In September 2009, type designer Jessica Hische started what would become a wildly popular personal project: Daily Drop Caps, in which she intricately illustrated a decorative letter every day and uploaded it to her blog. Her lettering style modernizes an age-old typographic tradition: a drop cap is the single large letter that starts a book chapter, often seen in sacred texts or early editions of classic literature. The artform dates back to 2,000-year-old illuminated manuscripts.
Jessica Hische will debate the merits of algorithmic design at the 2014 Innovation by Design Conference, Wednesday, October 15, at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York. Sign up today!
In collaboration with Penguin art director Paul Buckley, Hische has applied her colorful, ornate drop cap lettering to 26 book covers for classic works of literature and poetry--one for each letter of the alphabet. The Penguin Drop Caps series features bright jewels of book covers, each with an illustration of the first letter of the author’s last name, starting with Austen, Bronte, and Cather. The last batch of letters--X, Y, and Z for Xinran, Yeats, and Zafron--has just been released....
you must grab a coffee and take 10 minutes to marvel at the creativity in this year's "best in class" design winners from CSSDA. Recommended viewing. 10/10