Three Ways to Improve Your Italic Calligraphy
An Interview with Senior Designer Richard Lipton of Font Bureau
One of the foundations of type design and lettering is calligraphy. Learning calligraphy can improve the quality of your work. But where to start? Senior Type Designer and accomplished calligrapher Richard Lipton sat down with TypeThursday about how studying italic hands is a great place to start learning.
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TypeThursday: In a previous interview, you shared the story of your design professor, Don Bell. He showed you a piece of calligraphy he had done that was the catalyst for your interest in calligraphy. What kind of style of calligraphy was it?
Richard Lipton: My memory of it is a bit vague now, it was 1973 after all. I do remember that it was just a few lines of lettering with possibly half-inch tall letters rendered with very black ink on what was probably handmade paper no larger than 8 x 10. I have a dim sense of the style being similar to Edward Johnston’s foundational hand, being a more condensed and taller version, slightly italic and of medium weight. I was essentially floored by seeing Bell’s calligraphic piece. It was a somewhat easy style to copy and learn using a Speedball C-style nib, which was exactly what I did, over and over, again and again.
Coming home on my next college break, I mentioned my new interest to my mom who at the time was working at the cataloging department in the mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public Library. She brought me home a copy of Edward Johnston’s Writing, Illuminating and Lettering saying that a few copies had passed by her desk, that it might be of interest and one copy somehow managed to find its way home to me. So I guess my calligraphic career began with a crime. Don’t tell. I still have it.
TT: Your secret’s safe with me. You said Bell’s work was slightly italic. Was that the first italic hand that really impressed you?
RL: Since it was the only calligraphy I was aware of ever seeing at that point I guess it was the first italic hand that impressed me.
TT: What qualities regarding the italic hand interests you?
The Italic Hand in Calligraphy
RL: I think my interest initially arose from their place in history. The italic scripts were based largely on the Humanist miniscules of the 15th century Italian Renaissance which were in turn based on a revival of the Carolingian miniscules from the 10th century. All very legible and extremely beautiful forms of writing which achieved a clarity and elegance that provided the best models both for scribes and ensuing early type designs.
The Italic style, also known as chancery italic or cursive, was also developed during the Renaissance in Italy. The Humanist miniscules were somewhat slow to write properly and as the commercial world of business became more prevalent with it’s prerequisite for all manner of legal and business documents for record keeping, the italic style arose in part as a result of a need for more speed in writing. The inclined slope of italic was a direct outcome of this increase in speed. Eventually it became less angular, a bit rounder and even included several joins. It was a very natural evolution. As more and more people became literate and began to write, quickly rendered informal italic was the popular model for many handwriting styles.
Italic is a worthy entry point into the discipline.
The inherent appeal of italic writing is that it’s a somewhat friendly way to be introduced to learning calligraphy, certainly a popular way to begin. It can suffer much inexperience yet still appear quite lovely. The natural ribbon effect of the thick and thin strokes inevitably creates a mesmerizing pattern. When I began to practice after I had seen my professor’s calligraphy, I only had Johnston’s book as a guide, so I merely copied his models which were, and still are, extremely viable letterforms for teaching the use of a broad-edged pen. I loved the discipline needed to practice consistently and enjoyed the quiet necessary to focus on making proper historical letterforms. Studying italic styles seemed to me to be a very natural part of learning to use a broad edged tool and the rewards came rather quickly.
Italic writing can be either formal or informal, more like handwriting, so I was also able to practice using a calligraphic (broad edged) fountain pen whenever I would write letters to friends, family and colleagues back when that was actually a preferred way to communicate.
As you know, writing is the most universal of the arts, a way that we all make marks on paper, and is sadly fading from our culture. Bummer, huh?
The unique rhythm that’s inherent in the italic “architecture” can lead students to a more effective understanding of calligraphic letterforms.
TT: Indeed. That’s why you teach calligraphy at RISD and will be teaching a workshop at Cooper; someone has to carry the torch. To summarize what you said: italics have a deep history, a unique rhythm that makes them beautiful and are more forgiving to learn for beginners of the broad nib pen. Is that correct?
RL: Yes, I believe it is. Some calligraphy instructors may disagree, but my experience has been that teaching italic first is a worthy entry point into the discipline. I find that the unique rhythm you mention that’s inherent in the italic “architecture” can lead students to a more effective understanding of calligraphic letterforms. Of course there is much to learn from a full study of historical manuscripts and the rich exemplars that became the basis for our modern alphabet.
Considerations When Doing Italic Calligraphy
TT: When students are studying this italic hand “architecture”, what are some considerations they should be aware of?
RL: One of the most important considerations for a beginner practicing italic is to keep the angle of the tool constant, anywhere from 30°- 45°, depending on the style of italic to be taught.
Another consideration is the height to weight relationship. The letters should be the correct height for the width of the tool used, bold enough to clearly render the forms without them getting too tall and spindly which can cause a loss of control.
And of course, it’s important to consider the width of the letters in relation to their height and the amount of counterspace within and the letterspace between each character. All of these factors work together to set up the right proportions, creating a natural sense of rhythm and resulting harmony when the letters come together to make words and paragraphs. This part holds true for all styles of calligraphy, not just for italics.
TT: This has been a great conversation. Richard, thank you so much for being here.
Want to learn italic calligraphy? Richard is teaching a two day calligraphy workshop April 30 and May 1st. Sign up on CooperType NYC.
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