|k| clippings: 2015-01-26 — a new crayon jewel

WORK

Q (Matthew Knott-Craig): …would you describe your work in typography as an obsession and, if so, why does this particular discipline require this level of engagement?

A. (Eric Spiekermann) Wrong question. Every craft requires attention to detail. Whether you’re building a bicycle, an engine, a table, a song, a typeface or a page: the details are not the details, they make the design. Concepts don’t have to be pixel-perfect, and even the fussiest project starts with a rough sketch. But building something that will be used by other people, be they drivers, riders, readers, listeners—users everywhere, it needs to be built as well as can be. Unless you are obsessed by what you’re doing, you will not be doing it well enough. Typography appears to require a lot of detail, but so does music, cooking, carpentry, not to mention brain surgery. Sometimes only the experts know the difference, but if you want to be an expert at what you’re making, you will only be happy with the result when you’ve given it everything you have.

I strongly believe that the attention someone gives to what he or she makes is reflected in the end result, whether it is obvious or not. Inherent quality is part of absolute quality and without it things will appear shoddy. The users may not know why, but they always sense it.

I admit to being obsessive about my work, but I refuse that to be classified as weird and unusual and obsessiveness being limited to certain disciplines.

(emphasis added)

—Eric Spiekermann
—from “Being obsessive about detail is being normal”

WORD(S)

fuscous. adjective. Dark-hued; dusky; a dark brownish-gray lighter than taupe. Merriam-Webster calls it “paler and slightly yellower than chocolate, duller and slightly redder than mouse gray, and duller and slightly redder than castor.” That clears things up. From Latin fuscus (dark, dusky).

“Sad and fuscous colours, as black, or brown, or deep purple.” (Edmund Burke)

“She circled the pumps of the deserted trading post once again. The big-headed dogs were lying on their stomachs, sharing something fuscous and eviscerated.” (Joy Williams)

“Yet we were still ten versts from the next village, and in the meanwhile the large purple cloudbank—arisen from no one knows where—was advancing steadily towards us. The sun, not yet obscured, was picking out its fuscous shape with dazzling light, and marking its front with grey stripes running right down to the horizon.” (Leo Tolstoy [trans. by C.J. Hogarth])

WEB

1. Maureen Johnson’s “Coverflip” challenge provides a lot of food for thought. A tip o’ the cap to Reader A.

2. The Great Parchment Book of the Honourable The Irish Society is a 1639 survey of estates commissioned by King Charles I. Severely damaged by fire in 1786, the volume was unavailable until a recent project undertook the painstaking process of restoring it physically and writing new software to analyze and piece together scans of the wrinkled and creased surface. Watch a fascinating five minute video demonstrating the restoration process. And explore the book online with helpful modern transcripts.

3. April is National Poetry Month. This year’s celebratory poster, by Roz Chast, is available free while supplies last.

4. Via Futility Closet (which I can’t recommend highly enough), a story about two CDs of silence that nevertheless tell a powerful story.

5. On this day in 1905, the Cullinan Diamond—the largest gem-quality diamond every discovered, weighing in at 3106 carats (app. 600 grams or just under 22 ounces)—is discovered. The largest of the nine diamonds split from it, the Great Star of Africa, remains the second largest polished diamond in the world, and the next largest is one of Britain’s Crown Jewels.

REPRISES/RESPONSES/REJOINDERS/RIPOSTES

• Reader A. adds to the “writing short” discussion: “I cannot seem to find it anywhere to prove, but the leading research journal Geology had at one time (in the 1990s) a paraphrase of this quote on the preface, as something like ‘I would have written a shorter paper if I had more time’ and it was attributed to Pascal. They have and had a strict 4 typeset page limit, so my one authored paper there took almost a year to write.”

• Reader C. asks: “When will a Clippings be dedicated to the beauty and balance of palindromes?”

• Reader B. likes it, writing: “semordnilap! Makes me very happy.”

I welcome comments, suggestions, thoughts, feedback and all manner of what-have-you. Just press ‘Reply’ or email to: clippings@katexic.com.

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