One of the many wonderful things about the treatises we publish is that when we show them to the general public, they can see how beautiful the artwork is. It blows them away. Part of what we are trying to do here is preserve and distribute great works of art.
I came up with the concept for this logo many years ago, but it is well known that I can’t draw for toffee. So the first version of our logo that the world saw was this:
Rob Simpson, a graphic designer based in Ipswich, took my crappy sketch and produced a top-quality line art version of it, exactly as we asked him to. (See here for my views on hiring freelancers.)
Then a mutual friend on Facebook put Nora Kirkeby in touch with me, as she was working on a translation of Fabris using my photos of my copy of Fabris’ Scienza d’Arme (which we will produce a facsimile of, just as soon as I can find a place to do it at the correct size). I saw on her Facebook wall that she was producing some amazing art in the style of medieval manuscripts, so I asked her to produce a version of the Spada logo. And this is what she did:
It’s quite different to what I expected: the colours. The white gold leaf (yes, real white gold leaf, just like the swords in the Morgan and Getty mss, only better as it won’t tarnish like they did). The wings canted over at an angle. The goddamn TEETH! It is so much better than what I would have got if I’d given her an exact brief.
And it is so exactly right for this venture. It’s hand made by an artist, following the forms of long ago, using traditional techniques. Perfect.
