Victorian Menu

While trying to find out some Victorian typefaces, I came across this on the Typophile forums:

It demonstrates the use of a range of woodblock/Victorian-esque typefaces all working together on the menu card and identity for the restaurant. The display typefaces sit well in a contemporary environment while still shouting out to the viewer, lifting that section off of the menu. It contains many of the elements I have found to be part of the 'Victorian' look, decorative break lines, double-line boarder, the mentioned mix of sans-serif and serif typefaces and even the black and white 'pointing hand' at the bottom of the menu.

Victorian Adverts

Victorian Signage

Graphic Design History – The Victorian Age Lecture

While researching Victorian graphic design I found a lecture from Parkland College's Graphic Design program on Victorian Graphic Design. A summary of the key points of the lecture are:

• The Victorians loved complex, ornate objects (which can be seen in their architecture and fashion) and this style was applied to their advertising and typography.
• The Victorian look was influenced by nostalgia for old objects.
• Elements on a page were often framed by decorative boarders.
• Symmetry was also used heavily within Victorian layouts and designs.
• Illustrations were often used instead of photography.
• Faux cloth banners were commonly used to hold text.
• Victorian style tended to use the majority of the page which led to busy layouts/minimal white space.
• Typography often appeared on a curve or wave.
• The Victorian style also tended to romantacise situations to sell products.
• Decorative typefaces were often mixed with chunky serif fonts as well as sans-serif and condensed typefaces (most probably to squash more information into the crowded designs).

The lecture slideshow can be viewed in full here.

Victorian Graphic Design

I have been looking at Victorian graphic design as part of my H.G. Wells brief. While the brief asks for no 'Victoriana' designs, I have decided to look at the style to see if there are elements I can lift and use in my covers, to link back to the stories' heritage, while staying and feeling contemporary.

There is a post over at the Attitude Design Journal that catalogs some of the Victorian styles:

First thoughts seem to be common usage of heavy display/title fonts, mixing more than one typeface in a single design (that would anywhere else clash together, but in this style it seems to work) and use of decorative elements such as lines, thick-thin boarders, wavy lines, etc.