THE CRYSTAL GOBLET
BEATRICE WARDE
Dedicated to Beatrice Warde (1900–1969) and all my teachers
TABLE OF CONTENTS PART 1 Beatrice Warde The Crystal Goblet Baskerville Old Face PART 2 Jamie Clarke The Evolution of Chromatic Type Granville
Beatrice Lamberton Warde was a renowned writer and scholar of typography in century. Born on September 20, 1900, she was the only daughter of May Lambert journalist of the New York Herald Tribune, and Gustave Becker who was a co teacher. Raised in New York, she studied at Barnard College and was introduced calligraphy at the age of thirteen. Accordingly, she developed an interest in typogr eatrice but Lamberton Warde wasinathe renowned writersince “the prin history of letterforms was not able to work printing trade andonscholar of typography in that’s the twentieth barred to women, the craftsman level…and been truecentury. for many centuries.”1
About Beatrice Warde
B
Born on September 20, 1900,asshe was the librarian only to the Am After graduation in 1921, Warde was appointed the assistant daughter ofrecommendation May Lamberton a journalist of Founders Company by the of Becker, Bruce Rogers, an American typograp designer. In Jersey sheTribune, focused on self-education and research as she worked the New York City, Herald and Gustave Becker who was Lewis Bullen, a and printer and typographic Meanwhile, she at married Frede a composer teacher. Raised in archivist. New York, she studied 1922. While working there, she was intrigued by the origins of the Garamond type Barnard College and was introduced to the art of calligraphy said, in 1925, she moved to Europe as she saw the future of typographic and book at the in ageLondon. of thirteen. Accordingly, she developed an interest blooming in typography and the history of letterforms but was not able
In 1926, Beatrice Warde published the results of her investigation on the Garamond to work in the printing trade since “the printing trade is barred The Fleuron under the pen-name “Paul Beaujon.” On that account, Lansto to women, on the offered craftsman true for Corporation executives her level…and the part-timethat’s post been as an editor of the Monoty 1 whomany were centuries.” surprise that “Paul Beaujon” was not an old man but a young lady. In 1 promoted as the manager of the publicity department and helped promote Eric Gil After graduation in 1921, Warde was appointed as the who was one of her acquaintances, with her famous broadside “This is a Printin assistant the American Type FoundersNewsletter, Company where her im 1932, Wardelibrarian initiated, to edited and designed the Monotype by the of these Bruce Rogers, some an American showing newrecommendation typefaces has made Newsletters of the most stimulati communication design in England. After successful years of publications and a typographer and type designer. In Jersey City, she focused Warde retired in 1960. on self-education and research as she worked under Henry
From 1927 to 1960, Beatrice Warde toured printingMeanwhile, schools in England an Lewis Bullen, a printer and typographic archivist. 2 “apprentices about the needWarde for good and typography.” With her great in she married Frederic in printing 1922. While working there, consciously emphasized her femininity in a male dominated profession that could h she was intrigued by the origins of the Garamond type design. her credibility by stating that “anyone who has a good sense of design can make the That said, shehemoved toaEurope she saw3 the future know their stuffin–1925, whether or she is man or aaswoman.”
of typographic and book design was blooming in London.
In 1955, Warde published “The Crystal Goblet” or “Printing Should Be Invisible,” a 1926, Warde of her investigation essay on In typography. This published publicationthe wasresults filled her enthusiasm and has, ever sinc countless people. Throughout essay,Fleuron Warde argues that pen-name it is necessary to creat on Garamond’s origins the in The under the book pages to ease On the reading flow Lanston while keeping discipline and humility balance “Paul Beaujon.” that account, Monotype Corporation her essay is historically notable as a call for increased clarity in printing and typog executives offered her the part-time post as an editor of the now significant as a common reading in the study of typography and graphic design.
Monotype Recorder, who were surprise that “Paul Beaujon”
De Bondt, “Beatrice Warde: Mannersand andType”, Type”, Eye,, http://www.eyemagazine. De1Bondt, Sara.Sara. “Beatrice Warde: Manners http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/a warde-manners-and-type. Accessed January 20th, 2020. com/feature/article/beatrice-warde-manners-and-type. Accessed on January 20th, 2020. 2 University of Brighton Design Archives, “Beatrice Warde (1900 - 1969),” University of Brighton, http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/design-archives/resources/Women-Designing-1994/European-Fe Research-Conference/beatrice-warde-1900-1969. Accessed on January 20th, 2020. 3 Ibid. 1
Beatrice Lamberton Warde was a renowned writer and scholar of typography in the t cholar of typography in the century. Born on twentieth September 20, 1900, she was the only daughter of May Lamberton B aughter of journalist May Lamberton a Herald Tribune, and Gustave Becker who was a comp of the Becker, New York ve Becker teacher. who wasRaised a composer and in New York, she studied at Barnard College and was introduced to t lege and was introduced to the calligraphy at the ageart of of thirteen. Accordingly, she developed an interest in typography oped ped an interest in typography and thewas not able to work in the printing trade since “the printing history of letterforms but was“the notprinting an old man young lady. In 1929, she was nting trade barred since is but alevel…and to women, ontrade the craftsman that’s been true for many centuries.”1 1 promoted to manager of the publicity department and rue for many centuries.” After graduation in 1921, Warde wastypefaces, appointed as the was assistant helped promote Eric Gill’s who onelibrarian of her to the Americ sistant librarian to theCompany AmericanbyType Founders the recommendation of Bruce Rogers, an American acquaintances, with her famous broadside “This is a Printing typographer ers, rs, an American typographer and type designer. In Jersey City, she focused on self-education anddesigned research asthe she worked und Office.” Inunder 1932, Warde initiated, edited and d research as she worked Henry Lewis Bullen, a printer and typographic archivist. Meanwhile, she married Frederic W Monotype Newsletter, her imagination in showing while, she married Frederic Warde in shewhere 1922. While working there, was intrigued by the origins of the Garamond type desi new typefaces has made these Newsletters someofoftypographic the most and book de ns of the Garamond type design. That said, in 1925, she moved to Europe as she saw the future of typographic and book design was stimulating pieces of communication design in England. After blooming in London.
successful years of publications and achievements, Warde
In 1926, Beatrice Warde published the results of her investigation on the Garamond’s o in 1960. tigation onThe theretired Garamond’s origins Fleuron under the inpen-name “Paul Beaujon.” On that account, Lanston M n that account, Lanston Monotype From 1927 to 1960,herBeatrice Warde toured printing Corporation executives offered the part-time post as an editor of the Monotype R an editor of the Monotype Recorder, who were surprise that “Paul not an old man butthe a young schools in England andBeaujon” talked towas apprentices about needlady. In 1929, an but a young lady. In she wasof the publicity department and helped promote Eric Gill’s ty promoted as 1929, the manager for good printing and typography. With her great influence, helped promote Eric Gill’s typefaces, who wasconsciously one of her acquaintances, withher her famous broadside is a Printing Of she emphasized femininity in a“This male adside “This is a Warde Printing Office”.edited In and designed 1932, initiated, the Monotype Newsletter, where her imagi dominated profession that could have doubted her credibility Newsletter,showing where her newimagination typefaces in has made these Newsletters some of the most stimulating p by stating that “anyone who has good sense of of design can and achie me of the most stimulatingdesign pieces communication inofEngland. Aftera successful years publications rs of publications and make theachievements, grade Warde retired in 1960.if they know their stuff — whether he or she is
a man or a woman.”2
From 1927 to 1960, Beatrice Warde toured printing schools in England and t 2 schools in“apprentices England to for In and 1955, Warde published “The Goblet” abouttalked the need good printing and Crystal typography.” Withor her great influe 2 aphy.” With her great emphasized influence, “Printing Should she Befemininity Invisible,” a well-known essay on consciously her in a male dominated profession that could have ed profession that could have doubted hertypography. credibility by This stating that “anyone who a good of design and can make the grad publication was has filled hersense enthusiasm e of designknow can make the grade if theyhe or she is a man or a woman.”3 their stuff – whether has, ever since, influenced countless people. Throughout the
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essay,Warde Warde argues“The thatCrystal it is necessary create Should transparent In 1955, published Goblet” orto“Printing Be Invisible,” a we ng Should Be Invisible,” a well-known book pages to ease readingwas flowfilled while discipline essay on typography. Thisthe publication her keeping enthusiasm and has, ever since, in usiasm and countless has, everhumility since, influenced people. Throughout essay, Warde is necessary to create tra and balanced.the That said, herargues essaythatis ithistorically at it is necessary to create transparent book pages to ease the reading flow while keeping discipline and humility balanced. T notable as a call for increased clarity in printing and typography line and humility balanced. That said, herand essay is historically notable as a call for increased clarity in printing istypography now significant as a common reading in the study ofand typograph rity in printing and is reading now and significant as a common in the study of typography and graphic design. typography raphy and graphic design. and graphic design. (Falé Do)
De Bondt, Sara. “Beatrice Warde: Manners and Type”, Eye, http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article ww.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/beatricewarde-manners-and-type. Accessed January 20th, 2020. 2 2 University of Brighton Design Archives, “BeatriceWarde Warde(1900 (1900—1969),” University of Brighton Design Archives, “Beatrice - 1969),” University University of Brighton, Brighton, http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/design-archives/resources/Women69),” University of Brighton, http://arts.brighton.ac.uk/collections/design-archives/resources/Women-Designing-1994/European-Femini Designing-1994/European-Feminist-Research-Conference/beatrice-warde-1900-1969. n-Designing-1994/European-Feminist-Designing-1994/European-FeministResearch-Conference/beatrice-warde-1900-1969. Accessed on January 20th, 2020. 20th, 2020. 3 Ibid. Accessed on January 20th, 2020. 3 Ibid. 1
THE CRYSTAL GOBLET
I
magine that you have before you a flagon of wine. You may choose your own favourite vintage for this imaginary demonstration, so that it be a deep shimmering crimson in colour. You have two goblets before you. One is of solid gold, wrought in the most exquisite patterns. The other is of crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent. Pour and drink; and according to your choice of goblet, I shall know whether or not you are a connoisseur of wine. For if you have no feelings about wine one way or the other, you will want the sensation of drinking the stuff out of a vessel that may have cost thousands of pounds; but if you are a member of that vanishing tribe, the amateurs of fine vintages, you will choose the crystal, because everything about it is calculated to reveal rather than hide the beautiful thing which it was meant to contain. Bear with me in this long-winded and fragrant metaphor; for you will find that almost all the virtues of the perfect wineglass have a parallel in typography. There is the long, thin stem that obviates fingerprints on the bowl. Why? Because no cloud must come between your eyes and the fiery heart of the liquid. Are not the margins on book pages similarly meant to obviate the necessity of fingering the type-page? Again: the glass is colourless or at the most only faintly tinged in the bowl, because the connoisseur judges wine partly by its colour and is impatient of anything that alters it. There are a thousand mannerisms in typography that are as impudent and arbitrary as putting port in tumblers of red or green glass! When a goblet has a base that looks too small for security, it does not matter how cleverly it is weighted; you feel nervous lest it should tip over. There are ways of setting lines of type which may work well enough, and yet keep the reader subconsciously worried by the fear of “doubling” lines, reading three words as one, and so forth.
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BEATRICE WARDE
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Now the man who first chose glass instead of clay or metal to hold his wine was a “modernist” in the sense in which I am going to use that term. That is, the first thing he asked of his particular object was not “How should it look?” but “What must it do?” and to that extent all good typography is modernist. Wine is so strange and potent a thing that it has been used in the central ritual of religion in one place and time, and attacked by a virago with a hatchet in another. There is only one thing in the world that is capable of stirring and altering men’s minds to the same extent, and that is the coherent expression of thought. That is man’s chief miracle, unique to man. There is no “explanation” whatever of the fact that I can make arbitrary sounds which will lead a total stranger to think my own thought. It is sheer magic that I should be able to hold a one-sided conversation by means of black marks on paper with an unknown person half-way across the world. Talking, broadcasting, writing, and printing are all quite literally forms of thought transference, and it is the ability and eagerness to transfer and receive the contents of the mind that is almost alone responsible for human civilization. If you agree with this, you will agree with my one main idea, i.e. that the most important thing about printing is that it conveys thought, ideas, images, from one mind to other minds. This statement is what you might call the front door of the science of typography. Within lie hundreds of rooms; but unless you start by assuming that printing is meant to convey specific and coherent ideas, it is very easy to find yourself in the wrong house altogether. Before asking what this statement leads to, let us see what it does not necessarily lead to. If books are printed in order to be read, we must distinguish readability from what the optician would call legibility. A page set in 14-pt Bold Sans
THE CRYSTAL GOBLET
is, according to the laboratory tests, more “legible” than one set in 11-pt Baskerville. A public speaker is more “audible” in that sense when he bellows. But a good speaking voice is one which is inaudible as a voice. It is the transparent goblet again! I need not warn you that if you begin listening to the inflections and speaking rhythms of a voice from a platform, you are falling asleep. When you listen to a song in a language you do not understand, part of your mind actually does fall asleep, leaving your quite separate aesthetic sensibilities to enjoy themselves unimpeded by your reasoning faculties. The fine arts do that; but that is not the purpose of printing. Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas. We may say, therefore, that printing may be delightful for many reasons, but that it is important, first and foremost, as a means of doing something. That is why it is mischievous to call any printed piece a work of art, especially fine art: because that would imply that its first purpose was to exist as an expression of beauty for its own sake and for the delectation of the senses. Calligraphy can almost be considered a fine art nowadays, because its primary economic and educational purpose has been taken away; but printing in English will not qualify as an art until the present English language no longer conveys ideas to future generations, and until printing itself hands its usefulness to some yet unimagined successor. There is no end to the maze of practices in typography, and this idea of printing as a conveyor is, at least in the minds of all the great typographers with whom I have had the privilege of talking, the one clue that can guide you through the maze. Without this essential humility of mind, I have seen ardent designers go more hopelessly wrong, make more ludicrous mistakes out of an excessive enthusiasm, than I could have thought possible. And with this clue, this purposiveness in the
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back of your mind, it is possible to do the most unheard-of things, and find that they justify you triumphantly. It is not a waste of time to go to the simple fundamentals and reason from them. In the flurry of your individual problems, I think you will not mind spending half an hour on one broad and simple set of ideas involving abstract principles. I once was talking to a man who designed a very pleasing advertising type which undoubtedly all of you have used. I said something about what artists think about a certain problem, and he replied with a beautiful gesture: “Ah, madam, we artists do not think—we feel!” That same day I quoted that remark to another designer of my acquaintance, and he, being less poetically inclined, murmured: “I’m not feeling very well today, I think!” He was right, he did think; he was the thinking sort; and that is why he is not so good a painter, and to my mind ten times better as a typographer and type designer than the man who instinctively avoided anything as coherent as a reason. I always suspect the typographic enthusiast who takes a printed page from a book and frames it to hang on the wall, for I believe that in order to gratify a sensory delight he has mutilated something infinitely more important. I remember that T.M. Cleland, the famous American typographer, once showed me a very beautiful layout for a Cadillac booklet involving decorations in colour. He did not have the actual text to work with in drawing up his specimen pages, so he had set the lines in Latin. This was not only for the reason that you will all think of; if you have seen the old type foundries’ famous Quousque Tandem copy (i.e. that Latin has few descenders and thus gives a remarkably even line). No, he told me that originally he had set up the dullest “wording” that he could find (I dare say it was from Hansard), and yet he discovered that the man to whom he submitted it would start reading and making comments on the text. I made some remark on the
THE CRYSTAL GOBLET
mentality of Boards of Directors, but Mr. Cleland said, “No: you’re wrong; if the reader had not been practically forced to read—if he had not seen those words suddenly imbued with glamour and significance—then the layout would have been a failure. Setting it in Italian or Latin is only an easy way of saying ‘This is not the text as it will appear.’” Let me start my specific conclusions with book typography, because that contains all the fundamentals, and then go on to a few points about advertising. The book typographer has the job of erecting a window between the reader inside the room and that landscape which is the author’s words. He may put up a stained-glass window of marvellous beauty, but a failure as a window; that is, he may use some rich superb type like text gothic that is something to be looked at, not through. Or he may work in what I call transparent or invisible typography. I have a book at home, of which I have no visual recollection whatever as far as its typography goes; when I think of it, all I see is the Three Musketeers and their comrades swaggering up and down the streets of Paris. The third type of window is one in which the glass is broken into relatively small leaded panes; and this corresponds to what is called “fine printing” today, in that you are at least conscious that there is a window there, and that someone has enjoyed building it. That is not objectionable, because of a very important fact which has to do with the psychology of the subconscious mind. That is that the mental eye focuses through type and not upon it. The type which, through any arbitrary warping of design or excess of “colour,” gets in the way of the mental picture to be conveyed, is a bad type. Our subconsciousness is always afraid of blunders (which illogical setting, tight spacing and too-wide unleaded lines can trick us into), of boredom, and of officiousness. The running headline that keeps shouting at us, the line that looks like one
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long word, the capitals jammed together without hair-spaces— these mean subconscious squinting and loss of mental focus. And if what I have said is true of book printing, even of the most exquisite limited editions, it is fifty times more obvious in advertising, where the one and only justification for the purchase of space is that you are conveying a message— that you are implanting a desire, straight into the mind of the reader. It is tragically easy to throw away half the reader interest of an advertisement by setting the simple and compelling argument in a face which is uncomfortably alien to the classic reasonableness of the book-face. Get attention as you will by your headline, and make any pretty type pictures you like if you are sure that the copy is useless as a means of selling goods; but if you are happy enough to have really good copy to work with, I beg you to remember that thousands of people pay hard-earned money for the privilege of reading quietly set book-pages, and that only your wildest ingenuity can stop people from reading a really interesting text. Printing demands a humility of mind, for the lack of which many of the fine arts are even now floundering in self-conscious and maudlin experiments. There is nothing simple or dull in achieving the transparent page. Vulgar ostentation is twice as easy as discipline. When you realize that ugly typography never effaces itself; you will be able to capture beauty as the wise men capture happiness by aiming at something else. The “stunt typographer” learns the fickleness of rich men who hate to read. Not for them are long breaths held over serif and kern, they will not appreciate your splitting of hair-spaces. Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind.
A NOTE ON THE TYPE
THE TEXT of this book is set in Baskerville Old Face, a transitional serif typeface designed by the British printer and type designer Isaac Moore in 1768. It has multiple derived versions, that is to say that John Baskerville was the creator of the Baskerville typeface, Edmund Fry collaborated with Moore for the Fry’s Baskerville, Stephenson Blake revived Baskerville by issuing it in eight sizes in 1928 and Matthew Carter created Big Moore, in 2014, to restore the Old style figures. Baskerville’s type featured text figures or lower-case numbers, meaning that the roman numerals would be aligned with the capitals. The capitals are very bold and like Caslon’s have been criticized for being unbalanced to the lowercase at large sizes. Nonetheless, it is distinguished by marked contrasts of thick and thin strokes, which makes the typeface looks good in large size. No type library is complete without at least one version of a Baskerville face. The serifs are flat, but otherwise Old Face traditions are observed.
Typography and binding design by Falé Do
NOTES
NOTES
Disclaimer The following information is written for educational purpose and has no intention in monetizing the book nor offend the original authors. In addition, information about the publishing company is imaginary and fictional. Copyright © 2020 Lam Ky Anh Do All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review. All information and characters in this book are borrowed. Plagiarism is not intended by the author. Except from the book The Crystal Goblet by Beatrice Warde and the article The Evolution of Chromatic Type in I Love Typography by Jamie Clarke. Reprinted by permission. Editing by Lam Ky Anh Do. Front cover image by Lam Ky Anh Do All images by found on Jamie Clarke’s article in I Love Typography Book design by Lam Ky Anh Do Printed by Rubiks in Canada First printing in February 2020 Published by Lam Ky Anh Do 228 rue Darwin Montréal, QC, H3E 1C6 www.dlka.ca
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