Mandate

When one works on books about slabs, stencils, shadows, and scripts, one needs a lot of examples around. Like, when Louise Fili was working on Scripts, she picked up this specimen of Robert Hunter Middleton’s Mandate. It reminds us of a vanilla milkshake. (Man. Could we go for a vanilla milkshake right now.) Not a pretty specimen, but that makes sense: Ludlow faces weren’t pretty. They were workhorses. That this is from the collection of Louise Fili just goes to show how diverse her interests were. A good designer is always looking. Also, this is the very item reproduced on pages 248 and 249 of Scripts. Historic!