Ace Jet 170

Lost in (the loft) Space #03

I have an uncontrollable aversion to centring type. Yes, I do it occasionally, but more often than not, I just can't bring myself to centre. That's not to say I don't like a bit of type that someone else has centred. Like this, that I found "up there" last weekend, while trying to stop small children falling through the hatch (who takes a two year old into the loft?!).

It's kind of lovely and perfect don't you think?

Dated 1951 so it's feasible that the layout was left over from Tschichold's reign (1947-49), though don't quote me on that, I'm wildly speculating. Certainly it has a Tschichold perfection about it. Hans Schmoller then?

Lost in (the loft) Space #2

This is a brilliant Omnific/Birdsall designed cover from 1974 (although I think this version may have been first printed in 1971). OK, perhaps the dictionary definition thing is a little cliché now but it wasn't back then. No, forget that; what I should have said was: perhaps the dictionary definition thing is a little cliché when someone else does it but in Birdsall's masterful hands it works beautifully, backing up the real star idea, the extracted S and I.

Oh, and of course, it is a dictionary.

Lost in (the loft) Space #01

Following on from Sir Ernest Gowers' book, I've decided to embark on a new (possible short lived) randomly posted series of oddments rescued from our loft. Hence that title (which I'm rather pleased with).

Le Modulor appeals on numerous levels. Le Corbusier's breakthrough was, although criticised, pure genuis, beautifully represented by his illustration. The book is a surprisingly good read and the mathematics/fibonacci series appeals to the technical illustrator in me.