“JOY” holiday card
Preliminary layout (proof of concept)
Holiday card hand-set in 24pt Donatello Éclaire, 96pt Zeppelin, and two-color Holly Wreath. Printed in four colors on Fabriano Medioevalis cards at Interrobang Letterpress, 2015. See more images on Flickr.
Donatello Éclaire (or Éclairé) is still cast by Schriftgießerei Rainer Gerstenberg in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The openface script was designed by Edmund Thiele and originally issued in 1931 by the Haas’sche Schriftgießerei as Lichte Troubadour, or Troubadour Open. It was an addition to their Magere and Halbfette Troubadour (1926/1928), cast from matrices provided by Wagner & Schmidt, Leipzig. The solid styles were also available from many other foundries, under various names (see the typeface page). Donatello is the name that Nebiolo from Turin, Italy used for Magere Troubadour. It is unclear whether the open style (or the bold) ever was cast by Nebiolo.
The black form with Donatello Éclaire. Note the terminal ‘e’ and ‘r’ swash alternates and the ‘ff’ ligature.
96pt ATF wreath, printed in PMS 357 forest green
96pt ATF berries, printed in PMS 200 crimson
Kiss impression: just enough impression, and just enough ink to get the job done.
And done
1 Comment on ““JOY” holiday card”
It is incredible how good these letter cutters were. Despite the complex work, they were far ahead of today’s designers. Wonderful results that you can’t expect from the Bits and Bytes designers. And that, although it is easy against the former metal cutters.
Standing ovation from me to the gods of fonts!