Said the Source by Micah Lexier

This is a piece hanging up in the Hamilton Public Library. The artist is Micah Lexier. The piece is about 7½ meters (25') by 3½ meters (12'), and made from laser cut steel. It is dated as 1990.

I remember when I used to get copy with notations like this. I remember when I used to send type back to the typesetting house like this, with notations for corrections. Now it seems no one really cares to put in the effort to make type look really good. Now all I see are people who paid a small fortune to go to a college, and don’t know the difference between an en dash and a hyphen, put primes where quotations are supposed to go, have no idea what I’m talking about when I say they that a headline needs to be kerned, and look at me with a look of incomprehension when I say they need to use proper small caps. They do work that would have gotten me fired or the type setting house looking for new clients, and yet it seems like that has become acceptable and the new norm. I suspect a lot of kids nowadays would be utterly lost if I gave them a sheet filled with proofreaders marks, the kind I used to get when I started out, and was expected to know how to read. It could be argued that with technology the way it is now, the lines between the writer and the typesetter and the proof reader and the graphic artist are blurring to the point of fading away entirely. Anyone along the continuum can now make those changes, but do they really do any sort of fine tuning any more? Computers are wonderful in that they’ve democratized what was once an arcane practice, but it also seems like people are willing to accept whatever some hack produces. I guess I’m just a crusty old fart, but I really do appreciate the history and art and science of typography, and think that if it’s going to be done, it should be done well and properly. More people should take the time to study a page of type done by Aldus Manutius, which is a thing of beauty, the format and the spacing is pristine, and each letter on that page would have been carved by hand. Typesetting and printing was difficult in his day, and yet he took the time to make it perfect. Now, with technology that would make what he did comparatively easy, so many just don’t bother to strive for such perfection.

Any one coming to work with me had better have an E scale, and have memorized Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst.