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Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age [Hardcover]

Steven Heller , Louise Fili
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)


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Book Description

May 9, 2011

Elegant, quirky, fluid, brutish, ostentatious— a visual resource of cursives and other typefaces that resemble handwriting.

From wedding announcements to IOUs, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of scripts—some “classic,” others eccentric. Derived from handwriting, these are typefaces that are stylized to suggest, imply, or symbolize certain traits linked to writing. Their fundamental characteristic is that all the letters, more or less, touch each other.

Scripts tend to fall in and out of fashion, but they are most definitely part of the typographic landscape today, and the more curious and distinctive they are, the better. Drawn from the Golden Age of Scripts, from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, this is the first compilation of popular, rare, and forgotten scripts from the United States, Germany, France, England, and Italy.

Filled with examples from a broad spectrum of sources—advertising, street signs, invitations, type-specimen books, personal letters—the book is a delightful and invaluable trove of long-overlooked material. 300 color and 50 black-and-white illustrations


Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Steven Heller is co-chair of the MFA Design: Designer as Author+Entrepreneur program at New York's School of Visual Arts. He is the author, editor and co-editor of more than one hundred books on design and popular culture.

Louise Fili is a New York–based graphic designer specializing in food packaging, restaurant identities, logos, and book design.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Thames & Hudson; First Edition edition (May 9, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0500515689
  • ISBN-13: 978-0500515686
  • Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 7.2 x 10 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Authors

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Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
(15)
4.7 out of 5 stars
Anyone with an interest in lettering, type or design will find something to love about this book. Curious Art  |  4 reviewers made a similar statement
They really need to do another run of these books. D. Alfonso  |  3 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and inspiring! May 17, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Thank you Steven and Louise for sharing from your personal collection that I'm sure has taken a great deal of time to collect. The examples are grouped by country of origin (France, Britain, Germany, Italy and America) and each chapter provides a large assortment of examples. Anyone interested in typography and looking for inspiration for their own hand lettering projects with love this book, I do!
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An absolutely delicious book! September 2, 2011
Format:Hardcover
As a calligrapher & lettering designer, I'm a glutton for letterforms. I own quite a few books on the subject, but this one really stands out. It offers an enormous variety of script styles & formats--from typefaces to handwriting to neon signs & more-- organized by country & covering a wide time-frame. The design of each page is a beautifully crafted visual treat. I find myself browsing often for sheer pleasure, & it has already been an extremely valuable source of inspiration for my work. Anyone with an interest in lettering, type or design will find something to love about this book.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars An Unerring Eye May 10, 2011
By S.Webb
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Since the kindle and the iPad I seldom purchase a hard cover book...this was the excellent exception.
This is an extraordinary collection of the everyday advertising that elevates signage and print into an art form.
Fili has an unerring eye for form and her collection covers the sophisticated to garish.
Highly recommended.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference book
This is an excellent reference book showing historic photos and scans of signs and print material. It served very useful when researching a project requiring an authentic Italian... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Y. Miller
5.0 out of 5 stars Gift for daughter
My daughter loved the book. It was just what she was looking for. She is a graphic artist.
Many thanks.
Published 3 months ago by Peggy troutfetter
5.0 out of 5 stars I should have gotten the hard back version
Beautiful book. I should have gotten the hard back version when it was available. So happy I had purchased it rather than waiting for someone to gift it to me.
Published 3 months ago by Ruth Gloria
5.0 out of 5 stars To me there is nothing more beautiful than script...
And Steve Heller has a new book that presents a range of script type executions. facinating copy, beautiful book design at a reasonable price. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Margaret Newitt
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Collection of Found Letters
This book is really a great compilation of old lettering. There's not any real substance or instruction to it, but it will give you a good amount of ideas for projects.
Published 4 months ago by James Breen
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this book
As a graphic design student, this book offers an amazing amount of inspiration for what is in today. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Leah
5.0 out of 5 stars Letterforms Overdose!!
This is a awesome book if you're looking for lettering references from all over europe, it has alot of letter forms its amazing!
Published 5 months ago by Pedro Fontoura
5.0 out of 5 stars In Demand, Out Of Print
They really need to do another run of these books. I got mine for ~$40, and I felt that was reasonable (used design book that's out of print but in demand, hey). But 100 bucks? Read more
Published 8 months ago by D. Alfonso
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best reference books for retro type.
One of the best reference books for retro typography and art I've ever bought. And it covers different styles from that era. Read more
Published 15 months ago by KiwiDesigner
5.0 out of 5 stars Pictures of ideas
I guess the reason I find ephemera so fascinating is that it freezes ideas in time. Advertisements, specimen sheets, instruction guides, product labels, and other forms of printed... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Chuck Green
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