- the reclaiming
of one baby that got thrown out with the bath water in today's technological
revolution - the good aspects of yesterday's ways of doing things, how things
that work well can also be beautiful and feel good, how a rich variety of different
skills can illuminate one another, how the arts can achieve amazing effects
on the way people behave, how musical and artistic harmony can be a model for
human harmony ...
David
Kettlewell uses his experience as a harper, renaissance musicologist
and conductor to illuminate his work with text and type. As his early inspirations,
he quotes poring over facsimiles of Books of Hours, singing from renaissance
music manuscripts, and an old and dog-eared Letraset catalogue that was his
constant companion.
"We're
anyway surrounded by an awful lot of stuff we've written, and it doesn't take
much more time to make sure that it's something you feel good looking at,
and it makes the quality of life so much greater."
David's work with
digital type started with the enchanted discovery of the programme Fontographer
hidden away inside the Freehand Graphic Studio, and has lately been delighted
to progress to the empowering world surrounding its successor, FontLab Studio.
Richard
Bradley, already an established name in the world of fonts (Bradley
Hand, Calligraphic Ornaments, Fine Hand, Bible Hand in the Linotype, ITC
and Letraset catalogues), encouraged David to publish his own work and to develop
digitally Rick's new paper designs; and so New Renaissance Fonts
was formed.
Karin
Skoglund draws, paints, knits and sews the whole time without stopping
to think about it, what comes out is just part of her personality, not a separate
activity, and the children do the same.
Anders
Rosén is a traditional folk fiddler who has an independent
record company, the first in Sweden. He made his illuminated and decorated capitals
for the cover of a double-LP documenting in sound and words the history of the
Swedish folk-dance polska, which shares its history with the polonaise.
Dagmar
Veraksits painted some very beautiful illuminated capitals; like
Anders, she considered that she was only copying an older tradition; but like
the mediæval scribes and icon painters she nevertheless created something
intensely personal and of great beauty.
The emphasis in
New Renaissance Fonts is on original calligraphic and decorative fonts, firmly
rooted in the Renaissance tradition of hand-measured beauty and human balance,
but completely up to date for today's needs. The initial designs are by Rick,
David and others in his circle, while the creation of the digital fonts is done
by David. Here are examples of these fonts in use, as well as two dozen fonts
for free download, at least as long as they're still not quite ready for commercial
release: as a complement to this site, the Fontografia
web-site provides stories and hints about ways of using fonts, ways of making
fonts, ways of enjoying fonts.
We
would be very pleased if you would download
this package of 25 of David's first fonts for free, try them out, and let
us know if they work for you; and if possible send
a screen-shot or a PDF to show how you've used them.
Eight
fonts have been released at MyFonts
- a lovely democratic organisation, a visit there is always a delightful experience
- so those are no longer available for free download here.
featured
designers:
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extraordinary
empowering software:
FontLab
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David's
explorations in the world of type:
- what you can do with fonts, how they are made, how
you can make them etc.
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on the heading here)
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