Essays

In Praise of Shadows
Doré, Gustave. The days of chivalry, or the legend of Croquemitaine. A man wearing a suit of armor stands facing a towering and spectral figure holding a candle as other similar figures are leaving the scene in the background.

Newsletters
Wood engraving by Émile Bayard from Contes et romans populaires. Two men stand in the vaulted archive room of a castle, looking at portraits on the wall by torchlight. The caption reads in the original French: Voici celle qui doit revenir pour consoler et pardonner…

The Arc of Design
Wood engraving by Auguste Trichon. A terrified man is falling through the sky, desperately clinging to a tangled winged apparatus as the hot-air balloon from which his flying attempt was launched can be seen hovering above.

Dartmoor, Death Stranding, and me
Engraved by Charles Barbant. A man wearing a hat and carrying a canvas cover rolled up under his arm walks against the wind in a hail storm.

Systems, Mistakes, and the Sea
Wood engraving by Howard Pyle from Howard Pyle's book of pirates. A blindfolded man with his arms restrained by ropes stands at the end of a plank extended over the side of a ship as the crew of pirates watches from the deck, gathered behind their leader who holds a pistol and wears a tricorn.

The Futures of Typography
Frank Dicksee, The Cornhill magazine, vol. 39. In an untidy studio, a woman holds a print and shows it to the man standing behind her.

In Search of the Long Wow
“Wood engraving by Arthur Boyd Houghton from North coast, and other poems. A young woman stands on a doorstep with her back to the door and holds up a lantern in front of her to peer into the night.”

The New Web Typography
John Augustus Knapp, Etidorhpa, or, The end of earth. An older man is standing in an underground cave, immersed in water up to his waist in the company of an eerie creature with a near featureless face. A ray of light coming from an opening in the roof above casts its glow upon them as the man thrusts his arms upward.

A Visual Lexicon
Engraved by Charles Barbant. A group of men stands at the entrance of a rocky tunnel. One of them has climbed onto a large rock lying on the ground and holds a torch high above his head, peering into the depths ahead of him.

The Other Interface
Engraved by Charles Barbant. On a ship, a man naked from the waist up and carrying a gun is stopped by the captain holding up a lantern to his face.

Bookmarking
Wood engraving by Adolphe François Pannemaker. A man in a tropical forest happens upon a small bird caught in the web of a large spider.

Call Me Interactivity
Victor Rose in Les merveilles de la science, supplement 1. A standing woman, answering a call.

Book design and emotional information
“Wood engraving by Charles Barbant, L'île mystérieuse. People are busy around a hot air balloon tethered on a city square and straining on its ropes.”

Illustrations

Special thanks to Old Book Illustrations, the source of all these lovely woodcut and metal engravings you see above.