U&lc Issue: Articles

The Speed and Grace of Roger Excoffon Exemplified in his ad campaigns for Air France and his artwork for the Olympic Games, French designer Roger Excoffon often combined strong letterforms with blurred imagery to evoke speed and movement. Discover Excoffon's most vital type designs — Banco, Choc, and Mistral — and take a journey with John Dreyfus as he reviews the life of his close friend and one of France's premier visualistes.

Eric Gill and the Golden Cockerel Press Creating a series of elegant, distinctive typefaces for the Golden Cockerel Press marked a dramatic turning point in the prodigious career of Eric Gill. Before starting the project in 1929, Gill had already earned a wide reputation in England as a sculptor, stonecutter, and wood-engraver — and also as a controversial socialist, pacifist, and liberal Catholic convert. The Golden Cockerel typefaces, commissioned specifically for a special edition of the Four Gospels, were his first efforts as a full-fledged type designer.

The Essential Books On Type Just what are the essential books on typography? The books listed here form a sort of canon of typographic works, covering typographic history, basic design principles, the lives and inspirations of famous type designers, and type specimen books. D.A. Hosek reviews his favorites.

Type By Definition Ever wonder what a pibble, pilcrow, or flubdub is? Or what hinting does? Then check Gene Gable's type term dictionary, which covers historical terms as well as those type terms born out of the computer age.

The Organic Vision of Charles Rennie Mackintosh The sensuous and organic imprint of Scottish architect, painter, and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh can best be seen in the details of the furniture, stained glass, tea rooms, and buildings he created. In conjunction with a major retrospective of his work, ITC has released three type designs inspired by Mackintosh's own handlettering and vision: ITC Rennie Mackintosh Light, ITC Rennie Mackintosh Bold, and ITC Rennie Mackintosh Ornaments.

A Youth in the Youth Culture: Steven Heller Having been born in the early 1950s was qualification enough to become a charter member of the Youth Culture. Membership was not only free but forced upon a generation that marketeers and advertising experts had targeted as a consumer wellspring. Yet despite the demographic nomenclature, Youth Culture was actually comprised of real people caught up in the flow of real life during a real epoch of social, cultural, and political flux.

Aural Fixations: Peter Hall It sounds like the perfect position for a creative designer. A chance to work with your idols. An endless supply of free music. A constant demand for originality and innovation. The potential for awards, even immortalization with the likes of Peter Blake and Andy Warhol in history books. And yet, the experience of designing CD covers for the music business brings designers to tears.

To Justify Or Not To Justify It sounds like the perfect position for a creative designer. A chance to work with your idols. An endless supply of free music. A constant demand for originality and innovation. The potential for awards, even immortalization with the likes of Peter Blake and Andy Warhol in history books. And yet, the experience of designing CD covers for the music business brings designers to tears.

Contoversial Artist Damien Hirst: Margaret Richardson Work from young British artists is conceptual and dramatic. So are the graphic treatments conveying this art. Two art events occurred simultaneously in September in London: the publication of the book by artist Damien Hirst and the opening of “Sensation,” the young British artists exhibition at the Royal Academy (which includes the work of Damien Hirst)..

The nature of the type world keeps changing. And any online publication is, by definition, about change. U&lc Online began life as an online companion to U&lc, ITC’s award-winning magazine; from here on in, it will begin a new life, in a new format, as ITC’s online voice. Expect the unexpected. U&lc Online is ITC’s international journal of graphic design and digital media. U&lc Online needs no subscription; it’s part of the ITC web site, itcfonts.com. To read U&lc Online, just bookmark this page and check it out every month.