Sunday, August 2, 2009

Hermann Zapf video

Thanks to a variety of people for alerting me to the existence of this video and to Johnny Dib (whoever you are!)for uploading it onto Vimeo!

I don't know how old this video is, but Hermann Zapf is a very old fellow now. A very brilliant old fellow, I might add.

This is a great video to watch, but keep in mind that it's not really a beginner video and ideas and technology have changed immensely since it was made.

What really struck me is how many times he strokes his letters to build them up. You have to know your letterforms really really well to do that! And yes, while handmade paper *can* be beautiful to work on, it's safest to go with a consistent machine-made paper for beginners.

This is a real treasure!
If you are receiving this as an email blog entry, please click on the title which will bring you to the blog to view the video.
It's almost 20 minutes long.
Happy viewing - enjoy watching a master at work!

3 comments:

  1. He certainly was a master of the Art of Calligraphy. Fascinating to watch him write on the blackboard. Nothing like my efforts at Teacher's College, although I was able to write in a straight line. Good handwriting, sadly, is an art of the past, rarely seen these days. I enjoyed viewing the video, thank you.

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  2. :D You're welcome I uploaded this video. But really we should thank the people that filmed it. It's borderline public domain so I don't feel too guilty about copyrights :P
    Zapf visited Hallmark in the mid 60s (my assumption) and Jim Parkinson (Rolling Stones Logo) met him then and he talks about it in this video http://vimeo.com/10430622

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  3. And I'm glad you did upload it so more people can see it! Technically, I didn't upload this video - it is embedded from Vimeo!

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