![]() However, rather than presenting a clear design direction, it led to a historic struggle, as two views of typography came into conflict during the era. So, how to make Patrick O’Brian’s literary voice shine typographically? For our edition of Master and Commander, I started with the premise that using a typeface available and in use in England during the Georgian era would do the trick. That being said, although Gladys Knight is wonderful alone, with the Pips behind her, she shines! It is the backup singer, not the lead (pun intended). In other words, typography must play a supporting role, allowing for the prominence of the author’s voice. And the whole duty of beautiful typography is not to substitute for the beauty or interest of the thing thought and intended to be conveyed by the symbol, a beauty or interest of its own, but, on the one hand, to win access for that communication by the clearness & beauty of the vehicle, and on the other hand, to take advantage of every pause or stage in that communication to interpose some characteristic & restful beauty in its own art. ![]() The whole duty of Typography… is to communicate to the imagination, without loss by the way, the thought or image intended to be communicated by the Author. ![]() Cobden-Sanderson wrote in his seminal essay, “The Ideal Book or Book Beautiful: A Tract on Calligraphy, Printing, and Illustration and on the Book Beautiful as a Whole,” The first and foremost job of typography is to serve the text. Finding the right font – or, at least, a right font – remains one of the most important factors in designing text. Ease, ubiquity, and low cost have made ours both a golden age of typography and a veritable tower of typographic babble. The aesthetics of type is both more noticeable than ever, yet, perhaps, less considered. We live in an era in which we can change the look of a document on a computer screen with a few button clicks.
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