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Signs and Pictograms

Signs and Pictograms

Lately, many people have asked me about icons and pictograms. Then I realized how difficult it is for my students to be maintain consistency between the drawing and the concept behind it Read the rest here: Signs and Pictograms ... 

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Baskerville Tercentenary

Baskerville Tercentenary

Since John Baskerville was baptized on 28 January 1706 (old style), he was probably born a week or so earlier in January 1707 (as expressed in the ‘new style’ that we use today, in which the year begins on 1 January). Doing research for his projected... 

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HMS Victory

HMS Victory

In the post with the title English vernacular there is a reference to the name painted at the stern of HMS Victory in 2005, when she was refurbished with the intention of bringing her back to her state in 1805. The one conspicuous failure in this well-intentioned... 

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The National Gallery’s new inscription: a very English blunder

The National Gallery’s new inscription: a very English blunder

Trafalgar Square is one of the very few public spaces in Britain that have the feeling of an outside room, designed as a place to meet in, like St Peter’s Square in Rome or St Mark’s in Venice. The north side, at the head of the sloping site, is... 

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The Nymph and the Grot, an update

The Nymph and the Grot, an update

This is a detail from a ‘Design for a British Senate House’ ( Sir John Soane’s Museum, London ) that was drawn by John Soane when he was in Rome in 1780. It is the earliest known example of the monoline sanserif inscriptional letter of Republican... 

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