Wednesday i tottled along to a hidden gem with the award winning Art director and illustrator Holly Wales. The St Bride Library features books about every aspect of typography you could care to find. An over whelming array of books dedicated to printing and typography history and their uses and this is just the surface! Someof the Most beuatiful and obscure font colllections ive ever seen covering every aspect of print and typography from every era and generation. WOW! not to mention the awesome and amazingly knowledgeable staff. A must for all on a mission to find, 'something like this but...ummm but a bit like this...' ' oh i know just the book.' YUSS.
Anyway while there i came across this HUGE book from the 50's full of every font i think id every want. i mean it was MASSIVE!... too-heavy-to-accidently-let-slip--in-to-your-bag-massive. I found out it was a catalogue byNew York type pioneers Photo-lettering. Inc. i had heard a little bit about these guys through this House industries project.
Photo-Lettering was a mainstay of the advertising and design industry in New York City from 1936 to 1997. PLINC, as it was affectionately known to art directors, was one of the earliest and most successful type houses to utilize photo technology in the production of commercial typography and lettering. It employed such design luminaries as Ed Benguiat and sold type drawn by the likes of Herb Lubalin, Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast as well as countless other unsung lettering greats. The company is best known by most of today's graphic designers for its ubiquitous type catalogs.
Info from Photolettering.com
In an age where its so easy to grab fonts from various 'sources' and find 'cool styles' detached from context on sites such as ffffound and flikr, its great to find out about the processes designs pioneers had to go through to achieve the visuals and influence we take for granted. House are now using modern technology to bring photo lettering back making it relevant again, CHECK THIS OUT!
SNOW
This articooool seems apt to read right now.
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