Compendium Font

Designer: Alejandro Paul
Publisher: Sudtipos

Compendium is a sequel to my Burgues font from 2007. In fact it is more like a prequel to Burgues. Before Louis Madarasz blown away the American Southeast with his disciplined corners and wild hairlines, Platt Rogers Spencer, up in Ohio, had set a style all his own, a design that would ultimately become the groundwork for the drifting calligraphic technique that was later specified and established by Madarasz.

After I composed the above paragraph, I was so shocked by it, especially by the very first 2 sentences, that I stopped and needed to think of it for a week. Why a sequel/prequel? Am I subconsciously joining the ranks of typeface-as-brand designers? Are the tools I develop finally taking control of me? Am I having to turn to "milking it" now?
Not exactly. Although the present pattern of extending older popular typefaces can play tricks with a type designer's mind, and perhaps even send him into odd directions of preparation, my purpose is not the extension of something popular. My function is presenting a more extensive photo as I keep concerning terms with my fixation with 19th century American penmanship.

Those who currently understand my work probably have an idea about how compulsive I can be about providing a total and in-depth image of the past through today's eyes. So it is not hard to comprehend my need to broaden on the Burgues concept in order to reach a fuller photo of how American calligraphy evolved in the 19th century.

Burgues was truly all about Madarasz, so much so that it bypasses the genius of those who came before him. Compendium looks for to put Madarasz's operate in a much better chronological viewpoint, to show the rounds that resulted in the sharps, so to speak.

And it is nearly criminal to overlook Spencer's work, simply because it had a much larger influence on the scope of calligraphy in basic. While Madarasz's work managed to make it through only through a handful of his students, Spencer's work was distributed throughout America by his kids after he died in 1867. The Spencer kids were taught by their dad and were great calligraphers themselves. They would pass the elegant Spencerian technique on to countless American penmen and sign painters.

Though Compendium has a naturally more normalized, Spencerian flow, its sophistication, expressiveness, motion and accuracy are no less adventurous than Burgues. Nearing 700 glyphs, its character set consists of plenty of variation in each letter, and lots of ornaments for letter starts, endings, and some that can even serve to envelope whole words with swashy calligraphic wonder. Those who like to explore typefaces in detail will be rewarded, thanks to OpenType. I am so in love with the technology now that it's becoming harder for me to let go of a typeface and call it finished.

You most likely have discovered by now that my fascination with old calligraphy has actually not excluded my being influenced by modern-day style trends. This brochure is an example of this combination of impacts. I am living 150 years after the Spencers, so various contextualization and usage point of views are inevitable. Here the photography of Gonzalo Aguilar join the digital branchings of Compendium to form visuals that dance and wave like the arms of humanity have actually been doing considering that time eternal.

I hope you like Compendium and discover it helpful. I'm all Spencered out in the meantime, but at one point, for history's sake, I will make this a trilogy. When the hairline-and-swash bug visits me once again, you will be the very first to know.