賞析＿這是五年多前在英國逛書店，帶回家的一本不太起眼的塘鵝叢書（Pelican Books）平裝本。它跟企鵝叢書（Penguin Books）是屬於同一間公司的，所以封面的版面設計都是 Jan Tschichold 設計，黃金比例之上用上當時最前衛的 Gill Sans 字型。 自己一直很喜歡神秘的題目，像金字塔、埃及文化、失落的古撒哈拉文明等，於我都非常有興趣。版面上 Pyramid 的 a 字，細心看會發覺跟現在電腦版本的不一樣，尾巴是垂直砍斷，而不是微微上提。有說原版本是一種失誤，在 a 字的收尾來說不夠完美，但我更喜歡這版本更踏實而中庸。也因為活字印刷關係，活字版本的 Gill Sans 粗細對比要小一點；不像電腦版本感覺鋒利，間距也微微鬆開一些，更符合原作的人文精神。不過怎都好 Gill Sans 是非常難使用，如果你的靈魂能跟它接上，可以像 Jan Tschichold 用到懂飛，不懂用的話，可以醜上加醜。我覺得要用好它，可能不要用黑體字的思維去想，要用人文襯線的角度去使用。 正文字不是印的最美的 Bembo，但是 Bembo 的優雅、跟清脆確切的造型，讓讀感既不會過硬，也讓眼睛保持精神，不會變虛浮。 那年代的字型跟 typography 啊，真的好棒 Appreciation_This is just an ordinary Pelican Book I bought when visiting some bookshops in London few years ago. As like its Penguin Books brothers, the cover is using the same master piece of design by Mr Jan Tschichold, and Gill Sans, a rather new design when back in the late 40s. I quite like mysterious topics, like the Egyptian culture, Pyramids, as well as lost Sahara civilisations, I always found them fascinating. The a of the Pyramid word is different what we have in digital version nowadays – it got a sharp cut, less mannered design which I prefer, but people say it doesn’t look like completed without the dancing tail we have nowadays. Yes but I definitely prefer this as it’s more subtle, less personal and much neutral to be used. And I also love the lower contrast and looser tracking I see on this frontpage, which the digital version always having a too high contrast and sharp appearance, a big contrast to it’s humanistic idea. I found Gill Sans is extremely hard to use, if you could connect to it’s soul, like Mr Tamschichold, you could fly, otherwise it’s easily ruin the work. I think it’s better think it like a serif design rather than sans, then it would be easier to handle. For text type, it’s not the most well printed Bembo in metal type, but could still feel its crispy but yet poetic nature which is so good for long reading. Wow I deeply in love of typography of those ages.

instagram終於推出網頁版了，版面設計得簡單美觀。 #instagram #love #word #hk #lwoavie #孤泣 #say #hongkong #photooftheday