A long awaited book about printing, printers and type by type historian Jerry Kelly is ready to be devoured. The Art of the Book in the Twentieth Century (Cary Graphic Arts Press, RIT Press) highlights the work of eleven essential practitioners, among them Bruce Rogers, Joseph Blumenthal, Stanley Morison, Max Caflisch and Hermann Zapf. Kelly focuses on the period between 1900 and 1999 – a century filled with significant aesthetic and technological shifts in printing art and craft.
“This book explores the work of some of the 20th century’s most influential typographers and book designers, each of whom is treated in a separate chapter,” says David Pankow, curator of RIT’s Cary Graphic Arts Collection. “What better guide could one hope for than Jerry Kelly, an authority on typography and an award-winning book designer himself!”
Kelly discusses the design principles behind each typographer and focuses on their wide range of talents: from classically inspired design and historical revival to modern, original typography. Also included are more than 100 full-page color plates.
A designer, calligrapher and printer, Kelly started his own business in 1999. Previously, he was a designer and representative for The Stinehour Press and The Press of A. Colish, where he kept the traditions of book design alive.
(Read about all-American letters here in the Nightly Heller.)