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ABOUT

James Clough

James Clough (b. 1947, London) studied typographic design at the London College of Printing. In 1971 he moved to Milan to work as a designer, typographer and calligrapher. Since 1990, he has been teaching the theory and history of typography and visual communication at various institutions including the Milan Polytechnic University (since 2002) and the ISIA of Urbino. He lectures on many aspects of calligraphy, type design and the history of typography in Italy, Britain and Switzerland. Recent essays of his research for English and Italian publications include a study of the various editions of the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (first printed by Aldus Manutius in 1499), types used by the earliest printers in Milan and Venice, the 20th century revivals of Bodoni's types and a study of historical and contemporary script types. In 2005 he curated the Mondovì Museum of Printing. He is on the scientific board of Bibliologia, and wrote the introduction to volume 2 in 2007.

James Clough co-founded the ACI (Associazione Calligrafica Italiana). He is a member of the Nebiolo History Project, and has been CAST's editor and adviser since its inception in 2013.

In 2015, James Clough and Chiara Scattolin coauthored Alphabets of Wood: Luigi Melchiori & the history of Italian wood type (Tipoteca Italiana, Cornuda, Italy). David Wolske writes: Alphabets of Wood is the most recent and arguably the most beautiful addition to the new wave of wood type scholarship. It is also important because it is the first publication to seriously examine the historical and cultural significance of Italian wood type manufacturers. In the first part of the book, James Clough calligrapher, writer provides a broad historical overview of wood block printing, from fourteenth- and fifteenth-century hand carved imagery and text through the nineteenth-century American origins of moveable wooden type. In Chapter 6 Clough introduces us to Luigi Melchiori, a skilled designer and manufacturer of wood type, active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Veneto Region of Italy. Through beautifully paced layouts, sumptuous photography, and a richly textured typographic palette, Melchiori's life, work, and legacy are situated in the context of other Italian wood type manufacturers. In the second part of Alphabets of Wood, Chiara Scattolin digs deep into the archive of wood type fonts, specimen books, tools, and documents held by Tipoteca Italiana. Detailed testimonies from peers help to humanize "the Bodoni of wood type," making it easy for contemporary typographers, graphic designers, letterpress printers, and artists to recognize themselves in the pride and craftsmanship Melchiori brought to his work. Every chapter of the book is illustrated with stunningly handsome antique wood type specimens. Two eight-page letterpress inserts on a toothy, soft-white paper stock provide an arrestingly modern counterpoint. The Stamperia of Tipoteca Italiana printed all sixteen frame-worthy pages using original wood type from Tipoteca's Wood Type Archive. Typographically the book echoes the best of Italian design, finding a harmonious balance between industrial sharpness and sensuous fluidity.

He also wrote Signs of Italy (2015, Lazy Dog Press).

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INTERNAL LINKS
Type design in Italy ⦿ Type personalities ⦿ Type design in the United Kingdom ⦿ Modern style [Bodoni, Didot, Walbaum, Thorowgood, Computer Modern, etc.] ⦿ Caslon ⦿ Wood Type ⦿ Books on type design ⦿