TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Tue Apr 30 19:23:22 EDT 2024

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Robert Foster

Designer, sculptor and type designer, b. 1895. His type designs include:

• Foster Abstract (1931). Mac McGrew writes: Foster Abstract is a very heavy, serifless type of futuristic design, in which parts of some letters are suggested rather than actually presented. It was designed by Robert Foster in 1931, and matrices were cut by Frederic W. Goudy for private casting. Some letters are much like Sans Serif Extrabold. Compare Pericles. Foster Abstract was revived in 2006 by John Bomparte as Abstrak BF.
• Pericles (1934, ATF), a Greek simulation or stone cut style typeface. Mac McGrew writes about Pericles: Pericles is a distinctive font of sans-serif capitals designed in 1934 for ATF by Robert Foster, based on hand-lettering he had been doing for several years for magazine and advertising headlines. It is much more informal than other sans serifs of the time, such as Futura or Bernhard Gothic, with more of an inscriptional feeling. Some characters are derived from classical Greek forms. A 72-point size is said to have been cut but never issued. For an extension and digitization of Pericles, see Pericles Pro (2005, Ascender, Steve Matteson), a 433-glyph OpenType font. Pericles was reworked by Jim Rimmer as RTF Cadmus. P22 writes about this version: Rimmer's re-working of a design done by Robert Foster, a hand lettering artist. Foster's type, named Pericles, is a style that he used for a time in lettering magazines and advertising headings. The design is based closely on early inscriptional Greek, but is less formal than the sans types of Foster's time. Cadmus keeps the proportions of Pericles but is overall less quirky than the Foster design. A further extension (including Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew) was done by Canada Type as Cadmus Pro (2016).

EXTERNAL LINKS
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INTERNAL LINKS
Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Greek simulation fonts ⦿ Stone age fonts ⦿ Frederic William Goudy ⦿ Lapidary typefaces ⦿