Monday, September 30, 2013

Letterform Archive


Our friend Rob Saunders has been collecting works related to calligraphy and typography for over 35 years, but he is now working on an interesting project to put high-resolution images of letterforms online to share with the world. The website is Letterform Archive, and here is an excerpt from the website's raison d'etre:
We want to raise the bar in imaging graphic design.

How? By capturing the tactile aesthetics of the object, not only digitizing what’s on the surface. Scanning and traditional copy photography won’t do, because they don’t capture texture well. What’s needed is high resolution photography of original works with lighting carefully tuned to capture tactility.

Our goals include:
Sufficient resolution so that you can zoom in to see detail,
Appropriate capture of surface texture,
Full spreads and full margins with edges showing so you see the whole design, and
Consistent color which captures even the subtle variations of “white” papers.
Read the full text here.

The website has a section devoted to W. A. Dwiggins, one of our favorite designers, and they are constantly adding new content to the gallery. They also have a blog and are on Twitter under @LettArc.

We're looking forward to seeing what new letterforms appear in the future, as they seem to span time, space, and genre, and we congratulate Rob for putting together this new graphic design resource.

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