Lettering for Graphic Design: This Is How We Did It

How we did lettering the old fashioned way: a collection of clips featuring analogue technology in use

Pencil by default: that was how we worked before the first Apple Macintosh systems arrived on the market. Newspapers were printed on metal type printing presses. Letters were added by hand, using typesetting equipment. Either at home or in the office, Letraset was your first port of call for transferring typefaces onto page. Many of us in the pre-computer age, either got our hands messy with Cow gum or inhaled magic markers. Or they took two hours trying to spell their name on a John Bull Printing Set (great if you had a name like Ian Ure, less so if you had a name like Vennegoor of Hesselink).

Today’s leaflets and reports are done with a variety of open source or proprietary software. Sometimes up in the cloud like Adobe’s Creative Suite or the Google Drive apps, or with QuarkXpress on your hard drive.

For today’s post, we go back to the era when lettering meant Letraset. Before your very eyes, here’s a selection of clips.

Kroy lettering system

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNHaU6lxCbM

Back in 1983, the Apple Macintosh had yet to make into the desktop publishing field. There was either traditional methods or (if you had serious money to burn) the Xerox Alto workstation. If you were too clumsy with the Letraset, the Kroy lettering system was a good alternative.

Leroy lettering set

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t1YLxb2hbY

Before Comic Sans MS, comics had manually written text. There was also another way: the Leroy lettering set. This enabled you to copy text from a strip of letters and punctuation marks. They were a boom for cartoonists and architects.

Letraset dry transfer lettering

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed6iXQW_O1U

If you couldn’t afford a Kroy lettering system, Letraset dry transfer sets were, and remains, a more affordable alternative. From your newsagent or art shop, you could get Letraset transfers with a choice of typefaces. With DTP largely consigning this method to history, art shops still sell the transfers, though with a more limited range.

Dreamkatcha, 13 December 2016.

Greenery: Pantone’s Colour for 2017

“Refreshing and revitalising shade” of Greenery set to bring “restoration, revitalisation and hope” in the New Year

Hasn't 2016 been a turbulent old year? How many musicians have we lost? Not to mention the political earthquakes on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is hardly surprising to find that Pantone, the colour people, have chosen Greenery as their Color of the Year for 2017.

Greenery aims to be an antithesis of the turbulence of 2016. It is a fresh, yellow-green shade that is easy on the eyes. It reflects recent developments towards introducing natural elements in architecture and graphic design.

There has been a Pantone Color of the Year for seventeen years. The first colour to have been announced, for the year 2000, was Cerulean (or Pantone 15-4020). For 2016, Pantone chose two colours, the first time that has ever happened. Last year’s colours of the year were Rose Quartz (Pantone 13-1520) and Serenity (Pantone 15-3919).

Technical Details: Greenery:

• Pantone Number: 15-0343;


• RGB Code: (136, 179, 75);


• Hexadecimal Code: #88B04B;


• RAL Colour Code: RAL 6018.

Spring 2017 Fashion Report:

Greenery came seventh out of ten places in Pantone’s Spring 2017 Fashion Report. The 2017 Color of the Year could be a popular shade for trousers, skirts, shirts and sweaters. Top colour for Spring 2017’s fashion colour report is Niagara (17-4123), a subtle blue-grey shade.

Dreamkatcha, 10 December 2016.

Greenery: Pantone’s Colour for 2017

“Refreshing and revitalising shade” of Greenery set to bring “restoration, revitalisation and hope” in the New Year

Hasn't 2016 been a turbulent old year? How many musicians have we lost? Not to mention the political earthquakes on both side of the Atlantic Ocean. It is hardly surprising to find that Pantone, the colour people, have chosen Greenery as their Color of the Year for 2017.

Greenery aims to be an antithesis of the turbulence of 2016. It is a fresh, yellow-green shade that is easy on the eyes. It reflects recent developments towards introducing natural elements in architecture and graphic design.

There has been a Pantone Color of the Year for seventeen years. The first colour to have been announced, for the year 2000, was Cerulean (or Pantone 15-4020). For 2016, Pantone chose two colours, the first time that has ever happened. Last year’s colours of the year were Rose Quartz (Pantone 13-1520) and Serenity (Pantone 15-3919).

Technical Details: Greenery:

• Pantone Number: 15-0343;


• RGB Code: (136, 179, 75);


• Hexadecimal Code: #88B04B;


• RAL Colour Code: RAL 6018.

Spring 2017 Fashion Report:

Greenery came seventh out of ten places in Pantone’s Spring 2017 Fashion Report. The 2017 Color of the Year could be a popular shade for trousers, skirts, shirts and sweaters. Top colour for Spring 2017’s fashion colour report is Niagara (17-4123), a subtle blue-grey shade.

Dreamkatcha, 10 December 2016.

WordPress Update's Vaughan Identity

Latest version of WordPress named in honour of Sarah Vaughan

WordPress Version 4.7 could also be known as “the divine one” or “sassy”. This is in honour of the jazz vocalist, Sarah Vaughan. The latest version of WordPress will include a wealth of exciting features and the welcome retention of familiar ones. New features that include:

• Video Headers: instead of static headers, Version 4.7 will enable you to add YouTube and Vimeo clips into your header graphic windows;


• Easier CSS customisation: new editing facilities will enable you to make tweaks to your theme’s Cascading Style Sheets in a more easier way than previous versions;


• Improved theme preview mode: changing a WordPress theme will enable you to see the changes instantly, prior to saving them.

Since WordPress began, each version of the world’s most popular content management system has been named after jazz musicians and singers. The first version was named after Miles Davis. Later versions were named in honour of Dinah Washington and Billie Holliday.

Sarah Vaughan was also known as “the divine one” or “sassy”. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner, including one for Lifetime Achievement. Her best known songs include If You Could See Me Now, Don't Blame Me, and Send in the Clowns. In 1977, she also guested on Consequences, Godley and Creme’s first album after leaving 10cc, singing Lost Weekend. The Manchester-based duo couldn’t get hold of their original choice who was Ella Fitzgerald.

Introducing WordPress 4.7: Vaughan

Mr. Mullenweg and Co. have produced a rather nice video of Vaughan's features. It is fair to say that the features of our favoured CMS have improved again. At this very moment, there’s no sign of our favourite CMS waning in popularity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiS8rZBeIO0

Dreamkatcha, 11 December 2016.