By Accident or Design

Rosemary Sassoon

Description

In this reflective autobiography, Rosemary Sassoon, a leading expert on handwriting and typography, looks back on her long and varied career, paying special attention to her unorthodox progression through a variety of fields. She details the route that took her from design to the educational and medical aspects of handwriting problems, then on to research and a PhD and finally to working in the area of legibility in type design. In telling the story of an unusual and unusually successful life, Sassoon takes up a number of philosophical questions about what it is that comes together to form our characters, and what role chance and coincidence play in our lives.

Early life and design work

Rosemary Sassoon

 

Changing direction

Rosemary Sassoon

 

The wider implications of handwriting problems

Rosemary Sassoon

 

A stroke, getting older and some conclusions

Rosemary Sassoon

Sujets

• Sciences et techniques
• General officer
• Design
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 01 février 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783208678
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

Rosemary Sassoon BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN Challenges and coincidences in my life

BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN

BY ACCIDENT OR DESIGN Challenges and coincidences in my life

Rosemary Sassoon

First published in the UK in 2018 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK

First published in the USA in 2018 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA

Copyright © 2018 Intellect Ltd.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover designer: Mike Blacker Design & typesetting: Mike Blacker Production manager: Tim Mitchell

Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-866-1 ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-867-8 ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78320-890-6

Printed and bound by TJ International, UK.

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Contents

Part 1 Early life and design work Introduction • Early life • Art school • Textile designing • More lettering • Packaging design • Less productive years • Textiles again • Lettering as a decorative art • My first book • Teaching lettering

Part 2 Changing direction Handwriting in schools • My first handwriting book • Further developments • An introduction to the Medical Research Council • Towards a doctoral thesis • Typeface design

Part 3 The wider implications of handwriting problems The medical aspects of handwriting • Writing and travelling

Part 4 A stroke, getting older and some conclusions The effects of a stroke • Conclusions

References

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Part 1

Early life and design work

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Introduction

It îs always saîd that our characters are ormed partly by nature and partly by nurture. Today our genes are probably mostly held responsîble, but even that seems sîmplîstîc. What about coîncîdences and other happenîngs quîte outsîde our control? My educatîon could be termed a casualty o the Second World War, and ît seems to me that my whole adult lîe has been înfluenced by a serîes o coîncîdences. A dîscarded newspaper led me to a new desîgn job when I was desperate, an ofer to wrîte a book came out o the blue, then a somewhat înapproprîate and an unwanted request to deal wîth handwrîtîng problems, at first educatîonal and then medîcal, led to a whole new career. I dîd not seek any o these opportunîtîes. They just ell înto my lap, and în doîng so pushed my area o înterest out wîder and wîder, untîl I have got to the stage now that when people ask me what îs my proessîon I do not know how to answer. In thîs book I wîll try to record how thîs all occurred. When I started out, în the late 1940s, ew women were expected to have a meanîngul career. A ew good teachers along the way, and later good mentors certaînly helped, but I consîder mysel extremely lucky to have had such a satîsyîng and productîve career. It was all rather lîke my husband who saîd that he had never done a days work în hîs lîe that he would not have done or nothîng – except that I quîte oten actually had to work or nothîng!

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