Eric Gill's An Essay on Typography. The first edition was written in 1931.

This summer has been filled with some really great reading. About two weeks ago I finished Eric Gill’s, An essay on Typography. This lovely (and quick!) read was written in 1931.

Eric Gill is a very opinionated man, and throughout the book, he speaks much about type, printing, punch-cutting, paper, ink and more as it related to the industrial revolution. I was fascinated with how his concerns and opinions about the changing world relate to our changing world. Today, we are facing globalization, advances in technology, offshoring/outsourcing and so on. Gill’s essay is right in line with some of the challenges that today’s creative professional face.

“If you are going to employ men to build a wall, and if those men are to be treated simply as tools, it is imbecility to make such a design for your wall as depends upon your having masons who are artist.” p. 8

I might relate this to today by saying, “If you are going to outsource your website design to a handful of right-brained coders (now I know that there are many left-brained coders, I am not talking about you), it is imbecility to make such a brief for your website as depends upon your having coders who are artist.”

Eric Gill goes on, in his chapter on lettering, to outline some core principles in understanding what typography is and how it ought to be used. Principles like readability, aesthetic, letters are not pictures but signs for sounds, abstract forms. One thing I love in this chapter is how he relates that blackletter was not a classification to those in the gothic world, their letters were simply letters. Italic was not italic to scribes in Italy, but they were rather just letters.

An example of the diagrams that are in this book.

Another gem of knowledge is the brief chapter on punch-cutting, the process by which metal type was cut at the time. He compares the hand done process, which is vertically integrated by one man, i.e. the type is designed and cut into steel by the same man. In the machine method of punch-cutting, a designer draws the letters about two inches high. Then a draughtsman reflects the images through a lens and enlarges each form to about 12 inches high. This is then refined as seen fit by the draughtsman’s supervisor. The image is placed under a pantograph and the image is etched into a thin layer of wax laid on a metal bed. Then another removes the unwanted wax and places the wax letter in relief in an electric bath, coating it with copper. The wax is melted out and you are left with a “positive” pattern which is placed into a new pantograph where it is traced at all the needed sizes. The type is then cast. This process makes for a much faster cutting of type than can be done by hand. Gill rambles (sarcastically) about how unlimited this process is. He tells that even if all those employed by the industrial punch-cutting process were ‘in full intellectual sympathy with the designer,’ (which is very far from the case) there is still a hinderance to accuracy. He talks of ‘tame’ workers who are overseen by those interested in business, not art.

Eric Gill includes some really neat examples of type.

This elitist perspective carries throughout the book. He champions handmade inks and papers (something I am dying to figure out how to do), hand printing and hand binding. He argues that a machine so complicated that the workers are watching the machine, rather than the printing, and one that takes 18 men to operate and 800 men to build, will never be as sensitive as the hand-done process.

This book gives tremendous context to the history of graphic design and typography in the Industrial Revolution. Being such a quick read, I can’t think of a good reason why any designer shouldn’t read Eric Gill’s book.

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for about a year and I’ve done nothing with it other than look at the pretty pictures (of which there are many). Yesterday, I was on a long drive and I brought it along, thinking I would simply start the book. To my surprise, I digested the entire volume in about two hours. This is not to say that Spiekermann and Ginger’s book is no more than a pamphlet; no, it is a really great little book that (almost) everyone should read.

I loved how easy it was to read. It wastes no time nor space on the page. It outlines a number of important typographic principles in an incredibly simple way, making this book ideal for anyone who uses type (almost everyone). Editors, copy writers, all artists, designers and people who like to read.

Granted this book is not a notably deep treatise on the subject, it doesn’t really need to be. It teaches some very important principles using simple, easy to remember and relatable analogies. Many authors present similar information in a typographer/designer-only cryptic language. It probably is not the type of book that a seasoned typographer might read. However, If you can’t quite call yourself an expert and are seeking to improve your understanding and use of typography, take the time (not much time at all) to read this book.

Overall, the book is complete, though not too deep and presents the information in an easy-to-read, and perhaps more importantly: easy-to-remember way.

Eric Spiekermann has designed the FF Meta typeface as well as Berliner Grotesk BQ, FF Info Display, FF Info Office, FF Info Text, FF Meta Boiled, FF Meta Condensed, FF Meta Correspondence, FF Meta Subnormal, ITC Officina Display, ITC Officina Sans, ITC Officina Serif, FF Unit and several other typefaces as parts of corporate design programs.

Spiekermann co-authored Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works. He also participated in the creation of numerous corporate identities and other works, including redesigns of the publications The Economist and Reason. (quoted from source)

E.M. Ginger has worked with books, type and typography for 30 years as an author, editor, designer, typographer and instructor to name a few.

She is currently the executive editor at Octavo, a company specializing in digitizing rare books. She is the editor of several award-winning cookbooks, as well as books on design and typography. (quoted and abridged from the book reviewed in this article)