Designing
Type
by Karen Cheng
New Haven CT: Yale University Press, 2006
224 pp., illus. 70 b/w, 100 col. Paper,
$29.95
ISBN: 0-300-11150-9.
Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens
Department of Art, University of Northern
Iowa
ballast@netins.net
One of the greatest challenges in graphic
design is that of trying to invent a new
typeface. One reason for this difficulty
is that there already exist a huge number
of typefaces (10 years ago, according
to this book, there were about 50,000)
so it requires considerable ingenuity
just to come up with a type style that
isnt already in use. (As quoted
here, a type designer named Kent Lew,
originates typefaces by using what-if
scenarios, e.g., "What if [the typeface]
Joanna had been designed by W.A. Dwiggins,
instead of by Eric Gill? What if Mozart
had been a punch cutterrather than
a composer?").
The bottom line is that designing a typeface
is a complex and often gargantuan task.
Every typeface, as the author of this
book explains, "is a system of forms
balanced between unity and variety."
In other words, each character in its
alphabet must be at once distinguishable
from all other characters, so that no
two are confused, and yet they also have
to rhyme, in order to function effectively
as a coherent type style. That might not
be such an ominous task if a designer
were only expected to make the upper and
lower case characters of the alphabet
and, of course, the numbers. But one also
has to design the punctuation, accent
marks and symbols, with the result that
the number of basic characters for any
typeface is around 200. And that does
not take into account such other essential
variants as italic, boldface, small caps,
ligatures, dingbats and so on. In addition,
there is the formidable task of making
certain that all characters, in whatever
combination, will work together perfectly
when arranged in sequence (the standard
test thats used for this is the
nonsense word hamburgefonsiv).
From this, you can begin to see why comparatively
few designers devote their lives (literally)
to typeface design, but also why we admire
the few who do so, and especially those
who do it well.
The author of this book is an expert in
typography (she teaches type design at
the University of Washington in Seattle),
and, while there are a number of excellent
print and web sources on this subject
(the best of which she shares with us),
this book is especially good. Of particular
interest are her students impressive
attempts to design their own typefaces.
Even if one is not a diehard type enthusiast,
this is such a strikingly beautiful book
that the journey from cover to cover will
be well worth the effort.
Reprinted by permission from Ballast
Quarterly Review from Vol 21 No 3
(Spring 2006).