Even for calligraphy,
this piece by Rick
Cusick, right, is espe¬
cially freewheeling.
Notice how the thick¬
est strokes have been
distributed evenly to
balance the piece.
Far right, an analysis
of Cusick's logo,
traced at its optical
extremes to test for
balance and coher¬
ence, proves that its
asymmetric logic is
at least as sublime
as its letterforms.

Right, brush lettering by
logo and font designer
Doyald Young from his
magnificent book Logo¬
types & Letterforms. He
explains, "The cartouche
is composed of four sepa¬
rate overlapping designs
and is contrived to bisect
the cipher precisely at the
baseline and dead center
of the counter." Young's
numerals are based on
the Fat Faces of the nine¬
teenth century, which are
derived from Bodoni.
Each line is actually two
strokes, done freehand,
drawn in outline, then
filled in with a Windsor &
Newton Series 7, no. 2
brush.

Michael Clark is known for sensuously undu¬
lating calligraphic letterforms as seen in this
logo for a T-shirt, right. It was commissioned
by some intrepid letter carriers in his area
during the anthrax cozenage. The piece was
done with a ruling pen on rough paper, caus¬
ing the pen to "spit" with each stroke.

LOGO, FONT a LETTERING BIBLE

85

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When you think of Jill Bell, you think
of graceful curves (in her work, I
mean). But there's also a philosophical
side to her. Left, Bell's interpretation
of the "Vahm" stands for "the supreme
Buddha of esoteric Buddhism," the
spiritual sun center of Buddhism.
There are also the historical Buddha,
Siddhartha Gautama, and many other
aspects. Siddham is how Chinese and
Japanese Buddhists interpret
Devanagari for religious purposes
(glad you asked?). Bell's sensuous
brushwork in pearlescent paint further
deifies the character's ¡conic qualities.

AND ELEMENTS OE LETTERING

Above, lavish hand-lettering by
Frederic Goudy for the title page
of his book, The Alphabet. Goudy
apparently preferred the brush to
the pen, even for small lettering. I
was curious about that so I com¬
pared the £s and 7s above to dis¬
cover whether the subtitle was
type or lettering. I conclude it's
the latter. Left, some way-out cal¬
ligraphy by Ernst Bunz, с 1955.1
automatically think of old guys as
having been conservative, but
there's nothing at all stodgy
about the roman N stuck in the
middle of this kooky piece.