Because a majority of type-faces are built upon horizontal and vertical lines, rococo type ornamentation is seldom successful in typography. The pen-and-ink border design (Example [98]) is a clever adaptation of the Louis XV. rococo style. There is not an absolutely straight vertical or horizontal line in the border, and with the curves and flowers, ribbons, lattice-work and cupids it makes an appeal to women. The type-face combined with the border has similar characteristics—a freedom of line and an abundance of curves.
Examples [99] and [100] show a chair and an announcement page, both slightly ornamented to please those folks who like neither the severely plain nor the elaborately ornamental.
Ornament is secondary to the real purpose of the thing it embellishes; it should not be so lavish as to distract attention from the more important object. A booklet is issued to convey a message, and should the reading matter be overshadowed by ornamentation, this purpose may not be accomplished. A “flowery” oration may entertain and please an audience, but it may not convince. In 1896 Bryan stampeded a convention by his extemporaneous eloquence and metaphor, but when he came to the “enemy’s country” and faced an audience which wanted facts, he read his address from carefully prepared manuscript.
EXAMPLE 118
Filling blank spaces with ornamentation, as was done on manuscript books. Page by Government Printshop, Berlin, Germany
During the Middle Ages, when nations were fighting for existence and necessities of life were barely obtainable, there was little ornamentation except in isolated instances, but when, about the fifteenth century, the Renaissance came, art received an enthusiastic reception. Ornamentation was indulged in to excess, the artists using all the classic forms and inventing new ones. Example [109], showing wall border decoration, looks to the printer like a specimen sheet of type borders. This brings to mind that there is always the temptation to over-ornament when an artistic job is desired, and the necessity of advising printers to restrain themselves and save a few ornaments for other work. Our brethren of the cloth like to repeat the story of the theological student preaching his first sermon before the Seminary authorities. He began at Genesis and took his hearers thru the entire Bible to Revelation. When he had finished an old professor gravely asked what he would preach about the next Sunday.
The famous designer Chippendale, first made his furniture serviceable and then added ornament, from which fact the printer should profit. Have a printed job serve its purpose, and ornament it only so far as is consistent to this end. It is frequently advisable to omit decoration and let the type talk without interruption.
Ornamentation when used for border purposes has two features which may not be apparent to the superficial glance—regularity in repetition and variety in repetition. Example [101] shows repeated strokes of the same length. In Example [102] by alternating the length of the strokes the design is made more interesting. Examples [103], [104] and [105] illustrate this principle in rounded forms. In the first there is monotonous repetition, in the second there is less monotony because the oval form is less regular than the circle, and in Example [105], by contrasting the forms in both size and shape the design acquires new decorative interest. This principle of contrast and variety is exemplified in most border designs. In Example [107] the light scroll lines contrast with the black leaves, and in Example [106] curves are contrasted with angles. Contrast is sometimes obtained with color, as shown in Example [123].