Note: This is the third in a series of posts previously shared on the Ampersand Book Studio Patreon page. This post was originally posted on August 16, 2022. Look for a brand new essay – “The” Fine Press Essay: "The Ideal Book" as Imagined by the Fine Press Movement – on Wednesday, September 7.
In keeping with his Arts and Crafts aesthetic, Cobden-Sanderson sought to always simplify. In our discussion of the Ampersand Book Studio version of the pamphlet, we discuss the extremely simple – almost minimalistic – binding style used by The Doves Press. The one exception to this minimalist design?
"The especial beauty of the first or introductory page and of the title, and for the especial beauty of the headings of chapters, capital or initial letters, & so on."
To learn more about the partnership between The Doves Press and Edward Johnston, refer back to Part II of this series.
Creating a New "Johnson" Design
One goal of our "The Ideal Book" broadside was to create an homage to not only the words of Cobden-Sanderson, but the brilliant typographical design of Johnston. As we have seen, Johnston's contributions to Doves Press versions of Paradise Lost and the Bible cannot be overstated.
With these designs in mind, I set out to create a new "Johnston" heading, one which was entirely new while maintaining the sense of balance, beauty, and whimsy of the Johnston originals.
While the original Johnston created each typographical heading for the Doves Press by hand. I, however, am not a calligrapher. Moreover, I wanted to use his original type forms which have not been made into a digitized font. Moreover, I am not a digital typographer either, and I am sure that those who are would have many critiques of both my process and the results. However, for the sake of this broadside, the process has led to wonderful results.
I started with the digital scans of original Doves Press books (see above). I then used Photoshop to isolate each letter to be used in our new broadside. As you can see, simply using such low-resolution images taken from scans of a 120-year-old book did not provide a satisfactory image for use in high-quality offset printing. So, each letter was then individually recreated using various layers within Photoshop. Below is an example of the scanned "E" from Johnston's original and the final "E" that was used in the broadside:
Fortunately, Paradise Lost and the Bible provided nearly all of the letters that would be used in our broadside. The one exception was the "K" which was created by carefully editing an "R."
Once the letters had been electronically reproduced, the design process began. Initially, I had thought to reproduce nearly the whole of the Cobden-Sanderson essay as a broadside. It was, I think, an aesthetic disaster...
This early "design" was just a visual "wall of text." It lacked any of the simplicity, beauty, and whimsy of the Johnston/Cobden-Sanderson originals. If I was to take the Arts and Crafts Movement principles of Cobden-Sanderson seriously, it was time to start again. And to simplify!
The next iteration was a step in the right direction, I thought. It brought the focus to the "the especial beauty of the headings," with the extended "T" serving as an ode to Johnston's "I" on the first page of the Bible.
It was progress. However, it lacked a couple of design elements still. First, with the emphasis on "The wholeness, symmetry, harmony, beauty" the text lacked a focus. When read, it seemed a more general statement, rather than a statement about the book. Although the language was lovely, it lacked a focus, a subject.
Second, although I liked the extension of the "T," alone it lacked the touch of whimsy so often used by Johntson. By whimsy, I suppose I mean the ways in which he used extenders to break out of the blockiness of the text.
By adding a single sentence from earlier in Cobden-Sanderson's essay, I was able to remedy both of these problems. It became instantly clear that this is about the book. Moreover, the extended "F" from the first line of Paradise Lost provided an opportunity to slightly break out of the block of text, adding a small bit of visual interest.
Thus, the design was complete. The lettering of Edward Johnston and the words of Cobden-Sanderson provided the inspiration for this limited edition broadside.
To learn more about how we printed the broadside, check out the video and blog post "The Ideal Book Broadside, Part IV: The Printing & A Brief History."
Remember, the limited edition broadside is available for sale on the Ampersand Book Studio website: ampersandbookstudio.com.
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"Book Beautiful" Art Print: A New "Johnston" Heading
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Note: This is the third in a series of posts previously shared on the Ampersand Book Studio Patreon page. This post was originally posted on August 16, 2022. Look for a brand new essay – “The” Fine Press Essay: "The Ideal Book" as Imagined by the Fine Press Movement – on Wednesday, September 7.
In keeping with his Arts and Crafts aesthetic, Cobden-Sanderson sought to always simplify. In our discussion of the Ampersand Book Studio version of the pamphlet, we discuss the extremely simple – almost minimalistic – binding style used by The Doves Press. The one exception to this minimalist design?
To learn more about the partnership between The Doves Press and Edward Johnston, refer back to Part II of this series.
Creating a New "Johnson" Design
One goal of our "The Ideal Book" broadside was to create an homage to not only the words of Cobden-Sanderson, but the brilliant typographical design of Johnston. As we have seen, Johnston's contributions to Doves Press versions of Paradise Lost and the Bible cannot be overstated.
With these designs in mind, I set out to create a new "Johnston" heading, one which was entirely new while maintaining the sense of balance, beauty, and whimsy of the Johnston originals.
While the original Johnston created each typographical heading for the Doves Press by hand. I, however, am not a calligrapher. Moreover, I wanted to use his original type forms which have not been made into a digitized font. Moreover, I am not a digital typographer either, and I am sure that those who are would have many critiques of both my process and the results. However, for the sake of this broadside, the process has led to wonderful results.
I started with the digital scans of original Doves Press books (see above). I then used Photoshop to isolate each letter to be used in our new broadside. As you can see, simply using such low-resolution images taken from scans of a 120-year-old book did not provide a satisfactory image for use in high-quality offset printing. So, each letter was then individually recreated using various layers within Photoshop. Below is an example of the scanned "E" from Johnston's original and the final "E" that was used in the broadside:
Fortunately, Paradise Lost and the Bible provided nearly all of the letters that would be used in our broadside. The one exception was the "K" which was created by carefully editing an "R."
Once the letters had been electronically reproduced, the design process began. Initially, I had thought to reproduce nearly the whole of the Cobden-Sanderson essay as a broadside. It was, I think, an aesthetic disaster...
This early "design" was just a visual "wall of text." It lacked any of the simplicity, beauty, and whimsy of the Johnston/Cobden-Sanderson originals. If I was to take the Arts and Crafts Movement principles of Cobden-Sanderson seriously, it was time to start again. And to simplify!
The next iteration was a step in the right direction, I thought. It brought the focus to the "the especial beauty of the headings," with the extended "T" serving as an ode to Johnston's "I" on the first page of the Bible.
It was progress. However, it lacked a couple of design elements still. First, with the emphasis on "The wholeness, symmetry, harmony, beauty" the text lacked a focus. When read, it seemed a more general statement, rather than a statement about the book. Although the language was lovely, it lacked a focus, a subject.
Second, although I liked the extension of the "T," alone it lacked the touch of whimsy so often used by Johntson. By whimsy, I suppose I mean the ways in which he used extenders to break out of the blockiness of the text.
By adding a single sentence from earlier in Cobden-Sanderson's essay, I was able to remedy both of these problems. It became instantly clear that this is about the book. Moreover, the extended "F" from the first line of Paradise Lost provided an opportunity to slightly break out of the block of text, adding a small bit of visual interest.
Thus, the design was complete. The lettering of Edward Johnston and the words of Cobden-Sanderson provided the inspiration for this limited edition broadside.
To learn more about how we printed the broadside, check out the video and blog post "The Ideal Book Broadside, Part IV: The Printing & A Brief History."
Remember, the limited edition broadside is available for sale on the Ampersand Book Studio website: ampersandbookstudio.com.