Dingbats

Dingbats are shirt sleeve relatives to printers ornaments, type ornaments, decorative rules, printers flowers and fleurons. The word dingbat is said to have been coined in 1904 according to the editors at Visual Editions, and just like their counterparts, they are used for spacers in typesetting. They were originally adapted as ornamentation to enliven the layouts and to break up large blocks of text so it might appear less solid. Actual dingbat designs can vary tremendously but they are usually decorative in nature, unlike ornaments which can be pictorial as well. Lucy Brown Studios has made their own interpretation of dingbats in this sweet little film.

Dingbat from Lucy Brown Studio on Vimeo.