Poetic type

- A friend a while back loaned me a picture book…titled, Everybody Needs A Rock.…And it tells the story of how everybody needs a rock.…Everybody needs a rock.…I'm sorry for kids who don't have a rock for a friend.…And it gives ten rules for finding a perfect one.…Like most picture books it's mostly pictures.…And in this case the pictures are mostly white.…It was first published in 1974.…It's still in print and still popular.…

So it is 1970's style and set in phototype…which is how type was set before the computer came along.…The text face is Janson which is a classic…old style serif that dates back centuries.…It's a sweet story.…It has me looking for a rock…but what caught my eye not that this is anything…new but on this day it stood out…is how the type is presented.…In super short lines broken like poetry…although it's essentially prose.…

And I'm like why is it done this way?…Why does some lines have four or five words…and others only two or even just one?…Well it becomes evident when you read it.…Even if you're a fast reader you can tell that…