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Monday, January 31, 2011

Recreating a Trajan Inscription

 

One of the great monuments in Rome is the Trajan Column, built to commemorate Trajan's victory in the Dacien Wars. Its spiraling bas relief frieze depicts two wars that each lasted but one year. For lovers of typography, the Tajan Column also includes what is considered by many to be the finest example of Roman lettering in existence. Below is a portion of the inscription, executed by an anonymous master.


In 1989, Carol Twombly of Adobe Systems designed a very literal interpretation of the inscription, a typeface that was of course named Trajan. I've reconstructed the image below to illustrate how faithful Twombly's font design is to the original.


Below is an image of Carol Twombly from her days at Adobe Systems, and some of her typeface designs.




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12 comments:

  1. TerryJanuary 31, 2011 at 1:21 PM

    2000 years of perfection.

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  2. Blayne MacauleyJanuary 31, 2011 at 2:04 PM

    Trajan is hands down my favorite font. we use if for all advertising we do for our business. I never knew this story. Thank you for sharing!!

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  3. Mark D. RuffnerJanuary 31, 2011 at 4:59 PM

    Thanks for visiting, Terry and Blayne.

    Terry, it is indeed 2000 years of perfection, and like all things classic, timeless.

    Blayne, if you like Trajan, you'd probably also enjoy Hermann Zapf's Palatino, my own favorite and a close relative to Trajan.

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  4. David TomsFebruary 1, 2011 at 8:15 PM

    So classic and to think that it is 2000 years old! Just the thing for writing latin in don't you think?

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  5. Square with FlairFebruary 1, 2011 at 10:25 PM

    Definitely my favourite style of lettering. When I've had things engraved, or drawn insignia and monograms, I've selected something pretty close to this.

    I like the overlapping laurel leaf molding at the base of the column too.

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  6. Theresa CheekFebruary 2, 2011 at 10:30 AM

    Thanks for the story behind the story. The font is timeless.

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  7. design blogFebruary 2, 2011 at 11:03 AM

    Appreciating the time and effort you put into your blog and comprehensive information you provide! I’ll bookmark your weblog and have my children check up here frequently. Thumbs up!

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  8. Mark D. RuffnerFebruary 2, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    Thanks to David, Terry and Theresa for visiting, and a special thanks to Design Blog for noticing the time and effort that go into these posts! It's my pleasure.

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  9. KarenaFebruary 2, 2011 at 1:29 PM

    Mark, oh this is fascinating, Twombly deserves more attention and thank you for the background so well researched.

    xoxo
    Karena
    Art by Karena

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  10. Mark D. RuffnerFebruary 2, 2011 at 2:41 PM

    Thanks for visiting, Karena! As one who posts often about jewelry, you might be interested to know that Carol retired to pursue her other art pleasures, including designing jewelry.

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  11. Lee'bertJuly 27, 2011 at 3:12 PM

    you should do a series of 'BEHIND THE TYPEFACE' ;)

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  12. Mark D. RuffnerJuly 27, 2011 at 3:37 PM

    Thanks for the nudge, Lee. I think I'll take you up on it!

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