If you are someone who loves typography as I do, you should treat yourself to a magnificent book on the subject by Steven Heller and Louise Fili. The book—Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design’s Golden Age—contains more than three hundred pages of vintage magazine images, signage, advertisements, stationery, food labels, wine bottles, packaging, and more. Script typography has practically endless applications.
This book is a feast for your eyes. Communication Arts’ endorsement noted, “About ninety percent of the book is images, glorious images.”—I couldn’t agree more.
What is script typography?
The history of typography can be traced back to some of the oldest writing systems created by ancient civilizations. Cuneiform and hieroglyphics text was carved or painted onto stone tablets and papyrus. This evolved to hand-drawing of typography, which continued to the middle of the twentieth century. The book’s introduction says, “Perfecting script writing was considered a lofty virtue worth the effort.” Selecting the perfect script typeface was an art form, but picking the right typeface is still a challenge.
Cursive is an example of a casual script. Script is also an example of a casual script. Script typefaces are based on the varied and often fluid stroke created by handwriting. They are generally used for display or trade printing, rather than for extended body text in the Latin alphabet. Many people think of a script font as “curlicue”—elegant, ornamental, and calligraphic—with the letters touching each other as they do in cursive writing. This is often the case, but Scripts also displays a variety of script typefaces where the letters do not touch each other.
About the book
The book is divided into five chapters, each of which begins with a brief summary of typography examples from France, Britain, Germany, Italy, and America. These introductions are followed by a plethora of vintage images “culled from hundreds of sources, including specimen books, magazines, newspapers, advertisements, stationery, and packaging,” according to the authors.
Visual eye candy and lush flourishes
There are so many favorite lettering styles to enjoy. Many script letterhead samples were enhanced with flourishes or embellishments, such as decorative rules under the words. Typographers’ (or lithographers’) specimen pages show a variety of point sizes and type styles. Some styles were hand-drawn and not named. Most are unavailable today, and few have been recreated for the digital age.
Vintage trademark logos
At the end of the American chapter are examples of vintage, trademarked artwork. They are engraved, intricate, and incorporate ornamental script. Vintage logos and new retro typefaces are popular today with graphic designers, but not every project is right for this typestyle.
Looking back, N-K designed several invitations, including Starry Starry Light, with a customized hand-drawn script for a fund-raising event. Another invitation, “You are invited” uses a traditional graceful script typeface. And, the St. Louis Cardinals logo is a hand-drawn script.
The Authors
There is so much to look at in this gorgeous book—all of it inspiring and well-designed! I appreciate the authors who researched and created this beautiful book. Steven Heller and Louise Fili are married, work together, and have co-authored several beautiful books together.
Steven Heller is the author and editor of more than 130 books on graphic design, including Vintage Graphic Design: Type, Typography, Monograms & Decorative Design from the Late 19th & Early 20th Centuries with Louise Fili and Stop, Think, Go, Do, his revolutionary guide to typography. Heller is the co-founder and co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts, New York.
Louise Fili is an internationally celebrated creative director, graphic designer, type designer, and author. A member of the Art Directors Hall of Fame, she has received prestigious medals for Lifetime Achievement, as well as an Award for Excellence in Typography. Best known for her nonfiction books, she is the author of several other books with Steven Heller, including Elegantissima: The Design and Typography of Louise Fili and Louise Fili: A Designer’s Process.
