Nouvelle typographie ornementale

Of course the Garamond, the Didot and the Bodoni still exist. As well as the classics of the XXth century such as the Gill, the Helvetica or the American Typewriter. But the arrival of the computer and of digital technology has multiplied the printing characters to infinity. The model makers know it well since, for every work they do, they can «charge» on their computers hundreds of different fonts at the level where the former typist lined up his lead letters … The book furrows through this ever-evolving typographic jungle while trying to put it in order. Here we have fonts that appear «liquid», floral, psychedelic or electronic. Certain letters resemble branches, or hairs and even Swiss knives (the Toyphabet by Viktor Koen). Under a very innovating appearance, they often admit borrowing from the past, from the futurist Bifurk or the Lubalin. Art is a permanent recycling…

•Nouvelle typographie ornementale par Steven Heller et Gail Anderson, Thames & Hudson, 2010, 192 p., 34,95 €.