Custom Lettering of the ’20s and ’30s

Introduction Introduction Theenduring enduring quality The quality greatlettering lettering ofofgreat

the beginning, of course, hand-sethand-set wooden Hohlwein, one of Germany's n the nbeginning, of course, wooden and metaland type.metal type. Hohlwein, one of Germany's most prolific most prolific lettering was always Against this background, multi-talented famous lettering was always writtenwrittenAgainst this background, multi-talented and famous and poster artists,poster never artists, failed to never failed t by hand. commercial artists and cartoonistsinclude scrumptious include scrumptious in his work by hand. commercial artists and cartoonists lettering in hislettering work later, moveable type came tended to tended toown do their ownwhich lettering, which was asimportant intrinsically important to the MuchMuch later, moveable type came do their lettering, that was as that intrinsically to the and mechanised the arduous could becould be as playful and exuberant as as the art designers itself. Clearly, designers alongalong and mechanised the arduous as playful and exuberant as design as thedesign art itself.

Clearly, process of reproducing manuscripts,their art.their art. The best newspapers, onofboth sides ofwere the taking Atlantic were taking process of reproducing manuscripts, The best newspapers, comics, comics, on both sides the Atlantic church statutes so forth. print advertising print advertising andwere posters wereinspiration from inspiration thepeers. work of their peers. church edicts,edicts, statutes and soand forth. and posters the workfrom of their meticulous carving and engraving, artists came the With With meticulous carving and engraving, done by done artistsby who wouldwho notwould have not have Change cameChange in the form ofinthe Artform of the Art and metal type betomade todreameddreamed letting a traditional Deco movement Decothat movement had been gaining woodwood and metal type can becan made of letting of a traditional had beenthat gaining approximate the lavish eccentricities of typesetter hamper the final ground in Europe approximate the lavish eccentricities of typesetter hamper the final work; therework; there ground in Europe since the turnsince of thethe turn of the lettering, though does was great pridelettering. in great lettering. century, andcentury, and which into world handhand lettering, though it doesitnot lendnot lend was great pride in great which exploded into exploded world tocustomised such customised Which us to the attention in 1925.

Seemingly overnight itselfitself easilyeasily to such results.results.Which brings usbrings to the 1920s and1920s andattention in 1925.

Seemingly overnight So, even the development of a period whentype foundry wasnew lookthis new look theinold, not only So, even as theasdevelopment of 1930s, a 1930s, period when foundry was typethis overtook the overtook old, not only foundry type progressed, the tradition for the more mundane the graphic arts,area but of in every area of foundry type progressed, the tradition used forused the more mundane aspects ofaspects theofgraphic arts, but in every of hand lettering remained printing, yetenduring a strong, enduring design.

The softly forms of of hand lettering remained strong,strong, businessbusiness printing, yet a strong, design. The softly rounded formsrounded of especially among sign painters of handflourished, lettering flourished, 1920s lettering became especially among sign painters and and traditiontradition of hand lettering 1920s lettering became sharp, severe sharp, severe showcard writers who, valued precisely because its designand was andIngeometric.

In inGreat showcard writers – those– those who, prior toprior to valued precisely because its design was geometric.

Great Britain 1928 Britain in 1928 approximately forty ago, years ago, andbeitmore couldexciting be more exciting EricGill GillSans, created while in German approximately forty years had no had no exclusiveexclusive and it could Eric Gill created whileGill in Sans, Germany mechanical such as computerand expressive and expressive Rudolph KochKabel introduced mechanical meansmeans such as computer than type.than type.

Rudolph Koch introduced in 1927. Kabel in 1927. plotters and cutters laser cutters with which Just as inJust asother in every andnew sans-serif This new sans-serifwas avant-garde was sa plotters and laser with which every era other beforeera andbefore This avant-garde said mechanise their processes.

1920s to their own to have caused an uproar among theythey couldcould mechanise their processes. after, theafter, 1920sthe gave rise gave to theirrise own to have caused an uproar among today, Opentype stylistic vocabulary.

Certain celebrated traditional American printers.

EvenEven today, when when Opentype permitspermits stylistic vocabulary.

Certain celebrated traditional American printers. to contain alternate artists made significant contributions to California, a design fontsfonts to contain many many alternate artists made significant contributions to California, a design centre then ascentre now, then as now characters thatbecan be automaticallythe formthe form took: lettering took: the American had always displayed certain verve an characters that can automatically lettering the American had always displayed a certain vervea and chosen to optimise letterthere pairs, thereillustrator illustrator Fred G.cartoon Cooper's cartoonexuberant character exuberant character design and it wa chosen to optimise letter pairs, Fred G. Cooper's in design and itinwas canbestill be a certain repetitive advertisements, always accompanied quickArt to embrace Art Deco. can still a certain repetitive advertisements, always accompanied quick to embrace Deco. Hollywood, of Hollywood, o sameness to fonts, especially by hisstyle unique style of–lettering – a course, required course, requiredofaads multitude sameness to fonts, especially those those by his unique of lettering a a multitude and of ads and lettering.

I'm in doubt, funky adaptation – postersthe to promote the movies, and that that mimicmimic hand hand lettering.

If I'm in Ifdoubt, rounded,rounded, funky adaptation of Caslon –of Caslon posters to promote movies, and I’ll check logo or headline for repeated was ubiquitous in the advertising capital of the most exciting and arresting I’ll check a logoaor headline for repeated was ubiquitous in the advertising capital some of the some most exciting and arresting characters – if every lower"a"case "a" of New York, of New and his all-lettered food lettering came from this milieu. Common characters – if every lower case andYork, his all-lettered food lettering came from this milieu.

Common the same, it's a font. driveduring posters during – with its rigidly set, straigh lookslooks the same, it's a font. drive posters World WarWorld I wereWar I were typographytypography – with its rigidly set, straight, Bylate the1800s late 1800s hand-drawn also highly influential. of leaded lines leaded linescompete – couldwith not compete with th By the hand-drawn type, type,also highly influential.

Examples Examples of – could not this its Victorian extravagances, work appeared in a multitude custom every film with with all itsall Victorian extravagances, had had Cooper'sCooper's work appeared in a multitude hand-drawnhand-drawn custom lettering; everylettering; film started to loosen and become on thearts graphic arts published was accompanied by a "press book" started to loosen up andup become more more of booksofonbooks the graphic published was accompanied by a "press book" playful.

High-circulation newspapers in the US,inand theThe US,Studio and The Studio of and featuring posters and press advertiseplayful.

High-circulation newspapers of London andLondonfeaturing posters and press advertiseand magazines to flourish the publication German publication which combined photos, illustraand magazines beganbegan to flourish along along the German Gebrauchs-Gebrauchs-ments whichments combined photos, illustraimproved printing techniques. graphik included graphik monographs included monographs of histions and hand-drawn tions and hand-drawn with with improved printing techniques. of his type. In some type. In some Increasingly, publications work. American Another American such as San Increasingly, publications came tocame to work. Another designer, designer, cities such ascities San Francisco andFrancisco Denver, and Denver, feature andelaborate more elaborate Oswald Cooper Oswald(no Cooper (notorelation the larger movie theatres maintained feature largerlarger and more relation Fred), to Fred), the larger movie theatres maintained illustrations and engravings that viedcreated created his nowCooper famous Cooper their own arttheir own art departments to create illustrations and engravings that vied his now famous departments to create for space with had what had earlier in 1921, also featured custom advertisements, for space with what earlier been beentypefacetypeface in 1921, which alsowhich featured custom advertisements, one-of-a-kind one-of-a-kind row upon greyofrow of awkward lobby row upon grey row awkward friendly, friendly, rounded rounded serifs, andserifs, Ludwigand Ludwiglobby displays anddisplays short-runand short-run

6

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

Jewett Bubar Peck’s Bad Boy, 1934 Three-colour silkscreen Theatrical poster Jewett Bubar The Rich are Always With Us, 1932 Three-colour silkscreen Theatrical poster Don Sturdivant Modern Show Card and Theatrical Poster Lettering, 1948 Don Sturdivant Burleque advertisements, c1970

silkscreened posters. Often this work was superior in quality to that found in the film studios' press books.

Don Sturdivant, whose rare hand-drawn originals can be seen on the following pages, was a young apprentice at one such theatre art department during the late 1930s. His heroes were artists like Roy Fox, Irving Sinclair, and especially Jewett Bubar, who was the department's star. The sumptuous lettering these men produced – usually executed on a very large scale using a brush and poster paint, even when the intended advertisement would be reduced to only a small space – was as thrilling as that produced anywhere. We are fortunate that some of Bubar's originals were saved by Sturdivant, who in 1948 published Modern Theatrical and Poster Lettering.

Sturdivant, who was gay, ironically spent the final years of his life designing breathtaking ads, still in his classic 1930s lettering style, for San Francisco's Burlesque theatres.

These days it’s quite common for a client who wants a logo or title designed to begin the conversation with a discussion of fonts. I'm always aghast. Why, I wonder, would a company want to use a font that by its very nature is non-exclusive and any other company – perhaps a dozen others – might also select for their logo? If the client insists, I'll begin with an existing font and then customise it so that it’s exclusive to the project; more often, however, a concept comes to mind and I draw the lettering from scratch exactly as I envision it.

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

Although drawn on a computer, the result is still “hand lettering” in that each letter is tailored to its surrounding letters, and the letterforms themselves are designed to fit together as perfectly as possible in each particular setting. You might say that my approach – minus the use of a computer – is similar to that of the lettering designers of yesteryear. The custom aspect is what makes hand lettering so wonderful, as proven by the copious examples in this book.

For designers searching for inspiration in cases where a font just doesn’t have the requisite personality, we are fortunate to have the wonderful examples Rian Hughes has collected in this compendium of marvellous lettering from the 1920s and 1930s. These provide a broad range of examples from the master lettering artists of a golden age, but this is hardly the end of the story. Great examples are still awaiting discovery anywhere there is a flea market, a yard sale, or an online image collection. And quite possibly, this book will encourage you to put your own spin to this timeless style.

Zavier Leslie Cabarga Ojai, California

7

Introduction 20s Contents The enduring quality of great lettering n the Arched | 18beginning, of course, lettering was always written Serif by hand.

Sans serif Much later, moveable type came Decorative along and mechanised the arduous process of reproducing manuscripts, Blackletter | 21 churchOutline edicts, statutes and so forth.

With meticulous carving and engraving, Inline wood Decorative and metal type can be made to approximate the lavish eccentricities of hand Artlettering, Nouveauthough | 24 it does not lend itself easily Outlineto such customised results.

So, even as the development of Decorative foundry type progressed, the tradition of hand lettering remained strong, Victorian | 27 sign painters and especially among Outline showcard writers – those who, prior to Drop shadow approximately forty years ago, had no Banners mechanical means such as computer plotters and laser cutters with which | 28 their processes. theyHeavy couldSans mechanise Outlinewhen Opentype permits Even today, With Rules many alternate fonts to contain characters that can be automatically Geometric Decorative 30 chosen to optimise letter Sans pairs,| there can still be a certain repetitive Light Sans | 31 especially those sameness to fonts, that mimic hand lettering. If I'm in doubt, Condensed | 32 I’ll check a logoSans or headline for repeated characters – if every lower case "a" Thick/Thin looks the same,Sans it's a| 33 font.

Bold By the late 1800s hand-drawn type, with allLight its Victorian extravagances, had Ruled started to loosen up and become more playful.Flared High-circulation newspapers Condensedbegan to flourish along and magazines Casual printing techniques. with improved Italic publications came to Increasingly, feature larger and more elaborate illustrations and Octagonal | 45engravings that vied for space with what had earlier been row upon grey row of awkward

8

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

hand-set wooden Casual Sans | 46 and metal type.

Against this background, multi-talented Bounce commercial artists and cartoonists Outline/solid tended to do their own lettering, which Overlap could be as playful and exuberant as Arched their art. The best newspapers, comics, print advertising Casual Serif | 49 and posters were done by artists who would not have Bounce dreamed of letting a traditional Thick/Thin typesetter Angled hamper the final work; there was great pride in great lettering.

Arched Which Outlinebrings us to the 1920s and 1930s, a period when foundry type was Lined used for the more mundane aspects of Decorative business printing, yet a strong, enduring tradition of hand lettering flourished, Light Casual Serifbecause | 59 valued precisely its design was Bounceand it could be more exciting exclusive Outline and expressive than type.

Inlineas in every other era before and Just Lined after, the 1920s gave rise to their own Decorative stylistic vocabulary. Certain celebrated artists made significant contributions to Light Casual Sans |took: 66 the American the form lettering Outline Fred G. Cooper's cartoon illustrator Lined advertisements, always accompanied

by Decorative his unique style of lettering – a rounded, funky adaptation of Caslon – Thick/Thin Serifin| 68 was ubiquitous the advertising capital LinedYork, and his all-lettered food of New Decorative drive posters during World War I were Angular also highly influential. Examples of Light work appeared in a multitude Cooper's Bold on the graphic arts published of books ItalicUS, and The Studio of London and in the the German publication GebrauchsCondensed Serif |monographs 92 graphik included of his work. Another American designer, Monoline Serif | (no 94 relation to Fred), Oswald Cooper created his now famous Cooper typeface in 1921, Outline Serif | 99 which also featured friendly, rounded serifs, and Ludwig

Hohlwein, Rimmed | 102 one of Germany's most prolific and famous poster artists, never failed t Sans include scrumptious lettering in his work Serif that was as intrinsically important to the Decorative design as the art itself. Clearly, designers Arched on both sides of the Atlantic were taking Geometric inspiration from the work of their peers.

Script Change came in the form of the Art Deco movement Chipped/Eroded | 106that had been gaining ground in Europe since the turn of the Rough Brush century, Split Serif and which exploded into world attention in 1925. Seemingly overnight this new look overtook the old, not only Chisel the| 107 graphic arts, but in every area of Sans design. The softly rounded forms of Serif 1920s lettering became sharp, severe and geometric. In Great Britain in 1928 Combination | 108 Gill Sans, while in German Eric Gill created Sans/Script Rudolph Koch introduced Kabel in 1927.

Serif/Script This new sans-serif avant-garde was sa Roman/Decorative to have caused an uproar among Upright/Italic traditional American printers.

Solid/Inline California, a design centre then as now had always displayed a certain verve an Cooperesque exuberant| 114 character in design and it wa Heavy quick to embrace Art Deco. Hollywood, o Condensed course, required a multitude of ads and Casual posters to promote the movies, and Arched some of the most exciting and arresting lettering came from this milieu. Common Geometric Heavy–Sans 119rigidly set, straigh typography with| its leaded lines – could not compete with th Geometric Light Sans | 125lettering; every film hand-drawn custom With wasIllustration accompanied by a "press book" Outline featuring posters and press advertisements which combined photos, illustraDecorative Fillhand-drawn | 130 tions and type. In some Zig-zag cities such as San Francisco and Denver, Stripes the larger movie theatres maintained their own art departments to create Curlicues custom advertisements, one-of-a-kind Sans lobby displays and short-run Serif

Decorative | 133 Floral Curlicues Inline Outline Textured Rules and Borders

Lined | 162 Multi-line Horizontal lines Vertical lines Sans Serif

Script | 203 Brush Pen Formal Casual Linked Unlinked

Note: Many type samples could be assigned to several categories.

Speedlines | 170 Electricity/Lightning | 138 Speedlines Illustrated Decorative Horizontal Emphasis | 140 Sans Serif Foreign | 142 Highlight | 143 Inline Sans Serif Circles/Ellipses | 144 Diamonds | 147

Numbers | 172 Highlight In panels Italic Representational | 174 Paint Music Nuts Balloons Fire Fabric Illustrated | 176 Il Figures Animals Transport Books Cartoons

Banners | 148 Lens | 150 Perspective | 151 Tapered | 152 Panels | 153 Inline | 156 Sans Serif

Rounded stroke | 200 Sans Serif Bold Light Italic Inline Outline Arched Decorative

Monoline Script | 209 Linked Unlinked Graphic Upright Script | 212 Linked Unlinked Pen Script | 213 Calligraphic Formal Shadow | 214 Sans Serif Bounce Square | 216 Light Bold Thick/Thin Lined Geometric Stencil | 217 Stencil Casual Textured Interior | 218 Triangular | 221

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

9

1920s

Circles/Ellipses

144

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

1920s

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

145

Circles/Ellipses

1930s

Condensed Sans

312

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

1930s

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

313

Condensed Sans

1930s

Spooky

556

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

1930s

Custom Lettering of the 20s and 30s

557

Spooky

CUSTOM LETTERING OF THE ’20S AND ’30S Flexibound Size: 225 mm x 225 mm 576 pages ISBN: 9780957664951 Available from all good bookshops and online at:

www.koreropress.com

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US $45.00 CAN $58.95 UK £29.99

ISBN 978-0-957664-95-1

A sourcebook of vintage typographic inspiration Custom Lettering of the ’20s and ’30s is a celebration of the beautiful and stylistically diverse handdrawn styles that were a unique feature of headline type before the advent of the computer.

This collection features over 6,500 examples, from the geometric moderne of Art Deco to the expressive gestural urgency of brush script.

An essential sourcebook for typographers, graphic designers, art directors and design students.

“A labour of loving typographic archaeology by the type designer and illustrator Rian Hughes. These custom-drawn headlines and titles capture the flavour of mainstream vernacular typography before a new breed of art directors and lettering systems swept them and their pen- and brush-wielding creators away.”

—Eye “A chunky doorstopper collection of fonts. A pure shot of picture-book pleasure, each page crammed full of hand-drawn lettering.”

–Grafik “Current Design Week fave is the swinging pages of Custom Lettering of the ’60s and ’70s. Groovy.”

—Design Week

“If you are into type I defy you to open any page in this thick, chunky book and not be grabbed.

A cornucopia of type ideas for that next ad campaign or magazine article headline.”

—Parka Blogs “A treasure trove of amazing typography for any hardcore type addict.”

—Pica-n-Pixel “Truly unique lettering.“ —Retro to Go “Custom Lettering of the ’60s and ’70s was one of my favourite books of 2010. Pure typographic pornography.”

—Drawn