Responses for Week I

[Emily Vukson]

Hello,

Beatrice Ward, the author of The Crystal Goblet, makes a clear
statement (no pun intended) about what "good typography" should be.
Ward used the analogy of a crystal goblet to express how typography
should be more about the aesthetics of the page, readability, and
conveyance of information as opposed to how the letters themselves
look. At one point, she writes "that the most important thing about
printing is that it conveys though ideas, images, from one mind to
other minds." To me, she means that the message is more important
than the letters themselves. In fact, one should not even notice very
much how the letters look; it is like the crystal goblet: you can see
the message without getting caught up in gaudy letters (i.e. Helvetica
would be better to use for body text as opposed to Rosewood). I have
to agree with Ward, too. In my opinion, I think a well designed page
with a modest typeface can be quite aesthetically pleasing because of
the ease in reading it. I would rather pick up a page typed in
Garamond than one in Snell Roundhand. When I was thinking about this,
I wondered where some type such as that on psychedelic music posters
would fit in. Are those crazy, nearly illegible letters for the
content, or only for the artistic effect?

Emily Vukson

[May Meyers]

Hey Emily,
Interesting question about the psychedelic music posters. I’ve always
been drawn to that style, but certainly not for its legibility! I
think it’s mainly artistic, although I guess the content it’s meant to
convey is trippy in itself. I started looking for more info about this
and found an article that sheds some light on it even if it doesn’t
completely answer the question.
Colin Brignall writes, “So, with a heady mixture of nostalgia and
fervent admiration for work that combines an incredible kaleidoscope
of vibrant acid colors with highly creative hand-drawn lettering and
illustration to promote gigs for bands like Grateful Dead, Jefferson
Airplane and The Byrds, I decided the time had come for me to share my
passion by reviewing, from a typographic standpoint, a few of Wes
Wilson’s wonderful poster works.
As I began to re-familiarise myself with the style of the posters, it
didn’t take long for me to establish that I was on territory I knew
only too well. Influences such as the Art Nouveau movement, Victorian
and Edwardian display lettering and a philosophy inspired by the great
French poster designers of the late 1800s, who harmonised form, colour
and typography, were styles which I studied avidly during my own
typographic apprenticeship. These are the very same influences that
helped Wes Wilson establish his poster design style that became his
trademark.
Born in 1937, Robert Wesley Wilson, except for a few night school
classes, had no real formal training as a graphic designer. His most
favoured form of lettering developed as a direct influence of Alfred
Roller’s lettering for an exhibition of Secessionist design in 1903.
This lettering was generally rectangular in form and therefore ideally
suited for Wilson whose work often involved wrapping words around
predetermined, free-flowing areas in order to fill up space. White
space being considered bête noire to the psychedelic poster designer
whose style of work was intended as a reaction to the prevailing
‘clean’ Swiss style of typography!”
If you want to check out the whole article, it’s at http://www.wes-wilson.com/?page_id=592