Eulogy for Biggsy

When I was a fledgling graphic artist this beige space helmet appeared in our studio. It was a new fangled thing called an Apple Macintosh...SE to be precise. "Ooh, la-di-da", we all thought, "ain't it posh". It'll be silver suits next, food in tablet form etc before we know it. The future had arrived.

Only problem was, we didn't know what to do with the future. Someone else had always taken care of all that for us. But the word was out: inhouse was the way to go.

So with less than zero computer experience, I volunteered to be the guineau pig. Like Laika, I would be the first dog in space. That space being a corner of our studio where the space helmet had been installed. Life would never be the same again, I was now no longer a mere Rotring weilding graphic artist, oh no, I was a bloody typesetter as well. So, using the mighty 20mb power of my shiny new Mac, I typeset.

And low, it was shit.

It was a revelation: the future was, well...shit.

"No", I said, "it just can't be. I'll buy a book, that'll do it. I'll buy a book and learn how to be not shit". So I bought Ruari McLean's Manual of Typography. And it was good and I became slightly less shit. But Ruari said, "you are a mere underling, servant pig dog to the designers what are much more clever than you. Bow down before their mighty creativeness".

"No", I said again, "this can't be so either, for I am clever too. Cleverer." So I ventured forth into the wilderness and searched the countryside for more. Only, all I found was stinging nettles and cow shit. Back to the town I went and after many days, in a secondhand bookshop, I found what I was looking for: my grail. A modest, dog-eared paperback volume on the outside, wisdom and encouragement inside. And most importantly, some of the vital know-how that leads to being less shit.

I know very little about John R Biggs. There's nothing of any value online, but his book Basic Typography, as well as providing essential technical knowledge needed to be a good typographer, showed me what a rich and creative occupation a typographic designer could be. I'll always be grateful for the encouragement and insight his humble little book gave me.

Cheers Biggsy!

P.S. I don't actually know if Mr Biggs is dead so, if you know him, don't presume you just haven't heard the news yet. If by chance you happen to know anything about the great man, please pass it on.

Comments

[burvo]

I have just un-earthed a copy of biggs' 'letter-forms & lettering' book, and it really is some kind of holy-grail of lettering! it deals with the evolution of the alphabet and has some excellent examples of contemporary (even though it was published in '77) lettering, through both a historical approach and to dealing with how optical relations of shapes and basic forms can create recognisible letters. it's remarkable, and amazingly it would appear to cover many aspects of type-design that i have experimented with myself, thinking that i was the first to do so!
anyway,
i would love to get more of his books, especially the one photographed above!
It says here that he was Head of Graphic Design at Brighton College of Art, and i'm just trying to find out more about the man, if anyone knows anything, let me know!