Monday 31 January 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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