Synopsis
During the late nineteenth century, letterpress printers, engravers, and lithographers boldly challenged the rational sobriety of traditional design by introducing intricate borders, corner embellishments, quirky typefaces, and exotic imagery. The style was known as “artistic” and was quickly taken up by letterpress printers as the design idiom of choice for advertisements, packaging,and all of the other ephemera occasioned by the rapid expansion of America’s economy. For a while, this commercial style represented the best in popular taste. But just as quickly as this exuberant style was embraced, it fell abruptly out of favor. By century’s end, the ornate bits of artistic printing were tossed into the gutter, and the style itself relegated to the dustbin of history. The rise and fall of this highly embellished idiom, which culminated in its denouncement as aesthetically and morally suspect – “a freak of fancy” – are traced in this, the first comprehensive study devoted to the history of American artistic printing. Authors Douglas Clouse and Angela Voulangas explore the style’s origins in the British Aesthetic Movement and analyze its distinctive features: idiosyncratic color harmonies, eclectic choice of type and ornament, compartmentalized compositional strategies. They also present a landmark portfolio of letterpress printing samples, drawn from some of the most important public and private print archives. More than 150 examples of period ephemera, printers’ own tour de force promotional pieces, and specimens of type and ornament are reproduced, many for the very first time since their initial circulation more than a century ago. The Handy Book of Artistic Printing celebrates a previously berated and today largely forgotten episode of design history – one of increasing interest in light of the recent embrace of ornament by some leading contemporary designers. This book will be of value to graphic designers, but also to fine artists, visual merchandisers, and collectors of ephemera everywhere.
Review
"These luscious typographic bon bons will astonish your eye, stun your mind, and rekindle your darkest cravings." -- Ellen Lupton (June, 2009) --Ellen Lupton, curator of contemporary design Cooper - Hewitt, National Design Museum
"These luscious typographic bon bons will astonish your eye, stun your mind, and rekindle your darkest cravings." --Ellen Lupton, June 2009
"...what I love so much about The Handy Book is that it is not JUST vintage eye candy. Clouse and Voulangas provide historical context, explain the rise of this design aesthetic, discuss its relation to letterpress technology of the time, and bring things up to the present in considering its influence upon designers and letterpress printers today." --Handmade Librarian, June 26, 2009
"Suddenly artistic printing is on my radar, now more than ever.... The phrase less is more was not the case with this 19th century aesthetic." --Faye + Co., June 9, 2009
"The Handy Book of Artistic Printing covers an oft forgotten period of design history. In the 19th-Century engravers, printers, and the like struck out against the traditional design and presented intricate boarders, corner embellishments, and quirky typefaces. Advertisers jumped at the new style, which became known as Artistic. As quickly as the style was adopted, it just as abruptly fell out of favor. The authors of The Handy Book of Artistic Printing assess the origins of the look in the British Aesthetic Movement and provide firm analysis of key features." --Selectism, June 10, 2009
"After flipping through the pages I was left feeling incredibly inspired! The book shows examples of a highly decorative style of letterpress from the late 1800's- Rich, ornamental typography and graphics utilising gorgeous colour schemes and referencing motifs from different eras and cultures. " -- Amy Moss --EatDrinkChic, July 16, 2009
"The Handy Book of Artistic Printing beautifully reproduces more than 150 examples of this lost and disparaged work, along with essays that contextualize the movement in the history of American printing. .... likely to inspire a nostalgia in art lovers. The book is a reminder that debates about aesthetics were once undertaken with a deadly seriousness, and that experimentation in the commercial realm was once the norm." --The Wall Street Journal, July 30, 2009
"Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas book The Handy Book of Artistic Printing is one of the best publications devoted to the history of American artistic printing. This handsome book which was recently published by the Princeton Architectural Press,takes you back to the late nineteenth century where letterpress printers, engravers and lithographers boldly challenged the rational sobriety of traditional design by introducing intricate borders, corner embellishments and quirky typefaces...The book is particularly useful to graphic designers, fine artists and type designers." --Upscale Typography
"When I heard of this book, The Handy Book of Artistic Printing I ordered it immediately. Upon its arrival I was instantly inspired by its contents: the diverse layouts, the complex and minute details, and the color palettes. I spent days sketching and flagging pages and when I finally sat down to the computer this postcard design came to life." --2Birdstone
"For the Letterpress enthusiast with a thing for those long ago freaky days of fancy, I give you: The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas." --Printeresting
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