Post
by Lee Littlewood » Sat Mar 30, 2013 11:12 pm
You know, another way to feel the effect of an inscription is one we all do frequently. I probably get 3 letters a week that are addressed to me in a type that mimics handwriting, and I'll bet most of us get about the same.
How does it feel?
Here there is no question of skill, of practiced form - they are just trying to look personable, like a regular person's regular handwriting. Sometimes in the same mail I will get a real letter with a real handwitten address so I can make an immediate A/B comparison. It always comes out the same, and I'll bet most people will pick the written envelope over the printed writing.
Why? some sort of a feeling that the interaction is on a person-to-person level, that there is no machine in between us, that the sender cares about me,,,, I could (and do) go on, but that feeling is my point - both envelopes were legible, both had funky, non-technical lettering, the visual difference is pretty small but the emotional response (by gawd, I do go on) is strongly different.
Now imagine that you are The White House. Don't you want your guests to feel appreciated, to feel special? But you still need to look clean, professional (and probably traditional, sigh), so you employ professional engrossers to get a professional product.
Well, to return to Chuck's original question: if the type and the calligrapher were both working from the same model, so the final results looked very similar, I'm pretty sure I would still prefer the hand-done version even if I really didn't know "why" - it would just feel a little less type-perfect, a little warmer. The comparison would have to be done in the hand, of course; very few of the important differences can survive a camera or a computer screen.
Thanks for the discussion
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