Paul Shaw Letter Design

Sign for Savoy Taylors Guild Ltd., The Strand, London (c.1906).

Sgraffito on a wall in the Giudecca section of Venice.

Detail of a neon sign for a barbershop in Grottaferrata, Italy.

Detail of page from Les Ecritures Financiere, et Italienne-Bastarde (1647) by Louis Barbedor, a French writing master.

Detail of store sign for Cortese Frizzoti in Venice. The letters in black have been painted over a gold ground which covers a former store name in mosaic tile.

Medieval inscription in Round Gothic capitals. In the cloister of S. Giovanni in Laterano in Rome.

Capital E and G stencils from collection of Eric Kindel, Reading, England.

Ghost signs with printer’s fist on wall of Rue de la Commune in Montreal.

Detail of painted directional sign for Coney Island covering mosaic sign indicating Up Town Trains. 53rd Street station of the R line in Brooklyn.

Punches for punctuation cut by Giambattista Bodoni at the Museo Bodoniano in Parma, Italy.

Detail of cover of Warren’s Standard Printing Papers specimen book by S.D. Warren (1929). Design, ornament and lettering by W.A. Dwiggins.

21 September 2018

Legacy of Letters

Legacy of Letters 2019: Tipo Cibo Vino

Tipo
Wood type at the Tipoteca Italiana Fondazione in Cornuda. Photograph by Patricia Vining (2012).
Cibo
Food stall in Venice. Photograph by Patricia Vining (2012).
Vino
Display of antique grappa bottles at the Poli Museo del Grappa in Bassano del Grappa. Photograph by David Wolske (2013).
Tipo Cibo Vino
Legacy of Letters 2019
Letterpress workshop with Peter Kruty Editions
Tipoteca
Cornuda, Italy
July 3–13, 2019
$3850 [$3300 early bird discount]
space limited to 12 participants*
CONCEPT
The 2019 edition of Legacy of Letters will have the theme Tipo Cibo Vino. Our guest artists will be …
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19 September 2018

Blue Pencil

The Definitive Dwiggins no. 176—A Note on a Note in Towards a Reform of the Paper Currency

*The Society of Calligraphers of Boston, a group of experts whose authority in the realm of graphic art is unquestioned, goes on record with the opinion: “It is not possible to discuss the designs [for the paper currency] without heat. They infuriate you because you cannot get at them. They are beyond the reach of criticism. They are safe—as an idiot is safe anywhere, in any community, savage or civilized. They are made immune by hideous deformity.… The artistic value …
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14 September 2018

Blue Pencil

By the Numbers no. 2 addendum—Fat Face in Chicago

Obviously people had difficulty in seeing the address above the doorway. The only solution was to design the house number in a Fat Face so large that it had to be positioned vertically. It looks great except for the screen at the lower portion of the door. I think the numerals are made of steel.
House number in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Photograph by Paul Shaw (2005).

LEGACY OF LETTERS

HELVETICA SUBWAY

SHOP

CODEX, the journal of letterforms

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