As much as I appreciate Gutenberg for revolutionizing the world of writing and printing, I have to go against what my fellow classmates are saying about the design of his Bible. I do understand that it was the 1400's and that Blackletter text was considered easily readable at the time. And I was even more aware of that when I read how Carvajal would be able to read this book without his glasses because of how neat the lettering was. However, I can’t look at a page for more than a few seconds before I feel dizzy trying to focus on just one line and I’m certain I would need glasses just to get through it.
As a designer, I do admire Gutenberg’s ability to justify his blocks of text so meticulously. After taking typography, I know this is no easy task. What I do not so much admire though, is his use of decorations around the blocks of text. I find them distracting and going against some of the first rules I learned as a designer: every picture, every illustration and every ounce of design needs to have a purpose. And that purpose needs to be clear. And to just flat out decorate your text is a big “no-no”. So when I find myself ignoring the text and looking at the cute little birdies on the page and then tempted to trace the vines and flowers with my pen, I hear those words in my head loud and clear and wonder what Gutenberg was thinking when he felt it necessary to add an entire stained glass window illustration to the whole left side of this page.
