Art Alphabets, Monograms, and Lettering by J. M. Bergling

Author:J. M. Bergling
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 2019-02-27T16:00:00+00:00

Method and Mediums for the Show Card Writer, With Pertinent Examples

By WILLIAM H. GORDON, Los Angeles,

One of America's foremost authorities on Lettering

Aside from the individual qualifications as a letterer the chief requisite of the show card writer is "Speed" and to this end, letter styles have been and are still being devised that can be made fast enough to accomplish the amount of work that the present day craftsman is called upon to complete in the average day's work.

If the show card man still copied the styles and methods of lettercrafters in producing hand lettering it would require the services of four or five workmen to accomplish in the same time that which is now done by one.

The evolution of reading characters (letters) is mainly responsible for the record breaking bursts of speed displayed by the show card man. Whereas most of our predecessors used carefully drawn or modeled "Upper case" or capital letters in most of all of their copy. We of today have by necessity devised certain styles of lower case or small letters that permit of greater speed in execution. These changes have occurred gradually, and for the most part their individuality in appearance is caused by the mediums employed in their production. For the major part of this work, certain styles of lettering brushes, pens and other materials have been devised which are specially adapted to the rapid semi-automatic rendering of the elementary principles envolved in these styles. These tools in turn have proven the logical possibilities of designing new letter styles or making acceptable modifications of existing styles, both of type and hand lettered origin.

The study of letter forms based on various classifications such as Printer's Gothic, Roman, Italic, Text and various others should receive careful attention by the student. The ability to distinguish these classifications in devising a style best adapted to certain needs is one of the prime requisites.

The ability to draw these characters does not qualify one as a letterer, especially from the show card writer's viewpoint, which is "Quantity first."

There are at least half a dozen methods of producing letters by hand, of these, but two can be considered; namely freehand modeled, and written.

Why the maker of show cards is called a show card writer, is from the fact that most of his lettering is really written, so called because it is produced by the single stroke method much the same as writing regardless of whether a bush or pen is used or the characters are slant or vertical.

A capable workman must be able to rapidly produce a fairly good resemblance to either upper or lower case Roman, Block, or so called Printer's Gothic, or Italics with numerals to match either case, by the single stroke method. Also he must be able to do this with either a brush or lettering pen, depending on the size of the space to be occupied by the copy. Lettering pens can be used with much greater facility than brushes, especially due to the fact

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