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I LANSTON TYPE COMPANY I GERALD GIAMPA I
¶ GIAMPA's FIRST USE of typographical borders as stand alone ornaments, or suites of fleurons, rather than borders. Giampa is fascinated by patterns. Although he claims he knows nothing of arithmetic he seems to have a mathematical mind.
The total of units in this piece is sixteen. He was interested at that time in 'found design'. With a friend he would find pictures in the grain of wood and use watercolours to highlight them. However he never saw pictures in clouds. To him they all look like either cotton balls or bad weather at sea.
Giampa took an early interest in Persian rugs, stained glass and Italian tile arrangements and paid attention to some wall paper designs. In general his interests are in the grammar of ornaments.
At this point Giampa had never been exposed to some of the work of early printers in their use of ornaments. He had never heard of Bruce Rogers or the work of Frederic Warde.
On these pages you will see other examples of Giampa's more developed work. Unfortunately he lost most of his work in the tidal wave and is trying to put together enough for a small showing.
Under Giampa's direction the Lanston Type Library is offering many so-called dingbats and fleurons, or some would call them printers' ornaments in their digital font offerings.
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