Calligraphic title for a book on modern scribes and lettering, Martin Jackson, 1983

Martin Jackson was born in Sheffield, England, and emigrated to Canada in 1966. He has almost 60 years of experience as a graphic designer and calligrapher. He has lectured and taught across Canada, the US, Japan and Europe. Among his many commissions are pieces for the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1984 and for the wedding reception of Bill Gates.

For this cover Jackson used a classic foundational style in all caps to create a bold letterform that, with the white inline and thin flourishes, is quite decorative. Typically this double stroke effect would be created using a broad nib pen with a gap in the middle of the nib that produces two consistent parallel strokes when writing. On this piece Jackson doesn’t use a split nib, but skillfully mimics the effect with two separate strokes of the pen. He also shapes the freely written humanist letterforms into a rectangular block creating a dynamic piece of lettering that fits comfortably in the overall mechanical shape of the cover.

Modern Scribes and Lettering Artists is one in a long list of books dating back to the 1930s featuring the work of international lettering artists and calligraphers. Published infrequently, and often sharing similar titles, they acted as yearly reviews of calligraphy and lettering gathered from around the world. These books are a great resource for anyone working with letterforms and can still be found in used bookstores and online.