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Noordzij, Gerrit
The stroke of the pen:
Fundamental aspects of western writing,
Gerrit Noordzij.
Den Haag:
Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten.
Il.
Uitgave ter gelegenheid van het 3o0-jarige bestaan
van de Academie.
SISO 902.3 UDC 003
Trefwoord: Schriftkunde.
ISBN 90~900272-3
har 62.36
Deaighldtio
Tetibioiornigk Ku
$1445: YSH
AM 4q
issensenart
Designed by the author.
| Illustrated by the author.
Typeface: Monotype Spectrum on Lasercomp.
Photolitography by Reprofa, Culemborg.
Composed and printed by Van de Garde, Zaltbommel. RANGES
Form (the quality of shapes) and rhythm (the quality of the
arrangement of shapes) are essential for all design. However,
the designer will always have to consider many other aspects
as well (fitness for purpose, colour, size, finish etc.). This
complexity makes it difficult to study form and rhythm as
such. It is necessary to concentrate on these two subjects.
Letters are sheer form and writing is rhythm. This makes
writing designate for the study of form and rhythm
Nevertheless this exciting subject seems to be boring in the
view of students. Lettering is often taught as how beautiful
writing ought to be, imposing on students the esthetic
preoccupations of an earlier generation. It is difficult for
teachers to arrive at a different approach, because the lite-
rature on writing is mainly propaganda for a special view on
beauty. In this respect it makes little difference if an author
prefers sans serif type because he supposes it to be modern or
old face designs because they should be traditional: in both
cases a substitute (be it originality or tradition) is offered for
meaningful quality.
We need an approach that helps the student to see what
happens under his hands and to criticize the results with his
own standards. Such an approach requires a clear con-
ception of what letters are, rather than an imposed ideal of
how letters should be. To have an ideal is important and
may be even essential, but it should be the personal motive
of the student and not the secret of the teacher.
Questions of this kind were discussed at the working
seminar organized by the Royal Academy of The Hague for
the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypl) in
1978. To stimulate an open discussion, three different models
of teaching letterforms were introduced, one of them being