Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography

by Philip B. Meggs (Editor), Steven Heller (Editor)

Spanning the 20th century, with emphasis on the 1940s to the present, this collection will be necessary reading for all design students and faculty.

Students and teachers of graphic design will enrich their understanding of 20th century type design and typography with this unique anthology. Contained in this volume are more than 50 important, known and rare texts by critics, historians, and type designers about the history, aesthetics, and practice of type design and typography. An invaluable addition to any school course on type theory and practice, the book contains heretofore unprinted essays by major type masters, including W.A. Dwiggins, Hermann Zapf, and Paul Rand, as well as critical analyses of vintage and contemporary type and type design. A supplement to the successful Looking Closer series, the book specifically pinpoints those texts that will increase the common knowledge of typographic history and criticism. 25 B&W Illustrations

Genres: Design, Art

288 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

Philip Baxter Meggs was an American graphic designer, professor, historian and author of books on graphic design. His book History of Graphic Design is a definitive, standard read for the study of graphic design.
He has been called the most important historian of design since Nikolaus Pevsner (1902-1983). In contrast to Pevsner, he published a history of graphic design that went beyond the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the first educators to create an overview of the history of graphic design that did not depend exclusively on the traditional structure of the history of the art, Meggs believed that graphic design would need to acquire an adequate understanding of the past and its relation with art.

Reviews

[Christopher Wyatt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The essays vary in quality. It was an interesting look back at typography, especially the transition to digital type.