A Pitman Shorthand writing example, 1859.

A few months ago I attended a talk with Douglas Coupland and John Walters, editor of Eye Magazine, in which they discussed text as an art object. During the Q&A portion of the evening, an audience member who worked as a writer and graphic designer explained that he had returned to nib and ink for recent work, and asked whether Coupland had opinions on the dwindling use of handwriting. In response (and as usual), Coupland provided an answer to a totally unrelated but equally interesting question that no-one had actually posed.

Personally, days may pass where I don’t put pen to paper, but I enjoy the process of writing immensely - however trivial the purpose. This example of Pitman shorthand is so striking that it has inspired me to put more effort into the physical aspect of the writing process.

Each mysterious glyph in the photograph above is an illustration in its own right, and they are all the more powerful for the understanding that each one is an exercise in literal brevity; condensed and encoded for expediency.

Perhaps I’ll start with trying to make my scribblings legible and go from there.

via amassblog and via claytoncubitt