Logo, Font and Lettering Bible

244 Pages·2004·54.09 MB·English

by  Leslie Cabarga

LOGO

LETTERING
LETTERING
lLIE1f1fJEJRliNG
LETTERING
LETTERING
IT.JE1r1f JEJRliN G
a comprehensive guide to the
design, construction and usage of
alphabets, letters and symbols
J./(JLf
~
David & Charles
A DAVID & CHARLES BOOK
Hrst published inthe UK In2004
Reprinted in2004
First published Inthe USA in 2004 by HOW Design Books,
Cincinnati, Ohio
Copyright © Leslie Cabarga 2004
Leslie Cabarga hasasserted his right to be Identified asauthor of
this work Inaccordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced,
stored inaretrieval system, or transmitted. inanyform or by any
means,electronic or mechanical, by photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book isavailable from the British
Library.
ISBN 0 7153 16990
Printed in China byLeefung-Asco
for David & Charles
Brunei House Newton Abbot Devon
Visit our website at www.davidandcharles.co.uk
David & Charles books are available from all good bookshops;
alternatively you can contact Our Orderline on (0)1626334555 or
write to usat FREEPOST EX2 I10,David & Charles Direct.
Newton Abbot. TQ 124ZZ (no stamp required UK mainland).
ACKNOWtEDGEME~TS
To my father, Ted Cabaraga; who taught me discernment
L
ots of help isrequired inwriting a bible...and not just from the Spirits of Lettering Past.
Thanks to Clare vvarrnke, editor inchief of HOW Design Books.for her wise shepherd-
ing.of this project, and to the other Good S maritans at F&W: LisaBuchanon. Clare Finney.
Ruth Preston and Usa Collins. I am also indebted to my late friends, the letterers and
typophiles Clarence P.Hornung, J.j.Herman. joe Weiler; and Don Sturdivant for sharingtheir
memories andtheir collections.Thanks alsoto the following for their friendship,their words
of advice,and myriad other contributions: Michael Doret, jill Bell.Stuart Sandler.Allan Haley,
Tom Nikosey. Gerard Huerta, Roger Black,Rick Cusick, Danny Pelavin,David Berlow, Harry
Parker;SamBerlow, Cyrus Highsmith, Mark Record, KenBarber;TalLeming,Laura Smith,john
Gowling, Seymour Cbwast,Tony DiSplgna,jonathan Hoener:Jonathan Macagba,Ted Harrison,
andJohn Hams,And finally,to my wife Marga Kasperand our children Anna and Kodo, and
my daughter Casey Robbins,for your love and encouragement.
Introduction 6
PART 1:The Logo 14
Defining the Logo Type 16
Logo Design in Deutschland 32; Karl Schulpig, Logo Meister 34
How toDesign aLogo in 3 Quasi-Easy Steps 36
Step 1:Immersion 37; Step 2: Creatine Copying 38; What a Logo Is,
What a Logo Is Not 41; Step 3:Thumbnail & Camp 42
Resources , 52
144 Logo Layouts 52; 'TYpestyles Categorized 56;
ADate WithNumerals 58
PART 2: Drawing Letters 60
Unbelievable Implements: Type and Lettering in the Prepixel Era 62
Pen, Brush and Marker &Assorted Other Tools of the Trade , 78
Lettered and Unfettered: Out of the Box Before There Was a Box 94
Letterers Who Draw, Drawers Who Letter 102
Immutable Laws of Lettering , 112
Adobe Illustrator Basics 128
Type and Create Outlines 128; Making Selections 129; Grouping and Ungrouping
130; Compound Paths 130; Layers, Locking, Hiding and Guides 131;
Rotate and Scale Tools vs.Free Transform Tool 82; The Pathfinder Pallets 138
Random Drawing Tips 134
Key Concepts 184; nap, Crackle and cale 134;Shortcuts toAligning, Spacing 135;
3 Ways to Draw Stuff' in Illustrator 185;Not Working to Scale 136;Preparing Art
for Clients 136; Preparing Work for Print 137; Lettering Don'ts & Dos 138
Bezier Curves for Cowards: Points in Extrema 140
Handling Points 142; Drawing with Besiers, Point by Point 143; FAQ: Bezier
Pointers 148;Throwing a Natural Curue 144; Comparing Inking Styles to
Letterforms 144Arts and Letters: Perfect Curoee 145; Curve Clinic 146;AI'SExtrema 147
9Bezierrors: When GoodBeziers GoBad , 148
Drawing Letters the Leslie Cabarga Way! , _ 150
Method One:Skeleton Strokes 150; Method Two:Parts Department 154; Method
Three: Straight Ahead 156;Method Four: Modifying Typ 157; Method Five:
Tracing Scans 158
Yes!YouCan Draw Icons, Spots &Dingbats Like the Pros! 160
Incredible Type Trix 166
Basic Outlined Logo 176; Variations on the Outlined Logo 177; Outline Clinic 177;
How to Malle Type Thinner 179;Drop Shadows 180; Three-Dimensional Block
Shadow 181; Three-Dimensional uper FX 182; OpArt Concentric Line Letters 186;
"StOI! d" and Faceted Letter Faces 187; Type Trix Intensive 188; Classic Type Effects
189; Type in theRouncll90; Rounded Type From Scratch 191;Rounded 1ype Clinic
192;A Roundabout Way of Setting Type 192; Splayed Type Block Drop 198; Warp
Effects in Typestyler; FontLab and Illustrator 194; Illustrator Gets Warped 194;
L tiering Perspective 195;FontLab's Fun FX 195
il!'
Is GoodTaste in.Letter Design Subjective? 196
PART3: Fonts-The Art of Making Faces 198
Type:Beauty in Abstract Forms 200
Font Inspiration " 202
Process:David Berloui Designs aFamily ofE-mail Fonts 212
TheAB9's of Font Design; It Takes More Than 26Letters! 214
Like Genes,Every Letter Carries the Codeto the Entire Alphabet 216
Creating Fonts ill, Fontographer 217
Importing From Photoshop and Illustrator 218; Characters and Alternate Characters,
Working Order 219; Spacing 220;Kerning 222;
Comparison: Fontographer IFontl.ab IIllustrator 224
Bezier Comparison: Illuetrator V8. Fontographer 226
PART4: Business Section 228
Logos, Fonts and Lettering for a Living 228
Directory of Contributors, Foundries and WebSites 236
Index " 238
nee upon a time, it's $20,000 worth of hand-lettered Helvetica
all lettering was with a slight upturn added to the crossbar of
hand-lettering. By the lowercase e that justified the expenditure
the nineteenth and and gladdened the heart ofsome CEO.
twentieth centur-
To this day, despite the computer revolution
ies,when type had
that has loosed the font industry from its pig-
become cheap and
iron age moorings, type has yet to match the
acces ible to all,
limitlessness and flexibility ofletters drawn by
the indicator of a
hand where each letter shape can be nipped
quality job was
and tucked to accommodate the surrounding
that the logo, the
ones and every word or phrase can benefit
main di play headline or the embellished ini-
from the designer's maximal interpretation.
tial cap had been hand lettered, rather than
Because of the continuing glut of computer
set in standard fonts that any competitor could
fonts-the greater percentage of which are
obtain for a few dollars.
embarrassingly amateurish-the idea of cus-
ENTERTYPE, EXIT LETTERING tom lettering has lately been discarded along
Upuntil about the mid·1960s-the dividing with the .5MB floppy disk. This is fine for the
line between the crew-cut conformist age and many and forthose who don't mind using OPF
the new age of inquiry-the majority of logos (othe -people's fonts) as the basis oftheir logos,
and display headlines in magazines and ads After all, the amazing number offonts now in
were hand lettered with brush or pen. The existence, and the hundreds more that shall
changeover to a preference fortype over letter- eme ge between the time of this writing and
ing undoubtedly had something to do with the its publication, might be said to provide a
emergence of huge photolettering type cata- measure ofexclusivity to our work since most
logs by that time. But even Photo-Lettering, people will never even be able to identify the
Inc., maintained an active studio of hand let- fonts we use.
terers to tweak. fonts for custom jobs. But ifyou are designing an exclusive logofor
As late as 1989, some agency hired me to a company or a magazine masthead, would
hand letter three words for a newspaper circu- you really want to use a font that anybody can
lar ad. Ithought they were nuts, since the style purchase for a few bucks or download for free?
they specified was almost identical to an exist-
Certainly, the owners of font foundries,
ing font. But they didn't want type, they want-
myself included, hope designers will continue
ed unique, custom lettering exclusively theirs.
to buy our fonts for making logos. However, in
The tradition lives on today in the upper my other job, as a book writer, I'm the embodi-
echelons ofpublication design. Youmight look ment ofthe noble Chinese saying: "The extract
at a logo and say, "But it's just Helvetica." No, of the indigo plant is bluer than the plant
LOGO, FONT 8: LETTERING BIBLE 7
itself," which means, May the student surpass You,too,can be like Frank LloydWright, who
the teacher. Ofcourse, Ihope youdon't surpass w ote, ''Were architecture bricks, my hands
me, because Ineed to earn a living, too. were in the mud ofwhich bricks were made."
willattempt todothis merely byconvincing
DESIGNERSDO IT WITH STYLE
youthat you can doit-you've just been afraid
The difference between a designer and an
to try.Another reason you've relied on OPF is
actual artist is, a designer can indicate prefer- that nobody ever told you the little secret that
ences and arrange preexisting graphic ele-
Iwas privileged tohave revealed to me by the
ments but cannot draw well enough to bring
late, legendary cartoonist Wally Wood:"Never
his best visions to fruition by his own hand. A
draw what you can copy;never copywhat you
designer's inability to draw may also uncon-
can trace; never trace what you can photostat
sciously limit his ability to conceptualize.
and paste down." Nowadays, we'd say,"Never
Ofcourse, lots ofdesigners create incredible trace what you can scan into Adobe
pieces that make us all go,''Wow!''and want to Photoshop."And there youhave 't;the secret to
The logo, font and lettering
copythem. And since the end result is all that becoming the logo designer you've always
samples inthis book have
matters, who cares ifassistants doour creative wanted to be is:"Research."
been liberally selected from
grunt work? The trendsetting designer Herb
THE PURPOSE OFTHIS BOOK the past aswell 3Sfrom the
Lubalin had letterers such as Tony DiSpigna
I wrote this book to enable you to expand present, Ihe basic principles
and Tom Carnase to bring his wonderful con-
your creativity and end yow:reliance upon the oftypogra phynever
ceptions to fruition. Seymour Chwast, on the
logosand fonts ofother designers to become a become outdated, they just
other hand, despite the many designers he's
logo and font designer yourself Of course, reappear dressed up in con-
employed, has always kept his hand, literally,
em
there's nothing wrong with using OPF, espe- temporary garb. in
in the work he produces.
cially if you like them. I do it myself-con- point: Inthe past there was
"Today's designers," says letterer Gerard
stantly, as we all do at times-but won't you the iconic bandleader, Paul
Huerta, "are assemblers of stock images and
feelproud when you can point to a logoorfont "Pops" Whiteman, and at
fonts. They learn how to assemble from source
a dsay,"Look,Ma, I drew that... by hand!" present we have Shepard
books and put it all together, and they never
At this point I Fairey's ubiquitous Andre
have to hire a photographer or illustrator,
should defi e the the Giant logo, about which
because it's just a matter ofassembling ready
terms hand-drawn he says, "The concept
made pieces."
or hand-lettered not behind 'Obey' is[0provoke
It wasn't always this way: Many of the art
just as letters we people who typically (om-
directors of old who hired the Norman
create with drawing plain about life's circum-
Rockwells and F.G. Coopers ofthose times had
tools on paper, but stances but follow the path
prodigious drawing and lettering skills. But
also letters we cre- ofleast resistance, to have
standards have fallen. Few of us today can
ate on computer, to confront their own obe-
design, draw and letter the way guys like Will
because the hand dience. 'Obey' isvery sar-
Dwiggins, Walter Dorwin Teague, Clarence P.
still guides the digi-
Hornung and C.B. Falls did. (See "Letterers castle, 3form ofreverse
tal tablet, mouse or
psychology."
Who Draw" on page 102.)
trackball. But the Paul Whiteman Paul and Andre: two icons
Throughout this book,Iwilltry tocreate that important distinc-
separated byover seventy
breakthrough for you, from being a designer tior as far as this
years, and both leaders in
who specs type and pushes it around, to one bookisconcerned as
their fields. That's what I'm
who creates type and then pushes it around. to whether a logoor
talking about!
8 QUIZ SECTION: ARE YOU A REAL TYPOPHILE?
ore these individuals?
om JO!IlUOI1UPlJodwiJaqlo luew
PUi 'J/VloDufl¥UfJi 10JOI£aJl 'uoluag J~lInJ !IJJOW
:UOjU~gJ3110j s!JloWpur ~tfIIP/O.unlU~J',u"IU~)
10 1QlUJ) 'uoluaO P~Ofl uun :eJnJni 10 JlU~!S~P
'lMaH Ined :1JaU8!lap adA) ue'!13WV)0 uesp'~pno!)
)uapaJj o'3U1J;JJlil f3UI/fu/wnl// f3uPPM 1S!lraJI
le!juanuu! ajOJM 'UOI\U40( pJeMp3 :J3u8lSap adll
4S!IZU3'uolse) luelll'M 'dol WOJI al!M~)OO:SU3MSNV