Always learning. Always growing. A glimpse at a graphic designer’s library. Graphis Annual 84/85 The International Annual of Advertising and Editorial Graphics, Graphic Design Cookbook, Designer’s Guide to Color 5, and Best Practices for Graphic Designers, Grids and Page Layouts.
It was not the thunder or lightening that distracted me. It was the typeface. Was it the letter “s” or the letter “g” that offered a clue as to the typeface? Most likely Baskerville. But it could also be Caslon.
The wind and rain battered the window. The game’s afoot. The evidence was in a line across the page. Something about the letter “e” made me think I was wrong. The anatomy of the letter “e” features the eye on the top half of the oval. The finial is the tail and the open space between the top half of the letter and finial is the aperture.
The thunder faded as the rain slowed to a steady drizzle. It was the space of the aperture that made me consider that it was neither Baskerville or Caslon. For Baskerville, the eye should be higher and finial lower with a greater space in the aperture. But since this book was printed before the 1970s, maybe the original Baskerville typeface for Linotype looked different when printed. Computer typesetting replaced photo typesetting. And photo typesetting replaced Linotype. Maybe the form of the letters changed from Linotype Baskerville to digital Baskerville. The lights flickered but remained on.
The storm moved east. The downspout outside the window burbled from the rain. And I forgot what I had been reading. A mystery? Something about heroes.
And now he blesses hers who stood and wept
And would not be consoled, or leave her love’s
Last touching place, but watched as low light crept
Up from the east…—“Easter Dawn” by Malcolm Guite1
NOTES:
1) Malcolm Guite, “A Sonnet for Easter Dawn,” April 20, 2025, malcolmguite.wordpress.com, accessed March 15, 2026, https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/20/a-sonnet-for-easter-dawn-9/
2) Word in the Wilderness: A poem a day for Lent and Easter by Malcolm Guite, https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781848256781/word-in-the-wilderness
Graphic designers solve problems. They educate clients as much as they create products for clients.
In an old Action Book journal, I sketched the details and differences between two options for a picture book. Most people see picture books all the time, but may not be aware of how they are put together. This sketch helped illustrate for the client and author how best to plan for their project.
That client meeting was years and years ago. Now I have stacks and boxes of these design journals. From time to time, I open these journals to reference an idea or sketch. But maybe it is time to start recycling them.
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune.—“Palm Sunday” by Malcolm Guite1
NOTES:
1) Malcolm Guite, “Palm Sunday: A Sonnet,” April 13, 2025, malcolmguite.wordpress.com, accessed March 15, 2026, https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/palm-sunday-a-sonnet-10/
2) Word in the Wilderness: A poem a day for Lent and Easter by Malcolm Guite, https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781848256781/word-in-the-wilderness
And there the logical hook
On which the Mystery is impaled and bent
Into an ideological argument.—“The Incarnate One” by Edwin Muir 1 2
NOTES:
1) Edwin Muir, “The Incarnate One,” Poeticous, accessed March 15, 2026, https://www.poeticous.com/edwin-muir/the-incarnate-one
2) Edwin Muir, “The Incarnate One,” All Poetry, accessed March 15, 2026, https://allpoetry.com/The-Incarnate-One
3) Malcolm Guite, “Palm Sunday: A Sonnet,” April 13, 2025, malcolmguite.wordpress.com, accessed March 15, 2026, https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/04/13/palm-sunday-a-sonnet-10/
4) “A poem for the fifth Sunday in Lent (Passion Sunday), 2022,” Coffeehouse Junkie, April 3, 2022, accessed March 15, 2026, https://coffeehousejunkie.net/2022/04/03/a-poem-for-the-fifth-sunday-in-lent-passion-sunday-2022/
All things without, which round about we see,
We seek to know, and how therewith to do;
But that whereby we reason, live, and be,
Within ourselves we strangers are thereto.—“Nosce Teipsum” by Sir John Davies1
NOTES:
1) Sir John Davies, “Nosce Teipsum,” Poetry Foundation, accessed March 15, 2026, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57129/nosce-tiepsum-of-human-knowledge
2) Malcolm Guite, “Week 4: Know Thyself: John Davies and Tennyson,” March 30, 2025, malcolmguite.wordpress.com, accessed March 8, 2026, https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/03/30/week-4-know-thyself-john-davies-and-tennyson-10/
3) “A poem for the fourth week of Lent (Laetare Sunday), 2022,” Coffeehouse Junkie, March 27, 2022, accessed February 13, 2026, https://coffeehousejunkie.net/2022/03/27/a-poem-for-the-fourth-week-of-lent-laetare-sunday-2022/
I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not.—“Late Ripeness” by Czeslaw Milosz1
NOTES:
1) Czeslaw Milosz, “Late Ripeness,” Poetry Foundation, accessed March 8, 2026, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49453/late-ripeness
2) Malcolm Guite, “Week 3: Dante and the Companioned Journey,” March 23, 2025, malcolmguite.wordpress.com, accessed March 8, 2026, https://malcolmguite.wordpress.com/2025/03/23/week-3-dante-and-the-companioned-journey-10/
3) Word in the Wilderness: A poem a day for Lent and Easter by Malcolm Guite, https://canterburypress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9781848256781/word-in-the-wilderness
Coffeehouse Junkie 