Part 1 (1/2)

Applied Design for Printers.

by Harry Lawrence Gage.

FOREWORD

This primer of design is an earnest effort to make intelligible to the apprentice student certain fundamental principles of arrangement and of ornamentation whose use is instinctive to the accomplished typographer.

It has been often written that there are no rules in Art, and equally often that the master artist (or craftsman) is he who can skillfully break all rules. It must be inevitable that the apprentice shall adhere too closely to each newly observed principle before his work can be a well-rounded embodiment of them all. To him is commended this exact procedure, recognizing, as his perception grows, that there are good reasons why traditions are emphasized here and all-embracing rules and formulae are not to be found.

Due credit must be paid to Mr. Ernest Allen Batchelder, who first devoted his pen and brush directly to the printer's problem in design, and who in turn gives honor to the influence of Mr. Denman Ross. Neither has expressed a method but has graphically a.n.a.lyzed the att.i.tude of mankind during successive epochs toward those matters which deal with beauty.

It is to be hoped that this little book may serve as a simple guide and as a stimulant toward an extended study of the larger attributes of printing which are not concerned with utility alone. H. L. G.

_Introductory_

Raw material may be made into a finished product which will have the quality of usefulness alone. Utility is the first purpose of most of the works of man. But when the maker is moved by pride in his work and a desire for beauty to make his handiwork pleasing in appearance as well as useful a second purpose is fulfilled. All civilization and most forms of savagery demand that the equipment of routine life shall be pleasing to the eye after its prime purpose of usefulness has been developed.

If an article be pleasing in appearance its making will have involved some of the elements of design. The relations.h.i.+p of its parts, the lines of its construction, its coloring, the manner in which it is ornamented will depend first upon its purpose, but will be guided by a group of recognized traditions which we call the _principles of design_.

Design governs the arrangement of ma.s.ses, lines, and dots to secure the qualities of beauty and fitness.

Any piece of work which is definitely arranged with consideration for its various parts and their relations.h.i.+p is called, in the abstract, a ”design.” Thus we speak of a poster, a decorated wall, a building, or a printed page as ”a design.”

Any successful design will have the qualities of fitness and beauty.

Fitness to purpose is largely a mechanical factor. An ugly building may protect its occupants from the weather, and an ugly printed page may be entirely legible. Beauty depends upon esthetic qualities; that is, upon the characteristics of the design which will appeal to the eye and mind through the consideration of--

Harmony (of shape, tone, color, and conception).

Balance and proportion (of ma.s.s, shape, and color).

Rhythm (of shape, line, tone, and color).

This conception of the elements of design covers all of the many things that mankind makes--buildings, or railroad trains, or sculpture, or paintings, or pottery, or furniture, or the printed page alike. In each, different though they be, the purpose of design is to relate the various surfaces, ma.s.ses, and structural lines and to decorate or ornament the finished whole. Countless materials may be used and all the varied purposes of the equipment of mankind must be satisfied, but the application of the principles of design will be similar throughout. This point is emphasized so that the student of printing may find a common ground with the workers in all the fine and useful arts.

_The Surface_

In the printed page, design is concerned with the arrangement of ma.s.ses and lines on a flat surface--the face of the sheet of paper. Hence design in printing considers two dimensions only, width and length. The third dimension, depth, which must be treated in all but flat surfaces, can only be _represented_ on the printed page and the means of showing depth is really an illusion by which the eye sees various colors and tones which convey a pictorial impression.

It is important to note that _design_ and _pictorial representation_ serve each a different purpose in printing. Yet they are similar mechanically in that each requires a printing surface (type, borders, ornaments, and engravings) which may be prepared by the same mechanical procedures. The picture exists for its own interest or as an ill.u.s.tration for the text. As such it is merely an element in the design of the page. Decoration or ornament may be used to embellish the page, as a pattern on its flat surface, and may be related to the text, but need not serve as an ill.u.s.tration to it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 1. A design of flat surfaces and a realistic pen sketch of the same subject.]

As an example: Much of the material devised for the decoration of the printed page (ornaments and borders) is derived from natural forms; i. e., leaves, flowers, etc. The leaves, stems, and flowers which are adapted to form the ornament shown in Fig. 1 are a flat pattern of black and white.