»  bytes from the bird

As any good graphic designer knows, the look of a typeface can determine how readers perceive a word or phrase, a brand, or a company. And to fully understand how type works to communicate a marketing message, it helps to know the history of printed characters. 

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American and European type foundries – where type was designed and cast for commercial and industrial use  – churned out thousands of eccentrically decorative typefaces and typographic ornaments, most of it bought by printers. 

Back then advertising was a burgeoning industry, and the more outlandish display styles were conceived in equal measure to attract the public’s eye and to distinguish one merchant from the next.

TYPE: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume I, 1628-1900 is a new TASCHEN collection of exquisitely reproduced pages from an array of lusciously printed vintage foundry specimen books that were used to promote type fonts to commercial printers. Many quirky specimens in this compilation predate the mid-1800s, but most were produced in the second half of the 19th century, when fierce competition among foundries fostered an abundance of smartly designed and ludicrously gaudy faces. 

So let's hope Santa is listening . . .