Overview
Originally circulated to a tiny and select audience of mainly professional type designers, what Letterletter has to say is of interest and importance to a far larger audience. This collection of newsletters, originally published by Atypl, is a fascinating exploration of the calligraphic roots of typographic letterforms. Letterletter was edited, written, and designed by Geerrit Noordzij, one of the finest type and graphic designers in the Netherlands. A superb calligrapher and teacher of lettering and type design, Noordzij's students constitute "the Dutch School" which now dominates European type design. Noordzij is an important historian and theorist of lettering and in Letterletter he makes clear many aspects of the history of letterforms that were hitherto unknown or misunderstood. Letterletter is an entre into the mind of a great teacher. It will be invaluable to those interested in calligraphy and typography.Synopsis
This iconoclastic collection of essays on typography, writing and life is the work of Gerrit Noordzij, a master calligrapher and teacher of lettering and type design at The Hague. Letterletter opens up whole new perspectives on not just the world of letterforms but on the world and the written word, in general. Occasionally cranky, always well-written and insightful, Letterletter is an invaluable design tool and, more importantly, a pure pleasure to read. As Noordzij notes, "Its lack of dignity, authority and tolerance could not prevent Letterletter from becoming a collectors item."
Booknews
Noordzij, a typographer who taught writing, lettering, and type design for 30 years at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in The Hague, Holland, originally produced this material in hand-made issues of a bulletin by the same name between 1984-1996. Though some of the essays are by other writers, the majority of the volume contains Noordzij's own thoughts on writing, his experiences before medieval calligraphy, and his extended and literate musings on many kinds of type and lettering, examples of which are included, illustrated in his own hand. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)