Akin to the Pan design is the Jugend (page [169]), though it is not nearly so good. It would be better with a border about it, and still better if the Jugend letters were not quite so narrow, and if the background behind the girl were more simply drawn; but the letter is good and strong, and the figure, being in outline, {174} might be printed upon the roughest paper. The whole page is interesting also as showing recent movement in type design in Germany. This is the result of the William Morris movement in England. It will be noticed that the type letters are broad and well proportioned; they are virtually modernized Jenson.
HEADING DESIGN BY GEORG AURIOL. From La Revue Encyclopédique.
CHAPTER III.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS ILLUSTRATIONS APPROPRIATE FOR DIFFERENT PURPOSES — THE RIVOIRE APPROPRIATE WHERE EXPENDITURE IS UNLIMITED — HALF-TONES USED FOR NEWS-GIVING OR INFORMATION-GIVING PURPOSES — THE HASSALL OUTLINE APPROPRIATE FOR POSTERS AND DECORATIVE PRINTING.
LET US RESUME the consideration of some miscellaneous illustrations for the sake of investigating the different styles of design and the principles which underlie them. As we said in Chapter II, the French, who are the most ready to use simple designs printed on rough paper, also are experts in preparing with most exquisite workmanship most delicate designs. Let us cite the cover of the Paris Illustré—you will see that here a half-tone and a wood engraving have been used, and that each is virtually a picture. The type of the title is very fine French Old Style (by fine we mean thin), and while, of course, the hair lines in the a and e are due to our great reduction of the cut, yet in the original these lines were very fine, and therefore by no {176}
Cover design, by Rivoire, for a summer number of Paris Illustré, the flowers printed in slate color, in half-tone; the portrait, of Mlle. Weber, a wood engraving, and the title, printed in black. The original 11 1/2 by 15 inches.
{177} means as well adapted to ordinary printing as the Grasset, Caspari (Jugend), and Stuck designs given in Chapter II. Yet I consider the present design an admirable one. But what are the facts in the case? The art editor, in getting up this design, had plenty of money at his disposal. The cover was of heavy calendered paper, the flowers were printed in half-tone in color, and the woman’s portrait, printed in black, was beautifully engraved on wood, a very costly process. This single cover may have cost as much as the entire sixteen pages of the body of the weekly.
The Auriol heading of this chapter is French also, and is no less artistic than the realistic flowers on the Paris Illustré cover; but on account of its simplicity it is far superior to the Paris Illustré as a floral design for ordinary printing, simply because it can be printed on cheap stock and can be cheaply and quickly reproduced. There ought to be no mistake, then, about my attitude in recommending one style of designing above another. I do so from a practical point of view.