A Project Long Delayed

I’ve been busy lately bringing to life a project long delayed. An age ago, when I was 21 and finishing up my four years at Tyler School of Art, I took a class called “Typography”. I took it upon myself to write and illustrate a book, which I planned to finish by the final semester’s end. I was overly ambitious. Even with an extra month of work, staying on campus after everyone had graduated and gone home, I did not bring the finished book to fruition. - - -That is about to change.

All of the illustrations in this blog-post were from that time, 1977. My liberal use of pointillism is evident here, and would become a hallmark pictorial style of The Wall Street Journal a few years later.

At the time, I was an ardent medievalist. I had just read William Morris’s “The Well at the World’s End”, and so was immersed in neo-archaic language. Here is an example of the writing style I used at the time, from text that I typeset on a machine called a “compositor”:

The entire contents of the book’s text were set in Korinna, an Art Nouveau-style font that was new at the time. The title of this book is “Mince of Heathermere”. It’s a fairy-tale of sorts. I expect that the published book will be available in February. The designer, Mike Havecotte, is helping me put all the pieces into a coherent whole right now. Here is another illustration that will also grace the work…

My colleague, Sarah Jones, is a colorist who is also working with me. She is involved in creating the color pallette for the book’s cover illustration, as well as the many decorative elements that will be included on nearly every page. One of these decorative page ornaments is shown here, in the original black & white form:

I’m very anxious to see this book finally come to life. Next post, I will reveal more, in anticipation of its release. I will certainly let you know when it becomes available, Dear Reader. Here is one more illustration to whet your appetite…