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130 Alphabets and Other Signs

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

charming samples of unusual alphabets, fonts, and signs

When it first appeared, this is a book I used to pick up and browse in bookshops, wondering whether to buy it or not. There was no need to be so cautious, because it’s quite cheap, and since taking the plunge it’s given me hours of enjoyment. Basically, it’s a sample book of fonts, characters, trademarks, alphabet designs, logos, and dingbats. But what makes the book so attractive is that the collection is both eclectic and suffused with a period charm of the inter-war years.

AlphabetsMany of the designs and fonts are drawn from that period – with a hint of colonial nostalgia in labels from products destined for Africa, China, and India. Even the pages are printed in a pre-faded manner and cut with rounded corners. But there’s also the cosmopolitan up-side to the same tendency, with fonts from the Victorian revival, Russian constructivism, and even an alphabet cut in bone by French prisoners during the Napoleonic wars.

There are elaborate display fonts, shaded letters, monograms, a set called ‘Huxley Vertical’ which seem like a precursor to Neville Brody, a selection of ink blots, labels from Joan of Arc laxatives, labels for matches, cigarettes and drinks, a two-page spread of ampersands, examples of visiting cards, Japanese packaging labels, even a typographic book-cover design by Natalia Goncharova from 1920s Paris.

Don’t expect any scholarly rigour. Although the collection is interspersed with a few short essays, there are very few technical details given. Many of the fonts are not even even given a name or credited by a caption. A full alphabet in Cyrillic on a single page is left to speak for itself. But somehow this doesn’t really matter.

The compilation is very obviously offered just as a source of visual stimulation, and it works marvelously. It would be a jaded aesthetic palate indeed which was not stimulated by the range and vitality of this collection. It’s a treat, from first page to last.

© Roy Johnson 2000

130 Alphabets and Other Signs   Buy the book at Amazon UK

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Julian Rothenstein and Mel Gooding (eds), 130 Alphabets and Other Signs, London: Thames and Hudson, 1993, pp.183, ISBN: 0500277419


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A 2 Z and More Signs

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

unusual alphabets, fonts, logos, symbols, and signs

This is a compilation of the best-selling albumns of quirky typography, 130 Alphabets and Other Signs and A B Z: More Alphabets and Other Signs, with new materials added. Basically, it’s a sample book of fonts, characters, trademarks, logos, dingbats, and alphabet designs. But what makes the book so attractive is that the collection is both eclectic and suffused with a period charm of the inter-war years. Many of the designs and fonts are drawn from that period – with a hint of colonial nostalgia in labels from products destined for Africa, China, and India.

Alphabet Design Even the pages are printed in a pre-faded manner and cut with rounded corners to enhance this effect. There are elaborate display fonts, shaded letters, monograms, a set called ‘Huxley Vertical’ which seem like a precursor to Neville Brody, a selection of ink blots, labels from Joan of Arc laxatives, labels for matches, cigarettes and drinks, a two-page spread of ampersands, examples of visiting cards, Japanese packaging labels, even a typographic book-cover design by Natalia Goncharova from 1920s Paris.

The materials are the products of the main centres of modernist design in the first third of the last century: largely French, German, Czech, and Russian. The selection of material comes from private collections in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, New York, and Mexico City.

Many of the designs appear here for the first time since their first use. Some of the examples, such as Karel Tiegel’s photo-balletic alphabet of 1926 and a Spanish civil war manual for illiterate soldiers, have never been reproduced before since they first appeared.

The sources of this new collection are wonderfully assorted. There are plenty of straight font sets, but also monograms, letter headings, package labels, posters, shop signs, opticians’ eye test charts, book jackets, film posters, technical manuals, propaganda leaflets, and magazine covers. The selection reflects mainly European modernism, constructivism, and Art Deco – though there are also novelties from Mexican graffiti and Asian medicine labels.

Each large page is striking in its muted, silkscreened colours, and the book
itself is amazingly attractive, with rounded corners, pre-faded yellow edges, and splotchy endpapers.

It has to be said that the main charm of this book is its unashamed retro feel; but I would defy anyone not to be pleased with the result. It is beautifully designed and produced, well printed, and altogether a must-have for anybody interested in typography and graphic design.

A 2 Z and More Signs   Buy the book at Amazon UK

A 2 Z and More Signs   Buy the book at Amazon US

© Roy Johnson 2006


Julian Rothenstein and Mel Goodwin, A 2 Z and More Signs, London: Thames and Hudson, 2006, pp.320, ISBN: 0500286043


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A B Z More Alphabets and Signs

May 21, 2009 by Roy Johnson

glamorous collection of font sets and graphic designs

This is a follow-up to the excellent 130 Alphabets and Other Signs – a fascinating collection of font sets, alphabet design, and attractively printed designs from the early part of the last century. The sources of this new collection are wonderfully assorted. There are plenty of straight font sets, but also monograms, letter headings, packaging labels, posters, shop signs, opticians’ eye test charts, book jackets, film posters, technical manuals, propaganda leaflets, magazine covers, and dingbats. The selection reflects mainly European modernism, and Art Deco – though there are also novelties from Mexican graffiti art and Asian medicine labels.

A B Z: More Alphabets & SignsThe materials are the products of the main centres of modernist design in the first third of the last century: largely French, German, Czech, and Russian. The selection of material comes from private collections in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague, New York, and Mexico City.

Many of the designs appear here for the first time since their first use. Some of the examples, such as Karel Tiegel’s photo-balletic alphabet of 1926 and a Spanish civil war manual for illiterate soldiers, have never been reproduced before since they first appeared.

I was slightly disappointed that there’s so little explanation or comment on the materials – except for some rather cryptic notes on sources in the index. This seems to have been done to keep the display area free of any visual clutter.

Each large page is striking in its muted, silkscreened colours, and the book itself is beautiful, with rounded corners, pre-faded yellow edges, and green splotchy endpapers.

It has to be said that the main charm of this book is its unashamed retro feel; but I would defy anyone not to be pleased with the result. It is beautifully designed and produced, well printed (in Hong Kong) and altogether a must-have for anybody interested in typography, design, or attractive books.

© Roy Johnson 2004

A B Z: More Alphabets and Signs   Buy the book at Amazon UK

A B Z: More Alphabets and Signs   Buy the book at Amazon US


Julian Rothenstein and Mel Gooding, A B Z: More Alphabets and Other Signs, London: Redstone Press, 2003, pp.221, ISBN: 1870003330


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Signs, Symbols and Icons

July 17, 2009 by Roy Johnson

history and development of iconography

As its title suggests, this study of iconography uses a structure of historical progression to argue that symbolic presentation has been “part of the collective subconscious of the human race since earliest times”. In the first part of the book Albertine Gaur compresses a great deal of cultural history and draws on an impressively wide range of ethnographic reference to argue the case. She starts with non-verbal scripts used as mnemonics, tallies, maps, and marks of ownership – many of which are still with us in the form of title brands, logos, watermarks, and seals. Then she deals with fascinating examples of number symbols, iconography in religion and art, and even the [possible] origins of phonetic writing.

Signs, Symbols and IconsAt its weakest this is not much more than a very elegantly illustrated list, with examples jumping from pre-Christian culture on one page to New York subway graffiti on the next. At its best, it is an example of a writer who can make her scholarship attractive, accessible, and inviting to her audience. Reading this filled me with a curiosity to look at her other work.

In the second part of the book Rosemary Sassoon teases out the layers of meaning behind the apparently simple term ‘icon’ – showing that it can stretch from a universal element [fire] to include words and even whole literary works:

we write letters but we read words. Words therefore become hieroglyphs or icons themselves. As an extension, in some cases and for some people, sentences, poems or whole works of literature (Shakespeare, for instance) or religious belief (the Koran) become icons in themselves.

The writing is full of wonderfully suggestive language – ‘cartouche’, ‘glyph’, ‘ideogram’, ‘pictographic’, ‘boustrophedon’ – and the subject is presented in a thought-provoking manner. But we are taken from one aspect of the subject to another without any firm sense of structure or reasoned exposition. For instance, we are dropped into an encomium of aboriginal iconography on one page with a claim that ‘no future iconography is likely to approach that level’ – only to then be rushed on to dingbats with no connecting argument.

This sense of fragmentation is exacerbated by the fact that the second part of the book in fact has several authors (who are only credited in the small print of ‘acknowledgements’ and marginal notes). There are two chapters on iconography and its relation to what are now called [in PC-speak] ‘special needs’. ‘Symbol systems for the visually impaired’ includes some fascinating material on alternatives to Braille, and ‘A new iconography for deaf signers’ discusses some socio-linguistic aspects of what can sometimes be quite a controversial topic.

A chapter on musical notation is not much more than a description of traditional craft methods, followed by an acknowledgement that what was once a laborious process can now be done easily using computers. It’s not until we reach Adrian Grater’s chapter on movement notation that we get closer to the IT element promised in the title. He describes in some detail the cognitive process of constructing a software program which can record the subtleties of dance in graphic form.

Sassoon comes in again at the end with an attempt to pull all the threads together – but by then it’s too late. The strength of this book is that it is packed with disparate and thought-provoking items – but that’s also its weakness. The illustrations are plentiful and excellent, and it’s obvious that the authors [editors?] have a strong purchase on an interesting subject. Maybe they would do it more justice to it if they narrowed the focus of their approach and spent longer explaining the case they wish to make.

© Roy Johnson 2002

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Rosemary Sassoon and Albertine Gaur, Signs, Symbols and Icons: Pre-history to the computer age, Oxford: Intellect, 1997, pp.191, ISBN 1871516730


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Filed Under: Theory Tagged With: Icons, Signs, Signs Symbols and Icons, Symbols

Symbols – how to understand them

September 14, 2009 by Roy Johnson

free pages from our English Language software program

Symbols – definition

symbols A symbol is an object which stands for something else.

redbtn In language it is a reference in speech or in writing which is made to stand for ideas, feelings, events, or conditions.

redbtn A symbol is usually something tangible or concrete which evokes something abstract.


Examples

redbtn The following are standard symbols in the context of English culture.

  • The rose often stands for love.
  • The colour red stands for passion.
  • The dove stands for peace.
  • The ace of spades stands for death.
  • The cross stands for Christianity.

Use

redbtn All cultures use symbols which are actual, tangible objects — such as the cross in a Christian church, the Union Jack flag in the UK, or the Statue of Liberty in the USA.

redbtn These standard symbols and others more original are evoked by conscious and deliberate use of language by writers, advertisers and speakers.

redbtn NB! Symbols are evoked or depicted by language. The very language which evokes the symbol is itself a code or symbol!

redbtn Symbols in the context of language use are sometimes created by the use of words such as ‘cross’ or ‘rose’ or ‘blood’.

redbtn The rose has been used so often in connection with love that it has become a symbol of it.

redbtn But the human heart is also used as a symbol for love – so there can be more than one symbol for the same thing.

redbtn Fire is often used as a symbol, both for danger and for human passion — so a single word or object can sometimes symbolise more than one thing.

redbtn The moon is sometimes used as a symbol for the female — because both have a ‘monthly cycle’.

redbtn In literature, a writer such as D.H. Lawrence exploits this symbolic connction by using images of the moon to stand for female sexuality.

redbtn Even when the word ‘moon’ itself is not used explicitly in his work, any pale nocturnal light can have the same symbolic effect in suggesting the female and her sexual nature.

redbtn In a novel, poem, short story or play, symbols are often introduced at the beginning and then developed and sustained throughout the work by means of various literary techniques.

redbtn Sometimes a symbol is created only for the duration of the work in which it is used. This is called ‘context-bound’ — because it does not have symbolic value outside the work.

redbtn For instance, the handkerchief in Shakespeare’s Othello is used as the symbol of Othello’s mistrust of Desdemona, his wife. [This is because it has come into the possession of his ‘rival’, Iago.] The material, tangible object stands for the emotion jealousy, bringing it into dramatic relief for the audience.
redbtn A handkerchief could be used as a completely different symbol in another piece of work.

redbtn Symbols are used very commonly in daily life. Many road signs are symbols, as is the traditional red and white pole for a barber’s shop.

Self-assessment quiz follows >>>

© Roy Johnson 2004


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Filed Under: English Language Tagged With: English language, Language, Semiotics, Symbols

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