Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Dancers Are More Intelligent

By Hedrick Lepsch


Webster describes calligraphy as an "artistic, stylized, or elegant handwriting or lettering" and "the art of producing such writing." Many today consider handwritten calligraphy an art form and some dedicate their entire lives to mastering calligraphic technique by hand.

Calligraphy has been used in various forms for thousands of years and there are four primary forms of this style of writing, all of which are distinct and unique. The four forms are Western, Eastern Asian, South Asian, and Islamic Calligraphy. This article will focus briefly on the origins and evolution of Western Calligraphy.

Darwin hated and flunked school even Leonardo Di Vinci didn't love school. They did love learning and they focused on the areas that they enjoyed. For Darwin he went out into the fields and went hunting, all the while just studying the animals. Di Vinci started drawing and learning out in nature as well. He was able to do so many things with it as well. Both of these people have been labeled geniuses.

Increasing the number of paths to any given piece of information increases your ability to access that information from any point instead of having to arrive at it through a single pathway each time. The aging process causes these synapses and pathways can deteriorate and fade, leaving us struggling to remember simple things like names or dates. The more unique pathways we can create, the stronger our minds will stay.

Through the middle ages, illuminated texts were produced by the thousands. Scribes from various geographies favored different font types and would use and develop unique script for their texts, pushing the evolution of calligraphy through to our modern era.

This is a principle that some of the greatest learners have been able to do. If you go about your studies with this mindset then you will be able to better internalize what you take in. This is important because you are immediately applying what you learn even though you aren't usually applying it directly. Your mind will automatically develop connections and will go through the lesson again in your own way as you start to teach. This is why it is important to apply this principal in your studies.

The advent of the printing press and movable type in the 15th century did not eliminate the art of calligraphy, though it did significantly slow the production of illuminated and hand written texts. The end of the 19th century would leave two young men, Edward Johnston and Rudolf Koch, thoroughly enamored of the study of calligraphy.

Johnston is considered, with Koch, to be the father of modern calligraphy. Both men published a variety of books on the topic and each developed calligraphic typefaces that are still in standard use today. In fact, the Johnston typeface was the foundation of the font in the signage of the London Underground and continues to live on since it was re-designed in 1988 and developed into the New Johnston typeface.

Make it yours

While choreographed dancing provides an excellent form of exercise, it requires that you follow the same neural pathways over and over to reach the information you need to move. Social dancing whether Ballroom, Swing, or Latin, requires that the individual examine a myriad of external triggers including music, spacial awareness, and non-verbal communication from their dance partner and then process and respond to that information. All of this is happening in a fraction of a second and is repeated over and over during the course of a standard three or four minute song.

For those in the graphic arts world, calligraphy lives on and has evolved with this digital medium. Software programs have been developed that enable designers to work with and design their own calligraphic fonts. Graphic artists will then utilize these fonts to accompany marketing campaigns, wedding announcements, logos, and many other documents and images.

A graphic arts degree is a great start to your career but you need to have the knowledge that comes with it and not just the paperwork.




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