Wordiness

Growing up, I enrolled in all the art classes in junior and senior high school. My father worked in a typography shop in Hollywood where I was employed part time. I started to develop an understanding and awareness of fonts, typesetting and printing. I attended a few semesters at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA before choosing to be a sign painter. I graduated from Los Angeles Trade Technical College’s Sign Graphics program in 1979. In 1981 I relocated to Spokane, Washington, where I currently reside. Over the last 30 plus years I’ve has operated a one-man sign shop, producing thousands of signs. During that time I developed a deep, sincere love of and fascination with letter styles and well-designed layouts. I’ve said, “I’m able to enjoy a fine layout and drink it in just as much as watching a beautiful and captivating sunset!” In 1984, while reading the print trade magazine “U&lc.” I saw an article with accompanying typographic illustrations which affected me significantly. It was about the graphic designer John Langdon, titled “His typography talks.” Langdon’s layouts forever changed my creative direction. Uniquely interesting to me was how these clever, black and white designs provided insight into the meaning of a word by the way the letters were laid out, there was little or no illustration. The origins of this innovative way of achieving captivating layouts are traced to master graphic designer Herb Lubalin 1918-1981. He inspired a generation of typographic creativity due to his never seen before styles which evolved in the 1950s and 60s. Over the years, when ideas showed up in my imagination, I doodled layouts on hundreds of sticky notes, napkins and handy scraps of paper. I always hoped to see them in print for others to enjoy. My graphics website features this work at www.illustratedwords.com. All layouts are original and copyrighted. Visit my other site for a variety of my own contribution to literature at www.markleegoldenwriter.com