read what they want to no matter how big or small the type. And while I
don’t believe in obscuring a message, through scale changes, one can
nevertheless have a little fun with it.” Doyle took a lot of heat for his
Lilliputian preferences, but never repudiated himself. ForSPY’s first
anniversary party Doyle even designed an invitation with the necessary
information set in two-point Granjon italic in the form of an exclamation
point—he included a magnifying glass. “I wouldn’t have done that with a
lot of copy,” he admitted, “But some things just call out for it.”
A few years after it premiered, the SPYstyle was mimicked by
other magazines, usually in instances where the subjects didn’t merit it.
Doyle reacted by turning down the volume. Doyle’s typography is not really
about misbehaving. As he has pointed out, the inspiration for the original
SPYwas not the urban environment or deconstructionist architecture, but a
1540 polyglot Bible where each language is set in a different typeface.
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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