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16. Sturdivant:
Modern Showcard and Theatrical Lettering. 1948.
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Don Sturdivant produced this book at a time when
showcards were still commonplace from department stores
to theaters. By that time, showcard writing was a fairly
specialized part of the sign industry even though the
same theories of layout and design applied across the
board. This book from first glance is fairly unassuming.
The alphabets are not too flashy and the layouts are
solid, but not overpowering-but still solid. Mike Stevens
was greatly influenced by this book; Sturdivant's theories
were echoed and refined for his book "Mastering Layout".
That book has left a permanent mark on the sign trade
of today.
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17. Boley: Basiks
of Lettering. 1952.
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Still in the showcard era, this book set a new standard
for hand lettering with a brush. Bill Boley's general
script look was quickly adopted by many of the handlettering
artists of the day. While there are only a half dozen
different alphabets shown, each of them are broken down
into the most basic brush strokes necessary to produce
the entire alphabets.
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18. Becker:
One Hundred Alphabets. 1941.
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Alf Becker produced this book for Signs of the Times
Publishing Company and who advertised it in their magazines
for quite a few years. There were numerous other titles
touting a collection of alphabets, but this one seems
to have been the most popular even though finding an
original is still tough. Possibly contributing to the
difficulty is the fact that Signs of the Times
showed one of the plates per month for many years and
many signpainters simply clipped the page out of the
magazine each month. Still, the quality and variety
of the alphabets is very good and those letterstyles
can be seen in numerous signs during that time.
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19. Wellington:
Theory and Practice of Poster Art. 1934, 1986.
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This book is heavily illustrated and photographed
and could easily be on many collector's top ten list.
Duke Wellington worked in some of the finest poster
and card shops of the time and many of the projects
in the book have a strong movie theme. While there are
several color plates, the majority of the book consists
of black and white photos of his cards and numerous
pages of Deco style images and layouts. As the name
implies, the book is also devoted to the theory and
practice of making poster art, along with nuts and bolts
techniques. The book was reprinted by Signs of the
Times in 1986.
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20. Bergling:
Art Alphabets and Lettering. 1918.
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J.M. Bergling produced four books of merit which
were considered technical art books. They were produced
for architects, craftsmen, engrossers, engravers, lettering
specialists and commercial artists and were reprinted
numerous times throughout the century. The latest known
editions were printed in 1980. Other titles in the Bergling
series include "Art Monograms and Lettering", "Ornamental
Designs and Illustrations" and "Heraldic Designs and
Engravings". Each book is profusely illustrated.
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