ee cummings modern manuscript study
poem by ee cummings, calligraphy by iskra
Every calligrapher needs a poem they can live with, and this is my all time favorite, useful in pretty much any circumstance. I write it as a warm-up or use it as an element in image exploration frequently. This time around I have chosen the background texture of a dumpster, which as far as I can tell may become our most enduring form of manuscript in an era when everything is intangible and subject to the whim of a corrupted storage device. The best dumpster texts are written by the fenders of trucks, in alleys, when no one is watching. It’s a form of industrial graffiti with no discernable message. But should I be roaming the alleys looking for a night’s lodging, I think I would be very happy to find this message.
I am experimenting with some other typographic solutions that are more embedded, as if actually glued and ripped. This one is a purely mark-based idea, to see if a style of formal pen calligraphy can mix with other marks that aren’t intentional or based in a known alphabet.
Designer, calligrapher, lettering artist. 