When personal computers became de rigueur for the design world, their font lists standardized the array of typefaces available to layout artists and typesetters. But in the decades before computer dominance, hand-drawn fonts were the highlight of television, comic book and promotional design. Rian Hughes, an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, logo designer and typographer who has designed record album sleeves and worked in advertising and for i-D magazine, has combed the archives of custom lettering to bring together literally thousands--4,500, to be exact--examples of inspiring and enlightening hand-lettered fonts from the 60s and 70s. Motion and activity were key components of design in this jet-powered era; letters frequently seem to be racing across the page, leaning eagerly into the future, bursting in concentric arcs from a distant sun, exploding from a single perspective point at the bottom of the page or the rear of the picture plane, plumping themselves up into dramatic three-dimensional space, or a combination of two or more of these activities. With a distinct air of retro cool, but old enough to be rarely seen in print today, these letters will fascinate and inspire anybody who works with letters or is interested in the way they look: graphic designers, typographers, art directors, anybody who works in advertising, students, illustrators and lovers of vintage design of all sorts.
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"A labour of loving typographic archaeology by the type designer and illustrator Rian Hughes" Eye, Winter 2010/2011
About the Author
Rian Hughes is an award-winning graphic designer, illustrator, comic artist, logo designer and typographer. He studied graphic design at the London College of Printing before working for an advertising agency, 'i-D' magazine and a series of record sleeve design companies. In 1994, he founded his own studio, Device, and has since worked with a wide range of international clients in publishing, advertising, music and fashion. He has also worked extensively for the British and American comic book industries, both as artist and designer.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just your type,
This review is from: Custom Lettering of the 60s & 70s (Hardcover)
If you are into type I defy you to open any page in this thick, chunky book and not be grabbed. I would guess that each page has between six and nine examples of custom lettering all sorted into an amazing number of categories. The Contents for the 60s pages have forty-four sections with many sub-divisions: Geometric Sans is further divided into another eight sections. Rian Hughes says in his Intro (rather annoyingly set in six point) that he sorted out his collection of about 10,000 type examples into a hundred definable styles.Unlike lead set type, with its inflexibility, hand-lettering offered a chance for much more character and immediacy especially for headlines in ads and editorial. Apart from the logos and mastheads in these pages everything else is a one use bit of type and to a certain extent it shows, too. With 4500 examples perhaps a bit more selectivity would have been useful. I thought it was interesting to compare the same categories in the 60s and 70s. The latter seem much more considered and creative than a lot of the 60s styles. Throughout the two decades designers became much more aware and appreciative of interesting typography, helped off course by the increasing range of styles offered by the graphic arts industry. Why set a headline in lead when so much more choice was available film set. With so many examples these pages could have looked a mess but instead, despite all the different shapes, it all hangs together beautifully though I thought more color could have been used. The few spreads in color really stand out from hundreds in black only. The matt art paper and good printing gives the book that final finish. There is another edition by Rian Hughes devoted to 40s and 50s custom lettering. Both books present an interesting cornucopia of type ideas for that next ad campaign or magazine article headline. ***LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under cover.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Typopheliacs nirvana!,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Custom Lettering of the 60s & 70s (Hardcover)
Not sure why, but I'm addicted to vintage typography, a self proclaimed typoholic. I'm a big fan of the retro modern look, especially from designers like Rian Hughes and Charles S Anderson. This book serves as great inspiration for designers looking to get reference from this era. Providing a wide variety of hand lettered stylings not available anywhere else. This is NOT a clip-art book or a font reference book, there's already too many of those worthless tomes around anyways, but this book shows type in use, words and phrases artfully created by a designers of a gentler era. The hand-crafted quality of vintage type is unmistakable in every sample in the book (and that's a GOOD thing). The book itself attempts to organize the designs by style- serif, sans, script, etc. and is mostly successful, although some designs are so outrageous they defy classification, which is what makes the book so seriously fun to browse. Highly recommended to others that like retro and vintage type.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Big Awesome Type book,
By Tony "Tommygun" (USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Custom Lettering of the 60s & 70s (Hardcover)
This is a thick, large book loaded with lettering examples from another era. It is a great reference and I recommend it to anybody who likes type/fonts/etc. I also recommend the other book in this series Custom Lettering of the 40s & 50s
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