Writing and graphic design are not just parallel activities; they are parasites and hosts for one another. Both strive to eliminate clutter, focus attention, and manipulate structure. Both use words as social glue.
In preparing to teach a writing class for graphic designers, I’ve been reading wonderful books about the craft of communication—not about graphic design per se, but about expression through words and wit.
The text above is from Steve Martin’s spectacular autobiography Born Standing Up. Told in a voice that quietly effaces itself, Martin describes his plodding, uncertain evolution as a comic, starting with his boyhood obsession with magic tricks and culminating with his rise to fame as the world’s first rockstar-styled live comic.
Martin’s text weaves together stunningly real and funny anecdotes with reflections on the theory and craft of comedic expression. (And it is typeset in our favorite font, Scala, designed by Dutch typographer Martin Majoor.)
— Ellen Lupton · 2008-10-18
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