I’m just a sucker for weird symbols and numbers. The left clock has an explanation of each expression underneath it. “3” is represented by π (3.14…) and a blue dot on the outside of the circle where the numerical value would fall (just below the 3 position). The other expressions are the same way (for example “6” is Avogadro’s number, which is 6.0221415 × 10^23.) The right one isn’t as clever about the expressions and placement, but I think I like the symbols just as well!
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There was a post the other day on the Book Arts email list about David Esslemont’s book My Fellow Citizens, a series of calligrams — a printed text where the typeface or the layout has a special significance — to illustrate President Obama’s inaugural address. Esslemont analyzed the word frequency in the speech, then used various ink colors and text sizes to weight the words — words used most often (nation — 11 times, new — 11 times, America — 10 times ) are large and red, the next frequency groupings are drawn in smaller blue letters and finally black ink is used for all the rest. To the left is a detail of one calligram.
This got me thinking about word clouds — a computer generated visual depiction of a text — that use font size and color to depict the frequency of words in a given text. I’ve seen “tag clouds” on lots of blogs, the idea is to give a quick summary of that particular blog. As luck would have it, that same day I visited the blog of a friend of my Mom’s, with a link to Wordle — a site that generates a word cloud from text you provide. I found the text of Obama’s speech and got this cloud:
Apparently word clouds have been used a lot to look at speeches — this blog has a post called “Word Cloud Analysis of Obama’s Inaugural Speech Compared to Bush, Clinton, Reagan, Lincoln’s.” (My most glaring observation looking at them is that Bush used the word “Freedom” in his speech an enormous number of times!)
I wonder if the clouds would be useful to understand poetry? On Wordle, someone made and posted a cloud of e.e. cummings “anyone lived in a pretty how town” — cloud below followed by text of the poem. Doesn’t help me, maybe because cummings’ word play is lost (“he sang his didn’t he danced his did”) but then again it’s only one example… Let me know what you discover with them!
anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn’t he danced his did.
Women and men (both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn’t they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain
children guessed (but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more
when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone’s any was all to her
someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream
stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)
one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was
all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
with by spirit and if by yes.
Women and men (both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain
— e. e. cummings
The Medieval ancestors of today’s graphic designers created ‘model’ or ‘pattern’ books to show their work to potential clients. Only a handful survive and the British Library is currently raising money to acquire an example of “outstanding significance” — the so-called Macclesfield Alphabet Book, a book that has been in the Earls of Macclesfield library since the 1750s. Below are a few more pictures, and go here to see even more.
Matt Sutter illustrates with type. My favorite is this Typebike print that uses Garamond. He’s also got a stag, tiger, octopus and a variety of typewomen.
 After reading my posts about maps, my friend Elaine wrote to tell me about a typographic map she’d gotten for Christmas, with all of the districts/neighborhoods in type — smaller or larger to fit in the appropriate location. Turns out I knew exactly what she got — the map to the right, from Ork Posters. (They’ve done maps of Seattle, Manhattan, Chicago, Toronto and more.) I’ve seen these before, and sent the link to more than one person, but had quite forgot about them — so I’m posting here so I’ll be reminded of them again when I browse my map posts… |
At the BABA book jam in October, calligrapher Cari Ferraro stopped by my table to say hi, and when I asked about the book she’d just finished, I got a huge treat when she brought it over for me to look at. Here’s what Cari says about the book on her website:
Spelling Words explores the roots of the English word “spell” and its intersection with letter magic. The book has two beginnings which meet in the center spread where the book may be turned over and read again from the other direction. Each side of the book begins with dictionary definitions of the word spell, the verb and the noun. Alphabets, magical symbols, and various rules and instructions for spelling fill the other pages.
Reading and handling her book was quite a pleasure: the handcrafted care of the painted paper, binding, and book case; the beautifully lettered words and page layout; and the wonderful surprise of reaching the middle of the book and having to turn it around to read the rest. Reading from one end, the words are loose, relaxed, breaking free of the page layout. From the other, they are more constrained and regular.
Below is a detail from Spelling Words. Cari has lots of pictures of page spreads and more details on her website as well as her blog.
