Search Icon A magnifying glass icon.
Search Icon A magnifying glass icon.
Subject
Admissions

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Graphic Design Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Graphic Design Hub

Professional Certificates

Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Explore Graphic Design Career Courses

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Web Design Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Web Design Hub

Professional Certificates

Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Explore Web Design Career Courses

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Digital Media Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Digital Media Hub

Professional Certificates

Explore Digital Media Career Courses

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Digital Media Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Digital Media Hub
You can deepen your software skills and keep up with the latest Adobe CC updates in our online Digital Arts courses.
Contact Admissions

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Digital Photography Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Digital Photography Hub

DEGREES

Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Explore Fine Arts Degree Courses

DEGREES

Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Illustration Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Illustration Hub

Professional Certificates

Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Explore Illustration Career Courses

DEGREES

Explore Advertising & Marketing Degree Courses
Discover Sessions Advertising & Marketing Hub

Professional Certificates

Explore Advertising and Marketing Career Courses

CERTIFICATES

Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Explore Sessions Career Courses
Professional Cert PLUS
Next Start:
December 1, 2024
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Explore Sessions Bachelor's Degrees
Next Start:
January 6, 2025
Next Start:
January 6, 2025

The Letterform Archive

by Margaret Penney | October 12, 2016


The Letterform Archive is a library and museum dedicated to the letter arts located in San Francisco, CA with an archive of over 30,000 items related to lettering, typography, and calligraphy. They also have a wonderful online gallery with a curated selection of type designs from 1120 through contemporary times. The web interface for the museum is beautifully made and you can search by year, famous typographer, style, and by movement—Avante Garde type, Aldo Novarese’s designs, and wood engravings are all simple to find.

It’s an incredibly inspiring collection with web previews that expand to really show the detail in each letterform, plus they offer high-resolution samplers from recent acquisitions of type collections.

For an aspiring or seasoned type designer alike, it’s one of the best resources for historical type reference online. Included here is a selection of some favorites from the gallery, but don’t just take our word for it, visit the gallery yourself.

Letterform Archive Gallery

 

Cassandre's First American Specimen of Bifur

Cassandre’s First American Specimen of Bifur

Hand=painted label sketch, Lehmann Printing, circa 1930.

Hand-painted label sketch, Lehmann Printing, circa 1930.

download

Albert Klijn, sketch for brochure, Venetian blinds.

William George Sutherland, The Sign Writer and Glass Embosser (1898)

William George Sutherland, The Sign Writer and Glass Embosser (1898)

To find out more about this wonderful design museum, visit The Letterform Archive.

 

Margaret Penney is the Managing Editor of Notes on Design. Margaret is a teacher, designer, writer and new media artist and founder of Hello Creative Co.

 

If you are interested in learning to use typography, Sessions College offers Basic Typography and Advanced Typography courses as well as a course in Web Typography.  Contact Admissions for more information.

This blog is powered by Sessions College, the leading online school of visual arts.

©2024 Sessions College for Professional Design  All rights reserved

Terms & Conditions       Privacy Policy