A LOOK INSIDE Learn American Calligraphy : The Complete Book of Lettering, History, and Design, by Margaret Shepherd

This book contains a wealth of letter art. Calligraphers who have learned from Margaret Shepherd's 19 other books will recognize and use the detailed model alphabet pages--some 39 in all--to teach themselves the basics of [word]. Casual readers will find inspiration in the hundreds of illustrations and the back-stories from American life. 

Highlight #1. pp 93-106. 

The Fraktur chapter is sprinkled with a dozen tiny hand- drawn ornaments; elaborate illuminated capitals; and step-by-step instructions for making filled letters. The crowning glory, shown at right, is a full-page border by noted Fraktur artist Dennis Stephan; readers can remove it, carefully, from the book and create a beautiful Fraktur document as their own family heirloom. 

Margaret Shepherd's new book: Learn American Calligraphy

     I'm happy to announce the publication of my new book Learn American Calligraphy, The Complete Book of Lettering, History, and Design, from Skyhorse. Fifteen years in the making, it fills a much needed function to showcase the letters that came to America and evolved, or those who were created here. 

The book takes the casual reader on a visual trip around the United States of the past and future, while calligraphers at all levels of skill will come home with new alphabets to use. 

    For centuries, American calligraphers have accepted the legacy of the classic Roman, Gothic, and Italic calligraphy they inherited from Europe without knowing that there are more alphabet treasures to be found in a larger pool of uniquely American alphabet designs. Wild West, New Deal, Prairie, National Park—all were made in America, and they express ideas that reveal national character. These styles come from here and nowhere else. Much like American music, language, fashion, and philosophy, calligraphy has matured, moved on from its origins, and become, in the words of the man who created Spencerian handwriting, “even more American.” 

Every calligrapher will find inspiration in this book's hundreds of illustrations and dozens of model alphabets. We will be sampling from its hundreds of illustrations and dozens of model alphabets over the year. 

Learn American Calligraphy is available wherever books are sold. 

American Calligraphy #26: The spaces

I'm blessed with beautiful letters to see in my neighborhood. But this means I can't avoid seeing the un-beautiful letters too, or more often the awkward spaces between the letters. When Boston threw itself into the Gothic Revival in the later 19th century, its Roman lettering suffered. Shown here is a cautionary example of all the inscriptions that could have been better spaced. 

The spacing looks good enough until you focus between T and M; U and A; E and R. 

I like to keep in mind the artistic principle, variously attributed to Mozart and Debussy among others,"The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between them." Calligraphers too know that the spaces between the letters are where the beauty lives. 

Enjoy the letters around you and the spaces between them. 

American Calligraphy #25: The Declaration of Independence

 ABCs of the USA: The stories behind America’s most distinctive calligraphy styles. 

Because the text refers to the
colonies as the "united States
of America," I have used a
small u above rather than
making a capital U. 

When the drafters of this document met in Philadelphia to declare their independence from England's King George III, they commissioned fellow delegate Timothy Matlack (1736-1829) to pen the final copy because he had the best handwriting. 

The Declaration was read aloud the next day, but the 200 typeset and printed copies, printed immediately and distributed to the other colonies, were what really spread the word. Some 26 of the first printing still survive. The second printing was typeset by Baltimore postmaster Mary Katharine Goddard. A later version was distributed in German, still the first language of many immigrants. The delegates' signatures were gradually added to the original document over the next month, and completed on Aug 2. (See my blog post #4, about John Hancock, from January 26, 2021.) 

The handwritten, signed Declaration of Independence is preserved in the National Archives Museum in Washington DC.  

Vacation for the self-employed

 I'm going to pause this blog while I go on vacation. Bye. 

American Calligraphy #24: Handmade protest signs

ABCs of the USA: The stories behind America's most distinctive calligraphy styles. 

Handmade signs combine two distinctive American obsessions: do-it-yourself and expressing your opinion. Together they make art that communicates with a special voice. 

A Shahn poster memorializing controversial
anarchistsSacco and Vanzetti. 

Ben Shahn (1898-1969), who immigrated from Lithuania, was trained in both classical and Hebrew calligraphy. He admired the grassroots letters of American amateurs, using them to give his work unique immediacy. His letter designs appeared as posters, book covers, and type fonts.  

Ben's Folk type, a font that he inspired.

Ben Shahn's ideas gave voice to other political advocates for social justice, and engendered dozens of typefaces, while inspiring a generation of graphic designers such as Mary Corita and Lorraine Schneider. 

Protest letters let people carry a
sign that speaks in their own voice. 

Iconic anti-war poster
by Lorraine Schneider 

 

American Calligraphy #23; Brands

 ABCs of the USA: The stories behind America’s most distinctive calligraphy styles.

Modern version of iron for
branding barbecued steaks...

In the far southwestern territories of the American continent--and long before they joined the nation--Spanish settlers were pioneering the American concept of logo design. From the early 16th century, they turned their cattle loose on the unfenced range to graze, with each owner's mark burnt into its hide to identify it at round-up time. 

The word "brand" has roots in the terms for sword, torch, and burnt branch, (old English bærnan). Although today a super-cold, cryogenic branding iron has made branding somewhat more humane, some herd owners now opt for the more-humane practice of ear-tagging. 

The brand designs used by Spanish cattle herders evolved into evocative symbols for the frontier era and the cowboy West. No dude ranch or steakhouse is complete without its iconic branding iron design. The abstract idea of branding, itself, has vastly expanded to become a key concept in American life. A product's brand has become a commodity with a residual value. 

A design language describes the letters and symbols of cattle brands. The letters can look like they are lazy [lying down], dragged, walking, and tilting. like many logos, they pack a lot of personality into a simple glyph.