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A Very Brief Visual
History
of Letter(-ing).
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As a species, people need communication. People also love beautiful things. Lettering, or the Art of Drawing a Letter, emerges from combination of this two existential requirements.
↳ The scribe Jean Mielot in the writing room (secretary of the duke), between 1450 and 1460.
The very oldest examples of intentionally formed letters comes from the Roman Times. A lot has been lost, but the oldest remain in stone. Resistance of the material to writing tool makes for a simplification of strokes and straightening of lines.
↳ Pedestal inscriptions on the Trajan Column in Rome, 113 AD,
From then, Roman letters evolved into many different forms and shapes. They migrated from Italy to the North, East and West, becoming more elaborate and strikingly beautiful.
↳ “Family Tree” of the Roman inscriptions development.
Peoples of the former Roman Empire — dwellers of the British Isles, modern-day Central Europe, France and Italy — have significantly developped art of lettering in the early Middle Ages. Most of them are found in illuminated manuscripts.
↳ Pages from Lindisfarne Gospels, Northumberland (modern UK), 715–720
Imagination did not stop, and slowly ornamental decorations turned into full-scale paintings inside letters.
↳ Inhabited Initial E. Montecassino, Italy. 1153
Some more whimsical examples.
Gradually, decorative elements moved from just Capital letters to all vowels and consonants in use. The process was also driven by the invention of the printing press which made book production much faster.
↳ Page from the Gutenberg Bible, 1455
Next significant change to the Letter happened after the industrial revolution: it became irreplaceable part of advertising.
↳ Coca-Cola lettering by Frank M. Robertson
Industrial revolution also re-sparked interest to everything floral and natural motives in visual art — people were tired of straight lines and rationality. Welcome, Art-Nouvuae!
↳ Posters and advertising by Eugene Grasset, 1880-s
This type of lettering was especially loved by the Jugendstihl artsits of the early XX century!
↳ Posters and advertising by Otto Eckmann, late 1890-s
And some more advertisment!
↳ Lettering for advertising by Lucian Berhard
If looking at letters above made you think of psychedelic rock, then you are not wrong! In the 60-s many designers drew inspiration from floral designs of Jugendstihl posters for their musical posters. The whole gang was there: Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead.
The tradition continued well into the end of XX century — reimagined multiple times, of course! Expressive naturalistic details were replaced by soled shapes. Yes, like that Paul Nicholson’s logo.
↳ (left) Shape from Armin Hofmann’s Graphic Design Manual.
Art of the letter is very alive and kicking even now!
↳ Works by Vanök.Regular, author of LETTER course in käik
If you are eager to explore art of lettering even more, here are some suggestions from käik.pictures: