Goudy’s Hot Metal Film
This silent film from the 1930s of Frederic Goudy is a real gem, at least for typographers anyway. If you’ve not heard of Goudy, this is the equivalent of seeing Rodin sculpt or Magritte paint. It’s also an eye-opener into the mysterious craft of transforming drawings into hot metal type. Typographers needed not just a good eye for lettering, but also to be a dab hand on the engraving machine – Goudy’s rural barn seems as much a metal workshop as an artists studio. Goudy produced 116 typefaces in his lifetime, would he have been even more prolific today using just a laptop in his bedroom?
Finally any mention of Goudy has to include his famous and often misquoted line “Anyone who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep” In Marlboro New York in the 1930s I’m sure the latter was more of a problem than the former.
David Rainbird
Posted on Friday, 28th of July 2006 Permalink Comment (0)