The highlights for me include Dan Reisinger’s characters with numbers for faces, Bill Moran’s ‘Letterbugs’ and the colourful calligraphy sketches of the Indian Type Foundry. There are many examples of superbly skilful drawing and design, but there are also pages that are collages of paper scraps roughly taped together, where it is clear that the creator has wrestled with the idea and composition for some time.Īll the sketchbooks have been photographed with great sensitivity and the book is designed with the care and balance it deserves, giving most of the spread over to the photograph with a supporting comment from the sketchbook’s owner. Therefore it is pleasing to see that this book features a wide range of approaches to using a sketchbook and drawing to generate initial visuals. This book is packed with imagery such as this along with the opinions from those responsible for its creation, providing an insight to the design process of innovative typography from around the globe.īooks of this nature are an edited view of a sketchbook, the ‘highlights’ of the creative struggle, so there is always a danger that a novice or an impressionable student might assume that every page in their sketchbook should be perfect, a neat work of art that is flawless. The repetition of shape as the designer searches for the perfect form produces a pattern on the page that is pleasing to the eye. There is something strangely hypnotising about a sketchbook spread of hand drawn letterforms. Published by Thames & Hudson ISBN: 978-53 Written By: Steven Heller & Lita Talarico

Typography sketchbooks by steven heller