering the art of arranging letters in space and time is essential knowledge for anyone who crafts communications for page or screen," this book's focus is on letterforms themselves and even creating them (type design) rather than on arranging them beautifully (typography). Type design is an art (or perhaps 'craft' would be a better word) that requires a blend of both technical and visual skills, and in fact covers such a broad range of disciplines that it can be somewhat intimidating. But, this book seems to provide a "friendly, openhearted introduction" to type design, with a brief overview of the history of the written and printed word to typeface classification and terminology, case studies and type design exercises. There are also interviews with some of the luminaries in this field, including renowned type designer Christian Schwartz, whom I remember when he was starting out at the age of 14!
As in any visual art, type design is a matter of developing your eye, so learning to really look at letters critically is essential. The chapter of this book that I think might be most helpful to the beginning type designer is appropriately titled "Designing Typefaces", which illustrates many of the subtle tricks a designer must use to compensate for optical illusions and such. This is the one area that separates professional type designers from the wannabes, and I must confess that I still find it challenging at times. So, I suggest book-marking this chapter and perhaps high-lighting the parts that seem counterintuitive to you (as I did this morning). For a book that goes into this area in far more detail, see Karen Cheng's
Designing Type.
The authors suggest that "letters are alive and kicking". (And I might add, that as you try to design them, they may occasionally kick you in the butt!) But, the book is welcoming: "Anyone who is fueled with a dose of desire and an ounce of courage is invited to plunge in and take on twenty-six of the world's most infamous and influential characters." Cute. And after those living letters kick you in the butt a few times, please come back to this forum and share your experiences. In the meantime, get this book, try the exercises, experiment with designing a font, and have some fun!
For another review, check out: http://www.typegoodness.com/2009/09/lettering-type/
Available at Amazon: Lettering & Type: Creating Letters and Designing Typefaces (Design Brief) (9781568987651): Bruce Willen, Nolen Strals: Books http://bit.ly/2fBW2z
And the book has its own website: Lettering & Type http://bit.ly/n7WNL
