Doyald Young has exposed the rare and alluring marks from his unwavering hand. In his latest book, Dangerous Curves: Mastering Logotype Design, the legendary typeface designer shows us the clean lines and smooth curves in many of his logotypes, corporate alphabets and typefaces. Such control of the pencil encourages appreciation for the art of the letterform. "So much of the act of drawing is based on our perception," Young says. "We are accustomed to look at an object as a whole, at a visual center, which prevents us from perceiving its outline or its exact volume." A record of his search for the whole object is elegantly portrayed in the book, with all curves shown, vulnerable and seductive.


What interested you in drawing at first?

My Mother could draw and first taught me, at age 6.


And what did you draw at age 6?

Mother copied a pen & ink drawing of a "Gibson Girl," a head only with a bizarre hairdo: her hair twisted into two horns so to speak, both upright and pointing outward. Titled "High wide and handsome," which I tried to duplicate in pencil.

The memory is vivid.


Do you consider yourself more of an artist or engineer?

An unusual question. The word engineer baffles me. Kelly Johnson's Blackbird is a phenomenal piece of engineering, it is also a beautiful shape filled with graceful curves, as are many of Kelly's designs; look at the Lockheed Constellation. A writer may be called an artist, so can a painter, sculptor, and then there's the ambiguous word "designer."

Florists now call themselves designers, so do sound engineers, decorators abhor the word decorator, and now use "designer."

I draw letters with a pencil, sometimes ink, I design them, i.e. I endeavor to impart my esthetic to their shapes, to hopefully create a unique image, that unavoidably references thousands of drawings that have preceded mine - it's all been done before. I'm wary of the word creativity.


What rules do you follow? What rules do you break?

Tried and true rules, the avant garde and experimental rarely find a niche in the marketplace. I'm basically MOR (middle of the road). As for breaking the rules, I was taught never to letter space lowercase letters, much less the italic lowercase.

Why, I've seen numerous examples of letter spaced "scripts" the styles that are traditionally connected.

Marian Bantjes, a great hero of mine breaks the rules constantly and I applaud her for her bravery. I call her "intrepid." A genius too, an artist of the first water. I leave breaking the rules to young turks.


How do you find clients?

I'm delighted to say (truthfully), that they find me.


You mentioned in your book to "stay eager." What makes you eager?

No, Susan Sontag said,"Stay Eager."
To be Vital, adventuresome, curious. Above all curious.
Success is impossible without a major helping of curiosity. Stay curious.

I'll quote Jan van Krimpen, another hero, who said "I don't want to draw a beautiful letter, instead, I eagerly want to draw a good letter."

Dangerous Curves: Mastering Logotype Design can be found at Hennessey + Ingalls or online at doyaldyoung.com.