this sentence: “stop stealing sheep”. i know it’s the title of a book, but what is the meaning of the phrase? i know it has something to do with typography, but there must be some deeper meaning here…
what i’m looking for is an answer similar to the description of the history of “what’s the frequency, kenneth?”
in desperate thanks,
julien
The great type designer Frederic Goudy once said that “anyone who would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep.” Blackletter, in typography, are the “Old English” type of faces you see used for newspaper names, and letterspacing is just stretching the word out so that there are gaps in between the letters. Evidently Goudy thought that this practice is a grave typographic faux pas. The book that you mentioned is an introductory text to typography.
Interesting article:
http://www.eyewire.com/magazine/columns/robin/blackletter/
thank you!