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Writing & research for graphic designers
(Text)
68
Cover of Alphabet and Image #5.
Kerry william purcell Talks about writing history
passed a mixture of historical features on rarely examined areas
of graphic art, alongside articles that assessed more recent
typographical developments. By focusing concurrently on
popular design ephemera and groundbreaking new works, both
editor and publisher were ahead of their time in forgoing any
distinction between the products of high and low culture.
‘The sponsors of Typography believe that fine book production is
not the only means of typographical expression or excitement’,
they assured the reader. ‘We believe, in fact that a bill-head can
be as aesthetically pleasing as a Bible, that a newspaper can be
as typographically arresting as a Nonesuch.’ Thus, alongside
features showcasing the designs of E. McKnight Kauffer, Herbert
Bayer, Eric Gill, and Jan Tschichold, we also find examples
of tea label and tram ticket designs. It was a mixture of the
traditional and modern that was echoed in Harling’s covers
for the magazine, which frequently utilised a variety of
geometrical elements combined with an eclectic mix of distin-
guished typefaces. The publication was also bound in a radical
plastoic spiral. The decision to use this relatively unconven-
tional bind was that it allowed the editors to include essays and
reproductions printed via contrasting processes and on differ-
ing papers. Another benefit was that the spiral bind
How much critical or interpretive leeway do you allow when writing history?
Beyond the key dates and individuals involved, it’s all critical and
interpretive leeway! As I’ve discovered with most of my writing, I simply
follow the inclinations and associations specific material objects may set
off in my mind. Of course, there needs to be a bedrock of historical under-
standing, but let’s not kid ourselves, we are drawn to subjects, and we make
the connections we think are important. We can offer an argument for the
points we make and try to convince others (I’m certainly not a relativist!),
but we should not hide behind some supposedly objective façade.
Where and how do you do your research?
My research is conducted in such places as the National Art Library (at the
Victoria and Albert Museum) and online. But most of the links and connect-
ing threads that enable me to develop an essay come when I’m swimming,
just drifting off to sleep, or driving back and forth to my university.
How much of your research is primary (i.e., records from A + I)
or secondary (previously recorded history or commentary)?
It’s a mix of both. I wished I could have spoken to Robert Harling
(he died two years after this article was published), but the occasion
did not present itself.
How would you, if at all, revise this essay, and why?
No, I am quite happy with it as it is. I very rarely read through an old
essay. Maybe my approach is equivalent to the way many designers are
with projects, in that once I have finished it, I just move on to the next
thing. Even when I get the published version, I won’t reread it. Actually,
I have numerous packages containing copies of magazines that have
articles by me in them, which I have not even opened. I’m not sure
why this is, but I just think that I’ve spent enough time on it and I
don’t really have the desire to see it again.
Lecturer in design history, the University of Hertfordshire
(Ray)
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section 2
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(Text)
69
allowed the magazine to be laid flat when being read. Alto-
gether, this synthesis of form and content made Typography into
one of the most significant and sought after English design
publications of the 1930s.
Typography ran for only eight issues. As events in Europe
began to impinge upon the daily routines of the nation,
Harling and Shand’s publication schedule began to falter and
issue number seven was delayed. Eventually published in the
winter of 1938, an apology for this delay was expressed in is-
sue number eight. However, rather optimistically, the editors
noted in the summer 1939 edition that the magazine would
continue to be published on a quarterly basis. Any realisation
of this timetable was quashed when on 3 September 1939
Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany.
Harling played his role in the conflict and enlarged upon his
wartime experiences in two highly praised books. As the late
Ruari McLean noted, ‘among other things, [Harling] was also
a weekend sailor, and took part in the Dunkirk operation,
which he described in Amateur Sailor, [which] appeared in
1944 [published by Constable] under the pen-name Nicholas
Drew, a book which John Masefield said was the best eye
witness account of it ever written.’ Following this he ‘joined
the Navy, served in the corvettes, and described that in [the
book] Steep Atlantick Stream,’ published by Chatto & Windus
in 1946. ‘He was then called into naval intelligence, under
Admiral Godfrey, and worked with Ian Fleming, who became
his close friend.’
Upon resumption of his civilian duties, Harling continued
to combine the careers of writer and designer. His articles
appeared in both trade publications and newspapers, while
his design commissions included work for Time & Tide,
Art & Industry and The Sunday Times. It was in the spring of
Spread from
Alphabet and Image
on the mastheads of 18th-century newspapers.
pArT foUr : ACADemiC
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Writing & research for graphic designers
(Text)
68
Cover of Alphabet and Image #5.
Kerry william purcell Talks about writing history
passed a mixture of historical features on rarely examined areas
of graphic art, alongside articles that assessed more recent
typographical developments. By focusing concurrently on
popular design ephemera and groundbreaking new works, both
editor and publisher were ahead of their time in forgoing any
distinction between the products of high and low culture.
‘The sponsors of Typography believe that fine book production is
not the only means of typographical expression or excitement’,
they assured the reader. ‘We believe, in fact that a bill-head can
be as aesthetically pleasing as a Bible, that a newspaper can be
as typographically arresting as a Nonesuch.’ Thus, alongside
features showcasing the designs of E. McKnight Kauffer, Herbert
Bayer, Eric Gill, and Jan Tschichold, we also find examples
of tea label and tram ticket designs. It was a mixture of the
traditional and modern that was echoed in Harling’s covers
for the magazine, which frequently utilised a variety of
geometrical elements combined with an eclectic mix of distin-
guished typefaces. The publication was also bound in a radical
plastoic spiral. The decision to use this relatively unconven-
tional bind was that it allowed the editors to include essays and
reproductions printed via contrasting processes and on differ-
ing papers. Another benefit was that the spiral bind
How much critical or interpretive leeway do you allow when writing history?
Beyond the key dates and individuals involved, it’s all critical and
interpretive leeway! As I’ve discovered with most of my writing, I simply
follow the inclinations and associations specific material objects may set
off in my mind. Of course, there needs to be a bedrock of historical under-
standing, but let’s not kid ourselves, we are drawn to subjects, and we make
the connections we think are important. We can offer an argument for the
points we make and try to convince others (I’m certainly not a relativist!),
but we should not hide behind some supposedly objective façade.
Where and how do you do your research?
My research is conducted in such places as the National Art Library (at the
Victoria and Albert Museum) and online. But most of the links and connect-
ing threads that enable me to develop an essay come when I’m swimming,
just drifting off to sleep, or driving back and forth to my university.
How much of your research is primary (i.e., records from A + I)
or secondary (previously recorded history or commentary)?
It’s a mix of both. I wished I could have spoken to Robert Harling
(he died two years after this article was published), but the occasion
did not present itself.
How would you, if at all, revise this essay, and why?
No, I am quite happy with it as it is. I very rarely read through an old
essay. Maybe my approach is equivalent to the way many designers are
with projects, in that once I have finished it, I just move on to the next
thing. Even when I get the published version, I won’t reread it. Actually,
I have numerous packages containing copies of magazines that have
articles by me in them, which I have not even opened. I’m not sure
why this is, but I just think that I’ve spent enough time on it and I
don’t really have the desire to see it again.
Lecturer in design history, the University of Hertfordshire
(Ray)
(Fogra 29_WF)Job:08-28858 Title:RP-Writing & Research for Graphic Designers
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section 2
surveying the diciplines
(Text)
69
allowed the magazine to be laid flat when being read. Alto-
gether, this synthesis of form and content made Typography into
one of the most significant and sought after English design
publications of the 1930s.
Typography ran for only eight issues. As events in Europe
began to impinge upon the daily routines of the nation,
Harling and Shand’s publication schedule began to falter and
issue number seven was delayed. Eventually published in the
winter of 1938, an apology for this delay was expressed in is-
sue number eight. However, rather optimistically, the editors
noted in the summer 1939 edition that the magazine would
continue to be published on a quarterly basis. Any realisation
of this timetable was quashed when on 3 September 1939
Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany.
Harling played his role in the conflict and enlarged upon his
wartime experiences in two highly praised books. As the late
Ruari McLean noted, ‘among other things, [Harling] was also
a weekend sailor, and took part in the Dunkirk operation,
which he described in Amateur Sailor, [which] appeared in
1944 [published by Constable] under the pen-name Nicholas
Drew, a book which John Masefield said was the best eye
witness account of it ever written.’ Following this he ‘joined
the Navy, served in the corvettes, and described that in [the
book] Steep Atlantick Stream,’ published by Chatto & Windus
in 1946. ‘He was then called into naval intelligence, under
Admiral Godfrey, and worked with Ian Fleming, who became
his close friend.’
Upon resumption of his civilian duties, Harling continued
to combine the careers of writer and designer. His articles
appeared in both trade publications and newspapers, while
his design commissions included work for Time & Tide,
Art & Industry and The Sunday Times. It was in the spring of
Spread from
Alphabet and Image
on the mastheads of 18th-century newspapers.
pArT foUr : ACADemiC
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09-C67944 #175 Dtp:225 Page:69
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Writing & research for graphic designers
(Text)
70
1946 that he decided to resume publication of Typography.
However, both Harling and Shand considered the original
title too limiting for the diverse range of visual material
they had regularly featured in this quarterly. The new title
of Alphabet and Image was deemed more fitting of a publication
that would often include between the same covers an essay on
the work of a celebrated illustrator, an article on fat typefaces,
and analysis of the newspaper printing industry. As both
editor and publisher remarked in the first issue:
‘We sometimes thought Typography a limiting title, and,
almost in defianceof that label, published several contributions
not strictly typographical...
Alphabet and Image will, from its earliest days avoid any
hint of such limitation. Under its simple but flexible title it is
hoped that an appraisal of an eighteenth-century draughtsman
or a contemporary photographer may be included as naturally
and logically as a review of a recent typeface or reproductions
of antique penmanship.’
With this broadening of its editorial focus, Harling and
Shand wished to make it clear that Alphabet and Image (A &
I) would not relinquish its aim of covering all that was best
in typography and the graphic arts. ‘Every endeavour’, they
continued, ‘will be made to keep their magazine from slip-
ping into one of the two fates which seem inevitably to await
almost every current English magazine: (a) trying to be the
English Fortune; (b) becoming a literary publication.’ Both
editors concluded their opening introduction recounting that
‘many in this country and abroad, particularly the United
States, were kind in comment concerning their earlier venture.
Others were critical. It is thought that the characteristics
which provoked these comments are likely to be found in a
more emphatic degree in Alphabet and Image. Brickbats and
bouquets are solicited.’
Published by Shand’s Shenval Press, A & I measured 19.5
cm x 24.5 cm and continued to use the distinctive plasticol
binding employed in Typography. The first issue has a cover
design by Harling that employs a two-colour letterpress. The
‘T’ of Alphabet creatively bisects the ‘A’ of And, with the issue
number ‘1’ overlapping the ‘E’ of Image. As with Typography,
the striking cover designs of A & I encapsulated the diversity
of influences sought by Harling. Throughout all his designs,
a mixture of the ornate and modern in both type and number
were playfully married with an imaginative use of colour. This
contrast set the tone for the content, which opened with an
analysis upon the numbering of newspapers by Stanley Morison
and a feature on the illustrations of Mervyn Peake. We then
have an early article by Ruari McLean on Egyptian typefaces,
which is accompanied by an essay on the type designer Edward
Johnston and notes on a centenary event for the children’s book
illustrator Kate Greenaway. The ‘Notes’ section towards the
rear kept the reader up-to-date with events, publications and
latest news from the graphic arts world. This format of five to
seven articles, with an addendum, remained the same throughout
all issues of A & I.
Harling’s decision to re-launch Typography as A & I in
1946 was, as we have seen, partially determined by the need
to address the lack of communication across the printing and
design professions. The absence of consultation and a shared
knowledge base was frustrating the development of an indus-
try at a time of expansion. By situating articles on illustrators
alongside those examining print history and type design,
Harling clearly perceived A & I as having an important
pedagogic role to play in enabling a culture of debate and
cross fertilisation. Unfortunately, by 1948 this experiment had
seemingly failed. The printing industry appeared unwilling to
enter into any discussion regarding the creative possibilities
of working closely with designers and illustrators. The eighth
issue of A & I was the last (all eight issues of the quarterly
were lately anthologised and re-published by Harling in 1975).
In Harling’s final editorial he noted that ‘with this issue. . .
this magazine ends its days. Alphabet will live again, subtitled
An Annual of Typography, and the first volume will be published
in autumn 1949. The first number of Image, subtitled A
Quarterly of the Arts, will be published in spring 1949. . . .’
Harling continues:
‘The study of typography is an increasingly popular subject,
but it remains a specialized division of design and the number
of potential readers of a publication concerned with the subject
is limited. We are persuaded, therefore, that we can employ our-
selves more usefully by dealing in a more specialized manner with
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71
the typographical subjects and by deal-
ing with the arts which have become
more popular in recent years on a much
broader basis than we have in Alphabet
and Image.
In its exceptional range and quality
of work, A & I embodied Harling’s
belief ‘that the chief value of anything
designed was the pleasure it gave to
the designer.’ The publication also
existed as an example of his claim
that good writing, whether commercial
copy or historical analysis, was an
essential component of the design
process. Through this mixture of
skillful design and intelligent writing,
Harling attempted to meet the needs
of a new reader: the graphic designer.
In its anticipation of this new role
A & I was ahead of its time. Yet, this
was also to be the source of its demise.
At the beginning of this new era, the
graphic designer remained a rare
commodity, one unable to offer a
sizable enough audience to sustain
this important quarterly magazine.
Even so, in both text and image,
Harling’s experiment endures as a
formative work in the development
of post-war English design.
You have written for a scholarly and academic audience. What are the characteristics that
separate academic from mainstream writing about design?
That’s a really interesting question. I suppose the main difference with writing for an academic
audience is that you assume your audience will have some prior knowledge of your themes or frames
of reference. This allows you to deepen the arguments more quickly and to expand on why something
has happened in a particular way, at a particular time, and what can be learned from that experience.
You are, in effect, writing for an audience, which have done a little more “homework” than most
other people.
Do you believe that academic or historical writing about design must be filled with jargon?
The challenge, as I see it, is more about the appropriate use of language and clarity of expression.
There are certain words or phrases that are typical of academic writing which may not have common
currency, but which are useful in nuancing and clarifying certain arguments. I think you can use less
well-known terminology, if it’s appropriate to making your point, without losing your audience.
One of the most wonderful qualities of the English language is that there are so many words that are
slight variations on each other in terms of meaning; this allows authors to be very exact in what they
want to say. Coincidently, I’m currently rereading A Clockwork Orange after first having read it
thirty years ago. Part of the joy of reading this book is trying to decipher the language Anthony
Burgess invented—Nadsat—without having to resort to a glossary for explanation. I know this is an
extreme example of how language is manipulated, but the use of this subcultural language is totally
appropriate in the context of the book and enhances the narrative even if you don’t understand every
word. That said, I do get irritated when writers consciously overcomplicate their writing for the sake
of appearing more scholarly, particularly when the idea is very simple to begin with!
As a scholar do you tend to write for other scholars?
When I’m researching and writing I assume that the main audiences for my work are students,
scholars, and designers interested in where design and cultural history intersect. My primary
motivation is as a teacher, and so I’m constantly trying to provide “useful” sources for students in
thinking about designed objects and visual culture. However, I’m always conscious, and constantly
reminded, that my primary area of research—the design strategies of Aer Lingus, the former Irish
national airline—is of interest to a much broader audience. The story of Aer Lingus is so integral to
Irish history and cultural identity that my work is often discovered by people outside of the worlds
of design and academia, and I find that very rewarding. Aer Lingus has a Forest Gump-like quality in
that its planes and staff are visibly present in the photographs and film footage of many key historical
moments in Irish history, including the visits of JFK in 1963, Che Guevara in 1964, Muhammad
Ali in 1972, and Pope John Paul II in 1979. The patronage of Aer Lingus was also key in promoting
many areas of Irish design, including graphic, industrial, fashion, and textile design. I really enjoy
researching a subject that many people can relate to on a variety of different levels.
What is your favorite sentence?
Hand on heart I am never happy with anything I write. When I was working as a graphic designer
I was never happy with anything I designed either! But the [endeavor] for perfection—which of
course is unobtainable—makes you try harder each time.
Linda King Talks about Scholarly Writing
Linda King is a lecturer in design history, theory, and visual communication at the
Institute of Art, Design and Technology in Dublin, Ireland.
PART FOUR : ACADEMIC
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