Looking at the typography of an image-based publication: Puerto Rico Ilustrado

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1915, No. 274

from Puerto Rico Ilustrado, 1915, No. 278

Before Sports Illustrated, Life and the image-based version of National Geographic (can you believe it began as a text-based academic publication?), Puerto Rico had it’s very own image-based weekly: Puerto Rico Ilustrado.

It was published from March 6th 1910 through December 27th 1952, a length of time during which it amassed a collection of 2227 issues. Content wise, the pages primarily chronicled life in the island, while it also included writings and images on international events of the time.¹ On average, these were about 16 pages, with about 6 of them dedicated to advertisements (which are fabulous in their own right). It was printed on a kind of dull paper, originally in black and white, but slowly 2 color printing makes its way into the covers. In the later years, covers are then produced in full color (which in many ways diminished the visual impact of earlier compositions)

During the last few weeks I have been scanning directly from about 15 years worth of issues, and the more I look at it the more I marvel at the typography contained in the mastheads of the issues, particularly their visual exploration which shows a struggle between looking man-made and machine-made, with an observed preference on the former.

My study on this publication is only beginning, but I have scanned a series of typographic treatments from a few years’ worth of the publication to begin a process of sharing them.
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