Book review: Hand Job: A Catalog of Type

0aahandjoo.jpgHand Job: A Catalog of Type, curated by Michael Perry.

Amazon USA and UK.

Publisher Princeton Architectural Press says: In this digital age of computer-generated graphics and typography, it’s refreshing to find typographers who still believe in working by hand. No longer relegated to designer’s sketchbooks, hand-drawn type has emerged from the underground as a dynamic vehicle for visual communication from magazine, book, and album covers to movie credits and NFL advertisements.
(…)
Hand Job collects groundbreaking work from fifty of today’s most talented typographers who draw by hand. Graphic designer and hand typographer Michael Perry selects work representing the full spectrum of design methods and styles.

Ouhooou! My god! This book is so good. As Perry writes, the book is a “curatorial celebration of the hand typography of my peers.” He selected 50 designers whose typo works he likes, splashed their best creations all over the book, added a few words about them, took pictures of their studios and random snaps of types found around the world.

0aaalthosewtr.jpgDaniel Black, Series 2+3, 2004

The author is genuinely passionate about hand typo and does some awesome typo himself. As you can guess from its title, the book is fun, and it has a friendly feeling and a cozy atmosphere. The designers hand type because they like it, not because the retro quality of hand lettering is trendy, or because it is easier to use a good old pen than computer tools (actually it is not.)

0aavisionques.jpgAdam Garcia, VisionQuest booklet spreads, 2005

Human Empire 117

0abbbadditu.jpgKayrock Screenprinting, “Bad Touch Drawing Show”, 2001

It was actually nice to dive into hand-made typos paradise this week as Max and i have started to work on the new design of the blog. It will be months before it is online (actually no, less than that… Max promised that if it is not ready for Christmas, he’ll abandon one of his dogs by the road and given his love for those animals, i’ll have a lovely re-vamped blog before 2008). And the book brought me back to that hand-made-style title we had ages ago.

0aaa8sug.jpgAndy Rementer, Cover for the Sugo magazine

0000laf.jpgAdrian Johnson, Slap Your Friends and Olaf (image from The Morning News’ slideshow)

And Drawn! made a video while flipping through the book.