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Baseline Cover Issue 5

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Cover: ’Zephir‘, a narrow italic script from Friedrich Neugebauer

Contents

Editorial Geoffrey Lawrence

Welcome to the fifth edition of Baseline – Letraset’s magazine of type and type design.

It is now five years since the first issue was published and in that time we have tried to keep you up to date with developments in type both from Letraset’s point of view and from all other areas of the type world.

The Letraset name is synonymous with sheets of high quality transfer type; but there’s more to it than that.

The end result of using Letraset lettering is a headline or some form of setting. But what you are really buying is something more than just a typeface. Letraset dry transfer is a professional high quality typesetting system. It allows designers to produce high quality settings immediately; it gives them flexibility and control and the scope to exploit their creativity; and a wide range of ‘instantly’ available typefaces.

This means that we are as much involved in the world of type design as we are in the world of marketing. We aim to ensure that you have the latest and the finest faces accommodating the latest moods and trends as well as established favourites at your fingertips.

To achieve this, Letraset has some of the world’s finest type designers working for them. They are people who are passionately committed to excellence in the area of type design. And their supremely high standards are reflected in the regular flow of quality typefaces from the Letraset Studio. Faces like Italia, Romic and Bramley have established themselves as international successes not just in dry transfer form but also under licence to most of the major manufacturers of type setting systems.

Licencing our faces for other systems means designers and typographers have even greater choice and flexibility; they can use Letraset exclusive faces on dry transfer as well as being able to obtain them from their local typeshop. And new, quality faces continue to be produced as shown in this issue.

Letraset is committed to high standards of type, type design and typography, and Baseline magazine is part of this commitment. It is tangible proof of our involvement and interest in all aspects of type.

We aim to cover the whole type world, not just the Letraset part, and to keep you informed of all developments.

We are living in interesting typographical times and both Letraset and Baseline magazine will continue to bring you the latest and the best in type.

Geoffrey Lawrence

Comment: Typography today – art or science? Editorial team
Newsbrief Editorial team
Litera – a true book face Mike Daines
Corporate identity and visual identification systems Alan Topalian
Post punk possibilities (Punk typography in publishing) Editorial team
Newface – Edwardian Editorial team
D&AD typography 1984 Ed Cleary
Calligraphy – the mystic at of written forms Mike Daines
Friedrich Poppl – a fine sense of curve Mike Daines
The total art of Tony Di Spigna Editorial team
Image from article

Tony Di Spigna was born in Italy but was brought up and educated in the USA. He graduated from New York City Community College and Pratt Institute.

After a number of unsatisfactory jobs he arrived at Bonder & Carnase. Inc., where he was to work closely with Tom Carnase. ‘That was the job I wanted’, he remembers ‘the salary wasn’t important, it was the working atmosphere that counted’.

Shortly afterwards, in 1969, he moved with Carnase to the newly formed Lubalin Smith Carnase, Inc., where he continued to expand his talents as a letter designer and typographer…

Editorial team

Proteus – The changing face of type design Editorial team
Image from article

Proteus is a new face designed by Freda Sack for Letraset. Freda has already designed a number of faces such as Paddington, Talisman and Victorian and is also responsible for many faces now available from typesetting companies.

It was decided from the beginning that Proteus would be designed for use as a text face as well as for headlining and display. This immediately placed certain constraints on the design such as maximum legibility at small sizes. At the same time Freda decided that she would produce the face in four weights, and this posed even more design problems…

Editorial team

Six new examples of English style Editorial team

©1984 Published by Letraset Ltd.