Designing with Runes
Kick it up a notch! Write using ancient Futhark runes.
Start at the beginning.
Find a text you can enjoy writing forever. Use it as a hub for your explorations into all kinds of variety. You’ll get to know the potential of a single stroke to change everything, and you’ll still be able to return to your home base.
Facing a blank sheet, hunting for a good text, a flood of words runs through the mind. I love reading the French language for its fluent sound, and this excerpt from Irish post-modern author Samuel Beckett’s 1953 novel L’Innommable captured the essence of the writing experience for me. I’ve used it many times. Beckett wrote both in English and French and was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in literature.
Les mots sont partout, dans moi, hors moi.
Je suis en mots, je suis fait de mots.
Je suis tous cette poussière de verbe,
sans fond où se poser,
sans ciel où se dissiper.Samuel Beckett - The Unnamable
Our “tower of Babel” presents many tongues for our use, and over the last several years I’ve been teaching a course in how to use Norse runes in calligraphy design. Since runes are phonetic, they can be used in any language that you know. It’s simple to learn their sounds, and their shapes are easy to replicate. When writing with a different script or alphabet there is a beneficial disconnect that frees us from the “autopilot” of daily writing. When autopilot ceases, creative lettering begins.
Testing whether runes would work with this quote, I decided to write it out leaving some interlinear space. I alternated rows of Elder Futhark in black with rows of cursive script in burgundy red. For clarity and emphasis, I included a third text block in a modified bookhand, a counterpoint to the panel of interwoven text. I added blue Stabilo CarbOthello accents to suggest the airy dust of words. Three design elements plus a signature icon. You always have to determine whether your point was made, that the content of the image represents your understanding of the original meaning.
In my upcoming class, the techniques I used in this Beckett piece will be covered so you can develop your own way of writing with runes; use them to create a subtle grid; or as an element in a complex design. Use simple rune structures to explore new tools and media. If you can draw a stick figure, you can write with runes. Nothing fancy is required (or this would not be an ancient alphabet). It is a fresh way to explore new ideas in composition, design, texture, and color.
Beginning exercises are straightforward, showing the hows and whys of writing using rune forms. Here’s one example:
Further exercises promote confident developments with a runic flair.
Thank you all for reading and enjoying my posts, and Happy New Year to you all!
Winter courses at Stanford Continuing Studies: registration now open for Art 53 - Calligraphy Design and Norse Runes, beginning on January 29, 2025. As you can see by the above image, the exercises are multi-layered, painterly, gestural, literate, and expressive! More info is on my website. I hope you will join in! Chase down those stray neurons! Come out and play!
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