A paean to a dying art

Advertising is about communication, and everything on the page communicates: the words, the pictures, the layout, even the type.

Just 30 minutes north of me, is the town of Two Rivers (pronounced T'rivers), the home of the Hamilton Wood Type Factory, where typecutters and setters plied their craft for over 100 years. With the advent of the Macintosh and programs like QuarkXpress and InDesign, mechanical typesetting became obsolete, removing a whole layer of artisans from the craft of advertising.

Now I'm not one to be overly nostalgic and have embraced the efficiency and flexibility that computer technology has brought us. But it's nice to know the history of the craft and understand its evolution.

The factory, now a museum preserving the art and artifacts of wood type, is the star of a new documentary, Typeface, by Justine Nagan. Debuting last week at the Wisconsin Film Festival, the film is now making the rounds on the festival circuit and will soon be available on DVD.



If you're a fan of advertising, design, or just how things work, it's a pretty cool peek into the past.