‘Grand Cru Classés’ sprouting from Antwerp soil

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

In my September 2023 post I introduced the Melting Metal; Developing Typecraft booklet, a self-authored publication by the graduates of the Expert class Type design 2022–2023. It is the result of a thorough investigation into the (reuse of) patterns recorded in frameworks during the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neoclassicism style periods. Superimposed on these patterns are the idioms of punchcutters. One of the questions being asked is whether the relevant punchcutters can be regarded as type designers in the modern sense of the word or merely as ‘type refiners’, consciously or perhaps even unconsciously changing details of established frameworks setup by their predecessors?

The graduates not only did intensive research, but also managed to organize their collaboration in such a way that this resulted in the booklet, which is quite impressive. They also started a publishing company: Addition Projects. Melting metal; Developing Typecraft is available via the company’s new website.

John Hudson

Looks like an interesting book, but Canada is missing from the dropdown list of countries to which the company will ship the book. 

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi John, thanks for your interest and for pointing out the omission. Sorry about that last one. Canada has now been added to the list.

John Hudson

Thanks! Ordered.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

In 2012, the first edition of the Expert class Type design course took place under the roof of Museum Plantin-Moretus. As I wrote in my introductory text of Melting Metal; Developing Typecraft, rather than focusing primarily on handwriting and learning to look through the eyes of the teacher in an attempt to understand the basics of type, one could also have a closer look at the technical constraints of the early movable-type production process. That is actually typical for the Antwerp approach, call it the ‘Antwerp School of Type Design’.

Research into Renaissance standardization and systematization can provide a deeper insight into the intrinsic structure of (unconsciously) reproduced archetypal frameworks: to measure is to know (see also this article). And then it is a good thing that the collection of type-foundry material in Museum Plantin-Moretus is so impressive. Naturally, the influence of the handwritten models, which is mainly a matter of formal principles (morphology), is not ignored during the course, nor the role of the eye in relation to design, conditioning, and typographical conventions.

Information hidden at first glance can support a more authentic interpretation of the historical source models in question, and distilled patterns can be used to further master the harmonic and rhythmic aspects of type in today’s digital font-production environment. The emphasis at the Expert class Type design course is therefore on research into the intrinsic patterning aspects in historical type, which are both the source and the result of typographical conventions. Information about Renaissance standardization and unitization is distilled from artifacts such as punches (smoke proofs), matrices, foundry type, and prints (see also this video). The results are extrapolated and translated into a systematic approach to digital font production.

This summer, the EcTd 2022–2023 graduates who created the Melting Metal booklet will exhibit their work together with the current group of students in Museum Plantin-Moretus. The 2024–2025 course starts in the autumn: more information can be found here.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Daniel Calders, a talented current EcTd student, defined a workflow to digitally reproduce a type specimen of a historical foundry-type model. To this end, he has automated a large part of the process with a few tools. He called the project ‘Autospecimen’. Unlike the method of distilling widths that I described in my second post from September 2023, Daniel simulates the spacing with LS Cadencer. Because my ‘cadence’ algorithm comes from my measurements and analysis of type-foundry artifacts, including prints, the results will generally be close to the distilled widths. Of course, parameters can be adjusted for a smaller or wider spacing. I asked Daniel if he wanted to share his workflow on, for example, social media. For your information, below are his explanatory images and texts.

The question that started this little project was: to what extent can I automate a type revival? The type in question is the Descendiaen Romeyn by Christoffel van Dijck (ca.1606–1669) from the 1681 copy of the widow Elsevier (collection of Museum Plantin-Moretus).

First, letters from the type specimen were distilled using GlyphCollector.

2. The resulting averages were cleaned up (contrast/sharpness) with Acorn’s batch-editing sister app Retrobatch.

3. The cleaned images were auto-traced in DTL FoundryMaster. The outlines were exported as a UFO file.

4. The UFO file was opened in Glyphs and characters were auto-spaced using the LS Cadencer plugin.

Finally, a proof was typeset in Affinity Publisher.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Fernando Mello is a graduate of the EcTd 2012–2013 course, during which he started designing the award-winning typeface FS Brabo. He was an employee of Fontsmith at the time and after this company was acquired by Monotype, Fernando was employed by the latter for 11 months. He is currently setting up his own type foundry Font FM.

Fernando recently published a type specimen in a limited edition of 700 copies. It provides an overview of what he has designed so far with explanatory texts. Fernando is a very talented and prolific type designer and the specimen is undoubtedly an impressive achievement. While it showcases his work to date, his foundry’s website, which is currently in development, will focus on his new typefaces also currently in development.

The type specimen is not available online, but interested parties can contact Fernando directly for ordering details at <info[at]font.fm>.

John Hudson

Fernando collaborated with us on a couple of projects, and was a pleasure to work with.

Tiro Tamil:

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

The offline course Expert class Type design 2023–24 under the roof of Museum Plantin-Moretus is coming to an end. The students are currently preparing their panels for the upcoming exhibition at the museum, which will run from July 2 to August 25. The panels of last year’s students (who created the booklet Melting Metal) will also be on display there (an exhibition in MPM was not possible in 2023 due to renovation work). I will post more about the expo soon.

Although the course does not start until the end of October, registration for the ‘mixed formula’ EcTd 2024–25 is almost closing. There are a maximum of 16 seats and 13 are already occupied by participants from all over the world. More information can be found here.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

All seats for the EcTd 2024–2025 course are now occupied. However, it is still possible to be placed on the waiting list in case someone drops out.

Agfa has printed a large number of panels for the upcoming exhibition in Museum Plantin-Moretus (July 2 to August 25, 2024). A short video made by Agfa gives an impression of ​​this production on the most modern printing machines.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Yesterday, four exhibition rooms were set up in Museum Plantin-Moretus by laureates and staff of the Plantin Institute of Typography with the help of museum employees. For this purpose, more than 50 printed panels, kindly sponsored by Agfa, were mounted on the colored walls.

In addition, display cases have been installed and cleaned. These will be used to present historical books and type-foundry objects from the museum’s collection, which served as source material for the type revivals. Results of the Expert class Book design will also be exhibited in the display cases.

I will post some photos of the end result here soon. The exhibition will open next Tuesday.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

The EcTd course emphasizes research into the intrinsic pattern-forming aspects of historical type, which are both the source and the result of typographical conventions. Information about Renaissance standardization and unitization is distilled from artifacts such as punches, matrices, foundry type, and prints. The results are extrapolated and translated into a systematic approach to contemporary font production. After all, it can be concluded that the standardized production methods provided a solid basis for the æsthetic refinement of type. That knowledge and insight can be converted into digital typography, which is undoubtedly strongly anchored in almost six centuries old conventions.

Reproducibility was an elementary part of archetypal font production. It simplified the processes considerably, but had the side effect of allowing others to easily copy foundry type via smoke proofs onto blank punches, including the intrinsic pattern (see also Measurements and Gauges). So far, the results of the Antwerp research into the creation of Renaissance and Baroque type have made it plausible that punchcutters used established frameworks, defined in the early days of the profession, as a solid foundation for their creations. These frameworks ensured that the personal touch, that is, the idiom, was supported by a proven foundation that ensured versatility in terms of (re)production and application. Whether this personal touch is always the result of skill and insight and not a lack thereof varies per punchcutter.

The recent EcTd research results and their applications to digital type (revivals) can be seen in Museum Plantin-Moretus until August 25, 2024.

John Hudson

After all, it can be concluded that the standardized production methods provided a solid basis for the æsthetic refinement of type.

It can be argued, certainly, with plenty of evidence towards this conclusion in a European context. The application of the same standardised production methods to non-European writing systems often produced the opposite result: aesthetic degradation of the scripts by forcing them into procrustean standards of alignment and unitisation inherited from European typesetting models. One of the great benefits of digital text composition for these scripts is the relative freedom from the material constraints that produced those models, inspiring type designers to look beyond limited histories of typographic expression to longer manuscript and inscriptional traditions.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Hi John, thanks for your reply and additional information.

I reckon that my Antwerp students and also some of my students from The Hague have indeed happily provided a lot of evidence for standardization in the Renaissance font-production process. This insight helps them to gain more control over the origins of systematization. As far as I can see, none of the students consider this as a restriction: after all, one has to know where the boundaries are in order to be able to trespass. The latter has also been tried in the past on horizontal proportions, for example by Hendrik van den Keere when he apparently based the patterning of his Gros Canon Romain on that of his rotunda model Canon d’Espaigne (see also DTL’s [Gros] Canon Project ). A few years later the somewhat exorbitant wood-carved model La Plus Grande Romaine was basically based on the same pattern.

In this context it might be advisable to distinguish, on the one hand, between the archetypal natural standardization for Latin type, which was based on the intrinsic systematization in the underlying written models (as recorded in the LeMo application) and, on the other hand, the artificial standardization applied to other models, arising from technical requirements and constraints of typesetting systems (which, directly or indirectly, may ultimately have their origins in the aforementioned Renaissance [Latin] standardization).

All the best, Frank

John Hudson

Yes, that distinction is indeed important and what I was getting at. The problem observed in the violence done to many writing systems in reduction to typography is not standardisation per se, but in the application of extrinsically derived standards, thereby missing the point that what makes the Latin case work so well is that the standards developed during the renaissance are intrinsically derived from contemporary forms of the script and worked out and refined over time.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Perhaps also triggered by the current EcTd exhibition in Museum Plantin-Moretus (see my previous posts), there is a lot of interest in the upcoming course. That is why we have decided to increase the number of students to a total of 24. The group will then be split and the online sessions will take place twice, on Mondays and Wednesdays in the same weeks.

There are only a few seats still available for those interested. More information can be found here.

LeMo aka PatternMan aka Frank E Blokland

Recently, Blackletra Type Foundry released Drummond, a typeface by the talented multidisciplinary Brazilian type designer Emerson Eller. It is the result of an intensive revival process that originated in the Expert class Type design 2018–2019 course. As can be read here, Emerson was particularly interested in sets of matrices and punches in the collection of Museum Plantin-Moretus that are incomplete and fragmented –especially when there are uncertainties about their authorship in the 1960 inventory. In this context, he selected a 16th-century Mediane Romaine model from the museum’s collection. The inventory indicates that this model deserves a detailed study.

Emerson holds a Master’s degree in Design, Culture, and Society from Minas Gerais State University in Brazil, where he studied from 2012 to 2014. In 2016, he attended the Type Design Intensive (TDi) course at the University of Reading in England. In 2020, he completed a PhD in Communication Design at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon in Portugal. His doctoral research focused on the introduction of the printing press in Brazil. He is currently a professor at the aforementioned University of Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Emerson noted about the selected type model that despite the uncertain origin of the relevant Mediane Romaine matrices (see photos), his research considered the aspects that point to Claude Garamont (ca.1480-1561) as the original punchcutter, as the beginning for his revival project. This research process is thus based not only on the relevant set of matrices, but, for example, also on the Mediane Romaine letterforms (although not entirely identical according to the aforementioned inventory) found in the books that the Parisian bookseller and printer Jean Barbé (†1547) published in collaboration with Garamont.

Drummond is primarily designed for body text and performs excellently in both print and digital media. It features an extensive Latin character set, covering over 200 languages, several OpenType features, and even a set of manicules: the full list of characters and features is available on the Blackletra website. Incidentally, the name of the typeface, which sounds a bit like ‘Garamond’, is essentially a tribute to Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987), a Brazilian modernist poet.

More detailed information on Drummond can be found here