CHAPTER XXIII

LETTERING FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES

The ability to produce good lettering is of the utmost importance to the artist employed in commercial work. The list of things that require lettering seems almost endless. To mention just a few, there are posters, catalogue covers, showcards, labels, boxes, packages, displayed advertisements, calendars, title-pages, book covers, magazine covers, letter headings, maps, diagrams, etc. This list might be extended considerably and yet not include all the many things for which lettering is absolutely necessary.

In fact, when one begins to consider the number of things that require lettering of some description, one begins to realise how essential it is that the artist should be able to produce good and well-spaced lettering.

As mentioned before in an earlier chapter, there is nothing like having plenty of practice with the reed and quill pen to help the student towards ability to mass and arrange lettering in the best possible way. The difference between the lettering done by one who has had plenty of practice with the reed or quill, and one who has had no experience in this direction, is most noticeable. The one is able to design with words, while the other is concerned only with the shapes of the letters. To be able to produce well-arranged lettering it is necessary to be able to design with words, and familiarity with the reed or quill gives this facility better than any other training. No matter how the letters are formed afterwards, the experience gained in massing letters together in this way to form words will be found to be of great service.

The arrangement of letters to form words is of the utmost importance; in fact it might be said to be as essential a factor as the formation of the individual letters.

A well-arranged inscription often adds greatly to the finish of a drawing, and with the latter it often happens that it is incomplete without a heading or title of some description. But this, if badly done, may completely spoil the appearance of the drawing.

Maps and diagrams require a simple form of lettering that is distinct and at the same time can be written in a fairly quick manner. The style of Roman lettering, formed with simple pen-strokes, shown in a previous chapter, might be used for this purpose; or the simple pen-formed italics might be used. For writing these a sharply-cut quill pen is required.

In Fig. 37 an alphabet is shown which is formed with all strokes of equal thickness. This is a very useful kind of lettering for illustrations, maps, and diagrams. It has one distinct advantage: that is, it can be written with the same pen that the drawing is made with. If this style of lettering is used, however, it is as well to make sure that all the strokes are of equal thickness. It should not look like quill-pen writing badly done. This type of lettering may be upright or slanting. Until the student is quite familiar with this lettering two lines may be used. The writing should be done very carefully and the words should be well spaced. This kind of lettering should be used only for names on maps, notes on diagrams, or references under illustrations. When a title is needed for an illustration, or a heading is required, carefully-drawn Roman lettering should be used. Each letter should be exact in finish, and at the same time there should be good arrangement.

For poster work it is essential that the lettering should be bold and decisive. For hand-written posters, that need to be produced quickly, the Roman alphabet, formed with simple pen-strokes, given in a previous chapter, will be found useful. A large reed pen should be used for this purpose. By using red and black inks very effective hand-written notices may be produced. If the poster is to be displayed out-of-doors, waterproof inks only should be used for writing it with. However, this will be dealt with in the next chapter.

For lettering on a poster that is to be reproduced, a good strong Roman type of lettering is the best. The type shown in Fig. 38 is a very suitable kind. It must be strong, bold, and well displayed. The principal words must show up strongly defined. For this, and, indeed, all kinds of commercial design, the lettering must be firm and exact to a nicety. The looseness that is suited to illumination will not do for this kind of work. The little accidental turns and twists, which are one of the charms of illuminated work, would be entirely out of place in commercial work, which must be firm and strong in every detail. Penscript is not used to any large extent. The greater part of the lettering used in commercial design is carefully drawn in an extremely accurate manner.

When lettering a poster, some endeavour should be made to get a certain amount of display in the lettering. For example, if the object is to advertise “Brown’s Tea,” or “Smith’s Cocoa,” great prominence must be given to these words. The lettering should be so arranged that it is practically impossible to avoid seeing the name of the commodity that is being advertised.

Another important thing when lettering advertisements is to see that each letter is quite distinct. For example, C must not be mistaken for a G, and _vice versâ_.

For good arrangement in lettering the mistake should not be made of taking type as a model, as, owing to each type letter being in the form of a block, it is impossible to space it with the same facility that is possible with writing. Note the examples given in Fig. 22.

One or two further hints may be useful. It is never advisable to put two upright strokes too closely together. Also in the case of round letters, such as O, C, G, etc., these should project slightly over the line, otherwise they will appear smaller than the other letters. This should, however, be very slight, as it is easy to overdo this kind of thing.

When lettering a diagram, if possible keep all the lettering the same way, so that there is no need to turn the page round to read it. This is, of course, not always possible, but if it is at all practicable it is quite the best thing to do.

It is never wise to jumble a number of different styles of lettering together in one inscription, as is sometimes done. The practice of this kind of thing tends to make the lettering less readable, besides making it look somewhat freakish. Sometimes the use of two styles of lettering together, such as an upright form of Roman lettering and an italic, helps to emphasize certain words; but when a variety of different forms is used the only result is to make the lettering look confused.

For the greater part of commercial work a form of Roman lettering is used. The student who intends to practise this kind of work should study some of the best modern work. He will have no difficulty in getting plenty of examples.

When designing a cover for a magazine, one of the first things to be taken into consideration is how to make it stand out in a striking manner so that it will be noticed on the bookstall.

Designs for magazine covers may be roughly divided into two classes, _viz._, those which occupy the whole of the cover, and those where the design is in the form of a heading. In any case, however, it is best that the title should be prominently arranged at the top of the cover, so that it can readily be seen when the magazine is placed on the bookstall, and is generally in that position partly covered through other magazines and books overlapping it. The great thing to remember is that the object of each design for a magazine cover should be to make it stand out distinct from all the other magazines on the stall, so that it can be recognised in an instant.

One important piece of advice in this kind of work is to avoid making the lettering look freakish by forming some of the letters quite tiny and others excessively large in the same word. This is one of the most prominent signs of the amateur.