Fonts

(In case it's hard to read, it says: Fonts Are Like a Graphic History of Life's Memories)

I did this layout for a 2Ps font challenge, I was really enthusiastic about doing a layout about fonts. I've been interested in fonts & typography for many years... back in the 60s I was a typical artsy teenager, who made posters and flyers and calendars using my own elaborate lettering. In college I studied graphic design, and I can still remember my favorite fonts of the 70s.... University Roman, Avant Garde, Bookman Bold Italic (the font that Michael's and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Co. uses) After college, I became an advertising illustrator and graphic designer. Back in the olden days, before PCs, we used to order our type from the typesetter, then we'd have to cut & paste it together using a waxer to adhere it to the layout. That's where the term 'paste-up artist' came from. For years, I was a big user of Chartpak press-on type. It wasn't quite professional type-house type, but for quick jobs, it did the trick. The type was pretty much all black... the object was to design your layout, then send it to the printer so that you could have the type printed in the color you wanted. What a pain that was! So now I really appreciate the flexibility & dreaminess of being able to pick from thousands of fonts, and then do whatever I want with them.... color, texture, photos, effects, filters, there's no end! I really love fonts!

I'm certainly not anything more than an amateur aficionado of type, but I think I am fairly informed about the different styles & historical fonts. I subscribe to a font newsletter, and I love getting the bi-weekly issue, and drooling over the artistry and skill of the font designers.

I just wanted to give a little feel for some different eras of some of my favorite fonts. I'm big on using authentic-feeling fonts for my heritage layouts. I especially love fonts reminiscent of the twenties and thirties.

Here's an example of an illustration I did back in the early 80s, where I used press-type to add my copy.



And another illustration where my lettering was completely hand-done: (see, I loved old photos & images even back then!) Maybe some day I'll try my hand at designing type.