Free Hand New Typography Sketchbooks

Leaf through the personal sketchbooks of the most influential and inventive illustrators and typographers working today

Typography can embrace functions beyond the purely communicative. From type designers to expressive illustrators, each graphic designer has his or her own way of crafting or applying typefaces.

This show-all tour through leading graphic designers’ personal sketchbooks reveals the creative processes behind the creation of typefaces, word-images and logos. Arranged alphabetically by name, the world’s most exciting designers and typographers, including Philippe Apeloig, Ed Benguiat, Hoefler Type Foundry, Henrik Kubel, Toshi Omagari and Francesco Zorzi, present a staggering range of unique and exciting ways to communicate through letters and words. Sketchbook pages reveal the designers’ creative processes across diverse briefs, concepts, languages and alphabets, from Roman to Cyrillic to Arabic.

Aimed at all those who engage creatively with type, whether by hand or on screen, this rich compendium of typographic ideas stresses the importance of typographic thinking at a time when reading habits are evolving, while celebrating the varied and innovative ways that designers practise this time-honoured craft.

'Reveals a staggering range of unique ways to communicate'
Creative Review

Contents List

Introduction • Over 70 alphabetically arranged profiles

About the Author

Steven Heller is co-chair of the MFA Design: Designer as Author programme at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He is the author of many books, including Stencil Type, Graphic, Typography Sketchbooks, New Ornamental Type and New Vintage Type, all published by Thames & Hudson.

LitaTalarico is the founding editor of American Illustration & Photography and the other co-chair of the MFA Designer as Author Department at the School of Visual Arts. She is also reporter-at-large for Italian Design Graphics.