John L Waters

I liked it – what I understood. Too much was left unexplained for this uninitiated reader – why Albertus is called Albertus, for example, and what's the difference between being a member of a "family" of types and being a type with a completely new name despite having been based on another print type. The glossary could have been more extensive – I went looking for "grotesque" with no luck.

The book did send me off searching for more on Pouchee and his decorative alphabets, and it was fascinating to discover that the British face Transport was made for its purpose on travel signs in the UK. I recogized it readily – but had never realized I hadn't seen it anywhere else. A little more discussion of what was different about a new type than its predecessors would have been interesting, too; there's some of that, but the author probably thought it was obvious.

Liked it, though, and I'll read more on typefaces.… (meer)