Bradbury Thompson - Painting with Type

I often tell my illustration and design students that you can paint with typography. Think of  the blank page as a white canvas. This helps illustrators to understand the importance of type and to explore the dynamic range of the letter-form when combined with an image.

Ultimately, I lead them to look at the work of Bradbury Thompson, who in my opinion, used type as if it was a toy. Over 60 some years of playing with type and image, Thompson’s astonishing talent showed through on almost everything he touched. A vast knowledge of printing gave him the basis for experimentation. 

Thompson worked in printing firms several years before moving to New York. This knowledge led to the experimental designs for Westvaco Inspirations (the iconic graphic design image below). The four color publications demonstrated Bradbury’s love of typography, as he combined plates of art and illustrations borrowed from advertising agencies and museums into a new typographic language. 

Exploring 18th and 19th century engravings as a resource for his designs, he used large bold organic and geometric shapes to bring symbolic power to the page. Details from half-tone reproductions became full page visual patterns and dynamic elements that created movement. 

As an art director, Thompson used old-style typefaces in his work for Smithsonian magazine and ArtNews including many designs for the United States postage stamps. His career also owned a  lucrative flow of book designs including — one of his most impressive – the Washburn College Bible. Some designers have stated that the bible is the most monumental and innovative reassessment of bible typography since Gutenberg’s own edition appeared in 1455. The Bible presented text in cadenced phrases presenting meaning for both the reader and listener that was conveyed through typography and image. Its chapter openings presented beautiful reproductions of paintings and the whole project was some 10 years in the making.

Uniting modern typography organization with historic illustrations, Thompson’s impact on the field of graphic design was marked by many triumphs. He created a new outlook of the possibilities of image with classical type. Often defining himself at times as a teacher, his career as a professor at Yale University lasted for many years. In his words:

“The art of typography, like architecture, is concerned with beauty and utility in contemporary terms. . . the typographic designer must present the arts and sciences of past centuries as well as those of today. . . and although he works with the graphics of past centuries, he must create in the spirit of his own time, showing in his designs an essential understanding rather than a labored copying of past masters.”

From the Westvaco inspirations 206, 1956

Well stated. Look to the past and make it your own in the present!