The Script of Odysseus

Design strategies, temporal tactics in typography
and the palæographic narrative

The calligraphy above is a rendering of ODYSSEUS [ΔΟ-ΥΣ-ΕΥ-Σ] I crafted in the ancient Greek boustrophedon style [as the ox plows] starting right to left, then left to right, the back again. This was an early inspiration—ancient Greek literature and the markings that made it.

Vessel with double alphabet inscription, showing new letters ΥΧ[Φ]Ψ, and ΥΧΦΨΩ.

Image from National Archaeological Museum of Athens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I come from a scholarly background. When I was in high school, my particular focus was history—it was looking back in time—mostly in the research of the art and culture, their interplays, and languages like Latin and German—this was a foundation for me, looking at the links between history and making art. Classical drawing techniques, printmaking and silkscreening, old-school sign painting with brushes and showcard gouache script work, as well as time, in-shop, with master craftsman Harold Balazs—an artist maker with an exceptionally broad œuvre—porcelain enamel, bronze casting, concrete and aluminum sculpture, installed wall-work carved masonry and watercolor painting. I learned a lot from him—much of the craft I hold in my seeing hands and feeling mind, to this day.

When I first met my primary mentor, and early inspirator, Lloyd Reynolds, a professor from Reed College—he offered a weekend workshop, demonstrations, hands-on practice sessions, and discussion around the crisply-crafted calligraphy of the Italian Renaissance, the cursive hands of the chanceries—and, in their precise rhythms, Papal edicts and proclamations.

I’ve been teaching it since 1977,
[I still work with my exemplar from that date, below:]

my modeling—
with some homage—to the legacy of Reynolds, but still with some of my own interpretations.

Studying Christopher Nolan’s new interpretation, The Odyssey—and
his commentary on his portrayal—brought me back to explorations in Ancient Greek scripts.

For years, in our GIRVIN calligraphy classes, a tool to support our teams in exploring the thinking principles of design in lettering philosophy, an underlining GIRVIN’s brand work.
And, in addition to the calligraphy of the Italian Renaissance—particularly in the styles of Giovanni Tagliente and Ludovico Arrighi, both with lively rhythm and crisp angularity, disciplined flourishes and embellishments—I start the class series going back, as Nolan did in his narrative developments to the 8th BCE in a particular style, called Stoicheidon.

Detail of the Sacred law concerning temple-worship on the Acropolis

Image from Epigraphical Museum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

This letterform approach, originally deployed mostly in stone, was a disciplined lettering grid, στοιχηδόν, meaning, literally “in a row.”
It’s a fine study form for lettering enthusiasts, lean, open, simple and elegant.
GIRVIN designers in class, exploring Stoicheidon. And my transcription in Greek,

My design of the Nordstrom logo came from this æsthetic ethos.

The core construct for the work is: quest for insights,
find inspiration in
the reach-back in time,
study ancient narratives, teachings and art.

And so shall the mind sense,
the intuition frames, the hand sees and the eyes listen.

Respect
Your
Elders

From whence you came.

Tim | GIRVIN @ West Queen Elementary
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Girvin | Osean | Tim.Girvin | Wanderer

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