By kind permission of
Messrs. Benn Bros, Ltd.
The ability to produce good lettering is of the utmost importance to the artist employed in commercial work. The list of things that require lettering seems almost endless. To mention just a few, there are posters, catalogue covers, showcards, labels, boxes, packages, displayed advertisements, calendars, title-pages, book covers, magazine covers, letter headings, maps, diagrams, etc. This list might be extended considerably and yet not include all the many things for which lettering is absolutely necessary.
Design for Booklet Cover.
By kind permission
of the House of Vanheems
and Messrs. Clarke
& Sherwell, Ltd.
In fact, when one begins to consider the number of things that require lettering of some description, one begins to realise how essential it is that the artist should be able to produce good and well-spaced lettering.
As mentioned before in an earlier chapter, there is nothing like having plenty of practice with the reed and quill pen to help the student towards ability to mass and arrange lettering in the best possible way. The difference between the lettering done by one who has had plenty of practice with the reed or quill, and one who has had no experience in this direction, is most noticeable. The one is able to design with words, while the other is concerned only with the shapes of the letters. To be able to produce well-arranged lettering it is necessary to be able to design with words, and familiarity with the reed or quill gives this facility better than any other training. No matter how the letters are formed afterwards, the experience gained in massing letters together in this way to form words will be found to be of great service.
The arrangement of letters to form words is of the utmost importance; in fact it might be said to be as essential a factor as the formation of the individual letters.
A well-arranged inscription often adds greatly to the finish of a drawing, and with the latter it often happens that it is incomplete without a heading or title of some description. But this, if badly done, may completely spoil the appearance of the drawing.
