{"id":14534,"date":"2010-03-29T12:14:06","date_gmt":"2010-03-29T19:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/?p=14534"},"modified":"2010-03-22T20:46:31","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T03:46:31","slug":"jensons-italic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/mehallo.com\/blog\/archives\/14534","title":{"rendered":"Jenson’s Italic"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n‘Arrighi was here’ button by George Abrams<\/em><\/p>\n

Any current drawing of the type work of Nicholas Jenson<\/a> (1420-80) that includes an Italic is doing a little fudging. Since (like Trajan and lowercase<\/a>), Italic wasn’t quite around yet<\/a> when Jenson was making type. <\/p>\n

Typically the work of Ludovico Arrighi<\/a> (1475\u20131527) is adapted as the companion font to Jenson – as the Italic.<\/p>\n

Monotype did this with its Jenson-influenced Centaur<\/a> – and Adobe Jenson<\/a> sports an Arrighi-influenced italic. <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

mr. abrams<\/strong>
\nBack in 1994, I got to see the incredible hand-drawn, Jenson-influenced Venetian types of George Abrams. He worked large, 2 or 3 foot tall letters drawn in pencil, no drafting instruments. He called himself, ‘Mr. Analog.’ <\/p>\n

His influence is one of the reasons I believe in hand skills in my typography classes. It’s the only way to really<\/em> learn about type.<\/p>\n

At the time, his Jenson-inspired types were only available to private presses. They were digitized by current TDC<\/a> president, Charles Nix.<\/a> <\/p>\n

George Abrams was very selective about who used his types. At one point he refused to license his fonts to a corporation I worked for. <\/p>\n

That also impressed me.<\/em><\/p>\n

We exchanged holiday cards over the years, his were always fantastic. Elegant<\/em> and graceful<\/em> are words I think of regarding his art. His types, extensions of his personality. <\/p>\n

<\/a>     <\/a><\/p>\n

legacy<\/strong>
\nMr. Abrams passed away in 2001.<\/a> <\/p>\n

His types live on as the Abrams Legacy Collection,<\/a> purchasable thru MyFonts. Available are his Venetians<\/a> (with Arrighi italics, of course) and his Garamond interpretation, Augereau,<\/a> named for Claude Garamond’s<\/a> mentor Antone Augereau.<\/a> Would love to see, someday, a digital version of his often rumored to exist<\/em> Caslon.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, we use Abrams Augereau for the logotype for the Art New Media program<\/a> at American River College – one of the schools where I teach.<\/p>\n

Because, frankly, no other font will do.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
\nArt New Media brochure<\/em><\/p>\n\r\n\t

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