TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 12:01:31 EST 2024

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Companion Old Style (+Italic)

A pair of typefaces made in 1927 by Frederic Goudy. D.J.R. Bruckner: The 1927 date is Goudy's. The type w as actually delivered in March 1928. It was drawn at the request of Henry B. Quinan, art director of The Woman's Home Companion magazine. Goudy thought it "one of the most unusual types I have ever made. It incorporates features which deliberately violate tradition as to stress of curve, but which are so handled that attention is not specifically drawn to the innovations introduced." Not many designers now would agree with his notion that it is reticent about its innovations, but it is truly strange.

Mac McGrew: Companion Old Style and Italic were designed by Frederic W. Goudy in 1927 as a private typeface for headings in Woman's Home Companion maga- zine. After Aries, cut only in one size, this was Goudy's first experience in cutting an extensive series of sizes, as well as roman and italic. As he says, he learned the business of typefounding while working on this face. And of the face itself, Goudy says, "I believe that Companion Old Style and its italics show greater consistent original features than any other typeface I have ever made." From types cast in his matrices, Monotype made electro matrices for the typesetters of the magazine. And when that plant was liquidated several years ago, the matrices were acquired by Lester Feller, a private typecaster in Illinois, and a few fonts were cast for other private printers. There are no italic figures, and no plain versions of v or w, which would be necessary for good appearance within words.

Digital revivals include Companion Old Style (2021, Steve Matteson).

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Frederic William Goudy ⦿