TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Wed Nov 20 11:50:46 EST 2024

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ABOUT

Alfred John Fairbank

English calligrapher, b. 1895, Grimsby, d. 1982, Hove, Sussex. Student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, disciple (in his own words) of Edward Johnston. In 1921, he co-founded the Society of Scribes and Illuminators, and was honorary secretary from 1931 to 1933.

He wrote several books on handwriting, including A Handwriting Manual (1932), many times reissued, e.g., in 1954 by Faber and faber in London. In 1960, Alfred Fairbank and Berthold Wolpe co-authored Renaissance handwriting: An anthology of italic scripts (Cleveland: World Publishing Co). His last book was A Book of Scripts (1968, London: Pelican Books).

In 1932, Alfred Fairbank proposed Dryad Writing for schools. It is a connected regular and legible style of writing that was influenced by Francisco Lucas (16th century, Spain), and could be called chancery script. After the Second World War he founded the Society for Italic Handwriting.

His only typeface was the first italic for Monotype, Bembo. This was not the italic that was put out for general use, and was eventually released (in 1928) as Bembo Narrow Italic. It is sometimes referred to as Fairbank Italic. The Bembo family is of course due to Stanley Morison at Monotype, after models of Francesco Griffo and Giovanni Tagliente. It has digital reinterpretations such as Bamberg Special (Softmaker) and Bergamo (Softmaker).

It is possible that Fairbank MT (2003, Robin Nicholas) is named after him.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Alfred John Fairbank
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INTERNAL LINKS
School fonts ⦿ Type design in the United Kingdom ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Type designers ⦿ Chancery hand, cancellaresca ⦿ Penmanship ⦿ Bembo ⦿ Books on type design ⦿