interview with jessica helfand
The topic of notable book jackets came and went on TYPO-L a few months
back, and I regret that I did not cast my vote for the work of Jessica
Helfand and William Drenttel on Econometrics,
by Fumio Hayashi. It’s certainly my favorite jacket in my home
library, whether the subject be statistics/econometrics, design, or
otherwise.
I recently asked Ms Helfand about the design of Econometrics,
as well as about her new book, Reinventing
the Wheel. My questions and her answers follow:
JC: At what point did you realize that the author’s name –
Fumio Hayashi – and the title – Econometrics
– had the same number of characters (and that O was
the fifth letter), and that you could incorporate this into
the design?
JH: It is, I think, fairly typical for designers to engage in an exploratory
sketching process when beginning to imagine a potential design solution,
and this is exactly what happened here. As my knowledge of economics
is fairly limited, I thought it best to try and work with what I had:
a long title and byline can sometimes be untenable, but in this case
it was fortuitous.
JC: What is it about the design – specifically, the colors, the
type, the fine grid around the title and author’s name – that
might be linked to the field of econometrics?
JH: Let me be the first to admit that my knowledge of mathematics and
statistics is rather limited. However, to the extent that design can
approximate an idea, the justified alignments were thought to loosely
represent something quantifiable and resolved – as opposed to, say, chaos theory.
JC: How did you come to choose the typeface –
FF
Marten?
JH: FF Marten was designed by Martin Wenzel, a German type designer who studied in the Netherlands.
It’s very geometric and elegant, yet quite readable as well. “Less
is more,” explains Wenzel in decribing his formal intentions
with this typeface. “Use it for ‘Loud and Clear.’” I thought
it provided a good balance between pragmatism and expressiveness,
a slightly more decorative take on the practical.
JC: Could you describe your choice of the colors of the letters
in the title – mint, peach, and bronze – and their interplay?
JH: The use of color in Japan is quite different than in the west, and
colors there have strong and specific connotations. While Hayashi’s
book is in English, I felt that the fact that he is Japanese needed to somehow
be reflected on the cover. So the colors are, I suppose, an attempt
to create a harmonious palette that combines both Eastern and Western sensibilities.
I have to confess, though, that the author and his wife are close
personal friends of mine: knowing them as I do, I had a sense that
they would like these color choices.
JC: I’m enjoying your new book, Reinventing the Wheel,
and I especially like the cover illustration, which is derived from
“The Wheel of Life,” on p 8. I also like your choice of
typefaces (Knockout,
by Jonathan
Hoefler, and Hightower,
by Tobias
Frere-Jones). What led you to use them?
JH: In our studio we are big fans of Jonathan and of Tobias, who teaches
with me at Yale. (Let me take this opportunity to say that Jonathan
Hoefler’s new typeface, Requiem,
is nothing short of perfection. I would be perfectly happy to use
it for everything I ever design the rest of my life. Period.) Knockout
was originally designed for Sports Illustrated, and included
a suite of weights that were intended for editorial display. These
fonts condense beautifully, and although the average viewer wouldn’t
know it, they are identified by qualifying titles wittily adapted
from the boxing ring (Welterweight, Heavyweight, etc.). We felt that
Knockout contrasted well with the quiet elegance of Hightower, which
was originally developed, as I understand it, for the American Institute
of Graphic Arts and named for its former director, Carolyn Hightower.
It’s one of my favorites.
JC: Many of the wheels serve to provide objective, quantitative
answers to discrete questions. Others, such as Arnold Palmer’s
“Dial Your Problem” Golf Fixer (p 132)
or the Handwriting Analysis Wheel (p 134), provide
more nebulous, speculative solutions to qualitative questions. In
your experience, do you find that design questions or problems can
sometimes be reduced to formulaic solutions such as those that a wheel
might offer, or is there simply no wheel big enough?
JH: In spite of the fact that all designers strive to resolve ideas to
the best of their abilities, I can’t say that design solutions operate
on the basis of finding a formula to arrive at a solution. In fact, formulaic solutions
to design problems tend to restrict the kind of original thinking
that makes design worth doing in the first place. While design can and does benefit
from certain kinds of strategic thinking – the modular systems
that Le Corbusier introduced in his post-war architecture come to mind, patterns
of modules that repeated yet through variation and permutation, allowed
for different domestic needs to be met – I wouldn’t liken this to
the kind of finite, quantifiable evidence represented in information
wheels, or volvelles. But I still love them.
27-September 2002
type spotlight: ff avance
While new typefaces appear with ever-increasing frequency, few are truly
novel. I consider Evert Bloemsma’s FF
Avance to be a pathbreaking typeface, due in large part to the
asymmetrical placement of the serifs, and I find his theory and motivation
behind it – as described on the FontFont
site – to be most compelling.
I recently asked Mr Bloemsma a few questions about Avance and about his approach
to type design via email. My questions, and his answers to them, follow:
JC: The information piece about Avance on the FontFont site is unique
in that it presents a mini-theory of (serifed) type design. But what
was your primary goal with Avance? To investigate the possibilities
of a new serifed roman? Or more generally, to produce a distinctive
text face?
EB: My primary goal was to design a typeface suited for long texts, containing
small details like serifs for the eye to hold, and with a fine/detailed
visual appearance as serifed type usually has. This is what I wrote
about it: “First I hesitated drawing serifs. The serif has many
purposes and possible origins, and it took some months before I felt
ready to handle this item. The serif may carry a burden of outdated
conventions, so applying serifs is risky when trying to avoid the
swamp of traditions. An expression of static monumentality and ornament/decoration
should be avoided in contemporary type design.”
JC: Gerrit Noordzij writes “There is no essential difference between
typography and handwriting.” Fred Smeijers, on the other hand,
states: ”Writing, lettering, and typography have in fact very
little in common with each other, except that all three processes
use the signs that we call letters.” Do you see Avance as an
abstraction of an unusually written face, or as more of a drawn face,
relatively unconnected with handwriting?
EB: I see it as relatively unconnected with handwriting. The shape and direction
of the serifs goes beyond the actual origin of handwriting.
JC: There are some similarities between Avance and your earlier sans-serif
face, Balance; for example, the ratio of cap height to x-height, the
unique form of the roman s, which seems wider at the top than at the
bottom, and the relatively large aperatures. Was Avance in any sense
intended to serve as a serifed companion to Balance?
EB: No, this must be due to my “personal style”. The roman s of
FF Avance is not really wider at the top as it is with Balance; it
may look like it but that is just because our perception is very conditioned
by conventions.
JC: Under whom did you train in type design, and where?
EB: Jan Vermeulen taught us some writing with the broad nib and Alexander
Verberne inspired me although I did not participate in his lessons.
All together I discovered most aspects of type design myself. I studied
the Art Academy in Arnhem, The Netherlands, from 1976 to 1981.
JC: What tools do you use in type design?
EB: Fontographer.
JC: What are you working on now?
EB: Several special assignments concerning type design and one new idea for a
display typeface; it looks quite commercial I must say; something
I did not expect.
JC: What is your ideal project?
EB: To establish a whole new contemporary typographical expression leaving
all conventions behind but still self-evident and “natural”;
a freedom like the modernist architects created/discovered in the
early 1900s.
On a related point, Bloemsma also has this to say: “Desktop publishing
(DTP) has lifted type to the meta-level of digital media. Type is
now cut off from its physical origins, the roots that determined its
shapes: handwriting and letterpress. The return of features like ligatures
and ‘old-style’ figures, the revival of monospaced fonts, and the
use of ‘rough’ types like Interstate and Bell Gothic for text demonstrate
our emotional desire for tradition, rooted in limitations and a certain
characteristic imperfection. Paradoxically, DTP intended to liberate
us from all this. These contradictions present a dilemma in which
contemporary type design has to find its way.”
FF Avance is available in two weights (regular and bold), and comes equipped
with small caps and both text and lining figures. Bloemsma has also
designed the aforementioned FF
Balance and has recently expanded his FF
Cocon typeface.
25-September 2002
typeface identification: it begins – and ends – with the letter a
Take this quiz: Of the b’s shown in this
palette, how many do you know? If you’re a true typophile,
you fared respectably.
But when attempting to identify a typeface, is the b the Rosetta stone that
links feature to name? Probably not. While the lower case f and g
say a lot, the a tells the whole story; but why so?
I would simply suggest that the lower case a is the most visually interesting
and complex letter in the alphabet. There is so much room for variation
in the overhang and bowl; indeed, while one can do only so much with
the strokes of the other letters, it seems that those of the a can
assume myriad forms.
In Counterpunch,
Fred Smeijers begins with some support for this idea: “Why would
the punchcutter make three [a’s]? Maybe because this is a weak
punch that breaks easily? I do not think so...I think the reason
could be this: the punchcutter just liked to make these a’s.
Just as these days a young type designer might love to draw an a in
idle moments....”
Take the quiz again; same typefaces,
same order. How’d you do this time?
Answers (left to right):
Avenir
ITC New Baskerville
Berling
Centaur
Century Schoolbook
Courier New
Dante
Ehrhardt
Simoncini Garamond
Gill Sans
Linotype Janson Text
Joanna
Linotype Syntax
Meta
Minion
PMN Caecilia
Perpetua
Linotype Sabon
Scala Sans
Times New Roman
20-September 2002
meta: 9 of 20
Meta
is everywhere, and why not? The highly readable “Helvetica of
the 1990s” is available in normal and condensed widths in five
weights, and over an eight-year span, has been expanded to include
CE, Turkish, Baltic, Greek, and Cyrillic versions. Designed by Erik
Spiekermann; see also his Officina
Sans and (with Ole Schaefer) Info.
16-September 2002
tex ramblings...
Didn’t really think about type until 1994. Due to graduate studies, I was
accumulating statistics books – mostly small and green (Chapman
and Hall), big and yellow (Springer). Varied colors and sizes, but
just one type. Light, clean, and nowhere on my PC. What was it?
The copyright page provided a clue: “Camera-ready copy from the author’s
TeX files.” I naively and impulsively got VTeX and embarked on
an odyssey of trial and error. Much error, and so I bought two books:
Arvind Borde’s TeX by Example and Donald Knuth’s The
TeXBook. The first was exactly what I needed – a guidebook
containing code of varied complexity and length. Copy, change to suit,
and correct. The second book – by the program’s author –
made me laugh, left me awestruck, and provided a glimpse into the
world of typography.
I learned that there were different flavors – plain TeX, LaTeX –
and that it didn’t need to be bought. Right there for free on CTAN.
With MiKTeX on the back end and WinEdt on the front, I could produce
clean, mathematical copy. For me, at that time, TeX was more about
logic and practicality than about typography.
Turned out I didn't yet know what typography was. But four summers later
– hot and sleepless – my newborn son David needed to be
held 24 hours a day. And I needed something to read during his intermittent
slumber. It was Bringhurst; I read and reread, and learned about the
art of typography. Much more than the mechanics of getting the right
letter to appear on the page. To this day, my only truly dog-eared
book. Own two copies.
Marrying Bringhurst and Knuth wasn’t easy. Transcending Computer Modern and
incorporating PostScript fonts required Alan Hoenig’s TeX Unbound.
Fontinst, pltotf, and vptovf, and I was using MathTime with everything
from Adobe Garamond (the La Boheme of type?) to Scala. Incorporated
text figures (j-option) and ligatures. Tried – and failed miserably
– at Hoenig’s MathInst; cheated by simply changing the style
file. But I had moved from typing to setting type.
All in all, I used TeX to set 10 papers in the neurosciences, several
more in Devanagari and Greek with my wife for her work in the humanities,
and countless variations on cover letters and resumes as I ventured
out into the “real world.”
I still use TeX at work a little, but not so much any more at home; InDesign
has made it all too easy. But when I have time, I try new bits of
code. There is such power and economy to TeX – small, device-independent
files, and not an extra penny to Mr Gates. Amazing things can be done
with it – take a look at Don Hosek's work on Serif.
Have you thought about getting TeX going on your system? If so, but unsure
of where to start, drop me a line. I’d be happy to help.
07-September 2002
he cried his eyes out
I worked with Linotype Janson Text and Linotype Sabon yesterday. Doubleheader,
and I went two for two. What a privilege to set type using a couple
of the most beautiful text faces in existence! No pretense, no eccentricities
– just regal strength. And a strength that was preserved and
even reinforced in the transition from metal to bits.
What a letdown I had today, then, to use another Linotype digitization.
Electra – in metal – is one of my favorite book faces of all.
Somehow so distinctive and so transparent. Pick up a few American
books of the 50s and you’ll find Electra and will feel the force of
it. A pioneering design, and one of the few original faces of the
20th century. But surely Dwiggins is rolling now, and for good reason.
For his first serifed face became emaciated upon digitization and
there is little hope of it fattening up anytime soon.
Bringhurst writes of digital translations that are too faithful to the originals.
The translation of Electra is perhaps faithful to the metal matrices,
but not to the impression of ink into paper.
But never mind that. Eager to build your type library, you recall the
letterpress-induced robustness of it in your parents’ college texts,
you see the anti-aliased gifs of its digitized version at 72 pt, and
then...the music begins to play. One of the strangest medleys
you’ve ever heard, too: A bizarre mix of “God Bless America,”
“Misty,” and “Feelin’ Massachusetts.” Swooning
and dizzy, you license.
You fire up InDesign (and wait...and wait a little more) and proceed
to set some text. You print at increasingly large sizes. Twelve point
isn’t quite dark enough; neither are 14 or 16 or 18. You attempt to
diagnose; where is the problem? Do you need a new ink cartridge? Were
you using some kind of light weight that you didn't know about? After
fifteen minutes of fretting, fussing, and unsuccessful fixing, you
begin your procession through the five stages of grief.
1. Denial: “I didn’t really just...did I? No, couldn't have. I’m sure
I cancelled at the last minute again. Logged right off, I did. Yup.”
2. Anger: “Goddammit, who the hell digitized this? If I spoke even a shred
of intelligible German, I would call up Linotype right now and give
them a piece of my mind, I would...!”
3. Bargaining: “Dear God, if I take a little coffee break and my new font looks
heavier when I come back, I’ll start going to church again.”
4. Depression: “Just...just screw this whole typography thing. Nobody really
notices this stuff anyway, do they? Real small caps, fake small caps...lining
numerals, old style numerals...hyphens, en dashes...who cares?
Besides, Times New Roman isn’t all that bad.”
5. Acceptance: “Yes, I bought versions 1 and 2. Display type included, along
with those Caravan border thingies. Oh well, it’s a piece of history,
right?”
Don’t get me started on Granjon.
01-September 2002
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