mel jacobson on sat 8 oct 11
this is a very interesting post from some
great `calligraphy` friends.
steve was a craftsman.
Steve said:
> Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instructio=
n in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every =
drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and di=
dn=92t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy cla=
ss to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, =
about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, ab=
out what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artist=
ically subtle in a way that science can=92t capture, and I found it fascina=
ting.
>
> None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But=
ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it a=
ll came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first c=
omputer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single=
course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or prop=
ortionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely =
that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I wo=
uld have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers=
might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was imp=
ossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it w=
as very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.
from mel:
it is documented that steve jobs continued to love and do
simple calligraphy his entire life. he has been known to use the white/bla=
ckboard
at lectures and do notes to the audience in a fine hand. some
better calligraphers think he was near mastering some
italic hands. art, craft, and influence on the world.
it never changes.
but, the ignorant seem to always find a way to destroy craft and art.
`needless, a waste of time.` but, the ignorant never understand very
much.
from: minnetonka, mn
website: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/
clayart link: http://www.visi.com/~melpots/clayart.html
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