96

DESIGNS THAT REMIND US TO KEEP INVENTING WHILE LETTERING

Fred Cooper claimed that
he wasn't into sloppy
lettering: "The crudeness
in my work is not inten¬
tional. I make every effort
to be as perfect as possi¬
ble, within the time limit
I impose on its making."
It was natural then that
happy accidentals, such
as the stem of ¿looping
up and around to form
the bowl, would result
from this speedy execu¬
tion. Other characters,
such as the lowercase о
in book also show
what happens when you
play, innovate and
constantly reinterpret
as you go along.

t

book

ages from Life
Ъу Fred G. Cooper
with a foreword by)

Hal Marcito ariks

and a Jbreface /by
Root. E. Slierwood

(^r/ie $oandso Comban/^
New York. ^
19ЗО

LOGO, FONT a LETTERING BIBLE

97

This top left serif surprised me. It's
unorthodox, but why not? I can see the
logical thought process behind the idea of
opening up the lower left counter to match
the right one by allowing the serif above
to match the one below without having to
compromise its shape in order to meet up
with the diagonal stroke.

The treatment of the Ms in this 1898 French lettering
breaks all the rules. You're not really supposed to double
the width of the joining strokes as they meet at top,
because that adds a huge width to the stem. However,
by joining the center diagonal stems at almost cap height,
there is no accumulation of excess weight and so it works.

BULLETIN DE
COMMANDE

This cap R and the words below were set in
some thin variant of the Bauhaus font fam¬
ily. I'm fascinated by the on-purpose "clog"
at the junction of the bowl and leg, which
adds a spot of weight, but becomes a deco¬
rative feature. I also like the rounded tops
and bottoms of A/and Vand the unconnect¬
ed horizontal A and D strokes.

There are many ornate, decorative initials around, but perhaps few quite
so neatly executed as these by Christophe Weyle of the Ecole Allemande
(eighteenth century). The heavier strokes defining the central part of
the letters, and the embellishing strokes appear to have been drawn
with two widths of pen nibs, but both of the chisel-edge kind.