TYPE DESIGN INFORMATION PAGE last updated on Thu Nov 28 18:35:16 EST 2024
FONT RECOGNITION VIA FONT MOOSE |
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Photo and film type era | ||
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American creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Aase (1977, art deco), Round Black (1977), DoublePipe (1975), and Corvina Black (1973). Aase exists in digital form at Image Club Graphics (1992). Corvina Black was revived and modified by Patrick Griffin in 2005 as Gaslon (Canada Type). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the rounded sans typeface Arpad (1971). Arpad was modernized and extended by Jonathan Hill in 2010 as Brion. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Aaron Burns, designer/typographer, was President of Lubalin, Burns & Co., Inc., New York City. In 1970, Aaron Burns, Herb Lubalin and Edward Rondthaler (from Photo-Lettering Inc.) founded the International Typeface Corporation (ITC), and Aaron Burns became its President. In 1959 he founded the International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA), and was a founding member of the International Center for the Communication Arts and Sciences (ICCAS). He is the author of "Typography," published in 1961 by Reinhold Publishers, Inc. From 1955 to 1960 he taught Advanced and Experimental Typographic Design at Pratt Institute, New York. He set up a type division at Rapid Typographers. There he helped promote the Typositor, or Photo Typositor (invented in Miami by Murray Friedel in 1959), which improved over the first photo type machine, the Rutherford. Rapid Typographers organized the Visual Graphics Corporation (or VGC) to make the best use of this new technology. Peter Bain writes: The owners of Rapid Typographers were impressed enough by Friedels invention to organize the new Visual Graphics Corporation. Initially the endeavor split its headquarters between the existing typographers address in midtown Manhattan and sunny South Florida. The Photo Typositor allowed an operator to see composition letter-by-letter as it was exposed, unlike the Rutherford. It also offered many of Photo-Letterings capabilities at a reduced price. The Typositor, as it became known, ingeniously used the same 2-inch film font format as the Filmotype. It speeded fashionably tight letter and word spacing, achievable in metal only with a razor blade after proofing, and had none of the size limitations of foundry type. VGC and its backers proceeded to convert metal typefaces to film, and pursued licensing with typefounders. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
ABC Types (was: Absolutetype)
| ABC Types is Tony Mayers' foundry. Identifont link. Tony produced film titles in London's West End. He learned the craft of phototypesetting. In 1979, he moved to Manchester, where he founded The Quick Brown Fox Company. He created Concept Crisis (grunge face), Concept Sans, De-Generation, Generation Gothic, Generation Graffiti, Generation Headline, Generation Lost, Generation Open, Generation Pixel, Generation Uncial, Monolith Roman (2004), Monolith Sans, Poster Gothic, Ranger, Society, and Text Gothic. Before ABC Types, he ran Absolutetype, where he sold the typefaces mentioned above. The typefaces are now digitally available from Cedars, PA-based International Type Founders (ITF), which was created by Steve Jackaman. The latest address for ABC Types was in Cedars, PA. It is identical to that of ITF. Tony Mayers has died. Ascender also sells its collection. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Dutch type designer from the phototype era. His paperclip typeface from 1974 inspired Afrojet to create the FontStruction Paperclip (2010), and Wilson Thomas followed that up with Werner Paperclip (2010). In 1972, he published the inline art deco typeface Dubbeldik at Mecanorma as a transfer sheet typeface. Dubbeldik was digitally revived in 2020 by Claudio Rocha (Now Type) as Werner. See also Dubbeldik (Mecanorma). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Famous type designer born in 1928 in Unterseen, Switzerland, who died in September 2015. He closely cooperated with Linotype-Hell AG, after having been artistic director at Deberny-Peignot in Paris since 1952. He established his own studio in 1962 with André Gürtler and Bruno Pfaftli. Art director for Editions Hermann, Paris 1957 to 1967. Frutiger lived near Bern, Switzerland, and was very interested in woodcuts. In 2009, Heidrun Osterer and Philipp Stamm coedited Adrian Frutiger Typefaces The Complete Works (Birkhäuser Verlag), a 460-page opus based on conversations with Frutiger himself and on extensive research in France, England, Germany, and Switzerland. Quote: Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay. He designed over 100 fonts. Here is a partial list:
Frutiger's books include Type Sign Symbol and Signs and Symbols. Their Design and Meaning (1989, with Andrew Bluhm, published by Studio Editions, London; Amazon link). Linotype link. FontShop link. Adrian Frutiger, sa carrière française (2008) is Adèle Houssin's graduation thesis at Estienne. Klingspor link. Wikipedia link. View Adrian Frutiger's typefaces. View some digital versions of Avenir. Vimeo movie on Frutiger by Christine Kopp and Christoph Frutiger entitled "Der Mann von Schwarz und weiss: Adrian Frutiger". More Vimeo movies. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Affolter und Gschwind AG
| Werner Affolter ran a phototype and printing company in Basel, Switzerland, called Affolter und Gschwind AG, Fotosatz&Reprotechnik. In 1981, Affolter published an extensive catalog entitled Letterama that showed over one thousand alphabets. Few of those were original, so I suspect he acted as a vendor of sorts, but at least a couple seemed original, or were claimed to be original or exclusive: Guigoz, Moby Dick. Moby Dick was revived in 2014 by Nick Curtis as Call Me Ishmael NF. Some examples of the types shown, in alphabetical order: Antique Wood MP363 (art nouveau), Antique Wood MP 364 (oriental simulation face) [the Antique Wood series is quite extensive, and is just numbered], B+T Classic (roman), Bernhard Fett, Beton Fine Line (typewriter), Burko (avant garde family), fonts starting with G, Gaston Fett (a squarish gothic typeface also called Gipsy), Gaston Halbfett (also called Grassy), Gemini Computer, Germanic Sans (more avant garde and Lubalin-style glyphs), Hollandse Mediaeval, Hollywood (a 3d decorative family), typefaces starting with K, Lineamarca (slabby), Linear (avant garde, geometric monoline), Melen (experimental, geometric), Meola Bookman swash (decorative), Metro (art nouveau, after the Metroploitaine font), Moraine (squarish), the Old Foundry sub-collection [another mysterious numbered collection; examples include some uncials, and some more art nouveau typefaces, some Victorian ornamental typefaces (F260 through F262), more art nouveau (MP418 through MP420) and blackletter typefaces (MP421)], Pierrot (psychedelic, groovy), Phydian (one of many Western style ornamental typefaces), Ronda, Roulette, Roulette Schattiert (=Rajah) (more Western fare), Ruby (shaded caps), Runic Small (condensed), Rustic (wood log look), typefaces starting with S, Spengler Gothik, St. Clair (ornamental), Zither (calligraphic script). [Google] [More] ⦿ |
An outlined airplane lettering typeface made by Face Photosetting in the phototype era. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
AJPT
| Pottstown (Philadelphia)-based designer and PostScript font hacker who ran Prescott Design and now Alan Jay Prescott Typography, but was also involved in other ventures such as the Black Walnut Winery. Originally from Greenfield, MA, he graduated from Saddleback College, and worked for some time as a typesetter in New York. He advertizes himself as a leader in PostScript Open Type Font development specializing in the revival of print-only letterforms into digital typographic materials. He operates as APT and more recently as AJPT. In 2019, he announced that he would stop making typefaces altogether. His work can be partitioned into time periods. For this reason, Prescott's oeuvre is split over several pages:
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Designer of Aki Lines (1970, ITC), a delicate multiline Latin display face. It was used for Microsoft's logo in 1975. Digital versions include Linea and Akka. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Canadian type designer from Toronto 1922-1978, active in the phototype era between 1950 and 1985, who made these typefaces:
The Baskerville Canada word mark in Canada's logo was lettered by Al Eliott. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Karolys (Roman, Italique). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Alan Jay Prescott
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Designer of the handcrafted typeface Shamrock in 1978 at Letraset, available from Linotype. It was revived by SoftMaker in 2016 as Somerset Pro. Linotype link. Klingspor link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Albert Boton
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Albert Hollenstein
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Type designer for PhotoLettering Inc in the photo type era. His type designs include Akimbo 2, Akimbo 3, Brush Bold, Brush Animated Condensed, Brush Expanded 7, Brush Upright 9, Brush Upright Condensed 8, Brush Upright X Condensed 8, Brush Upright X Condensed 10, Caslon Schoolbook, Caslon Schoolbook 7, Caslon Schoolbook Italic 4, Cartoon Medium, Classic Script, Flamingo 2, Flamingo 5, Flight, Frolic Bodoni, Frolic Medium, Knockout, Marionette, Nolan Roman, Rodeo, Rodeo Script, Rumba 7. Vagabond Condensed. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Italian designer, 1920-1995, who designed most of his typefaces at Nebiolo in Turin. Until 1975, he made about 30 families at Nebiolo, and after 1975, he produced about 70 further families of fonts. With weights included, he created about 300 fonts. Biography by Sergio Polano. He was very influential, and wrote two important books, Alfa Beta: Lo Studio e il Disegno del Carattere, a study on font design and history (1964), and Il Segno Alfabetico (1971). Essay by Sergio Polano on Novarese. The list of fonts done at Nebiolo:
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Born in 1917 in Brooklyn, NY, Steinweiss became famous for his music album covers and the lettering used on them. Designer in 1939 of the curly hand-printed Steinweiss Scrawl, which was purchased by Photolettering Inc in the 1950s. It was revived in 1993 by Christian Schwartz as Hairspray (in Blonde, Redhead and brunette weights). Nick Curtis's 2005 font, Whirled Peas NF, revives Whitestone Crawl by Steinweiss. Michael Doret, with the help of Patrick Griffin, made a 2200-glyph curly script typeface called Steinweiss Script (2010), which captures a lot of the spirit of Steinweiss's album covers. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
A Victorian typeface from before 1964. Bauer (Stuttgart) and Berthod (Berlin) show an outline version of this typeface in their catalogs called Alexandra. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer in Freiburg (b. Waldkirch, 1906; d. Freiburg, 1969) who was a pupil of Rudolf Koch, and studied at the Badischen Landeskunstschule in Karlsruhe. He designed books for Verlag Herder from 1935 onwards. His typefaces include the fat face Domino (Ludwig&Mayer, 1954). A digital revival was created by Nick Curtis in 2007, called Idle Fancy NF. His typefaces Adamas and Adamas Unziale (1963, for Herder Verlag) were made into a phototype by Monotype. Sample of blackletter calligraphy. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Times Square. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Algol Revived
| AlgolRevived is a free revival in 2017 by Michael Sharpe of the (photo)font Algol by Adrian Frutiger whose sole use was for printing ALGOL code in a manual: It is not meant to be a general purpose text font---the spacing is not optimized for that, being designed instead for printing computer code, where each letter should be distinct and text ligatures are banished. It seems to work well with the listings package, designed for exactly that purpose. Unusually for such a font, it is not monospaced, though perhaps this is no longer the issue it was in the days of FORTRAN. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Alice Savoie
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Alice Savoie, Frenchtype
| Alice Savoie is an independent typeface designer and researcher, b. 1984, based in Lyon. She studied graphic design and typography in Paris at Ecole Duperré and Ecole Estienne, and in 2006 graduated from the MA in typeface design from the University of Reading (UK). In 2014 she was awarded a PhD from the University of Reading for the research she carried out in collaboration with the Musée de l'imprimerie in Lyon (France). Her research focuses on the design of typeface in France, the UK and the USA in the postwar period, and for phototypesetting technologies in particular: International cross-currents in typeface design: France, Britain, and the US in the phototypesetting era, 1949-1975. She collaborates with international type foundries such as Monotype, Process Type Foundry, and Tiro Typeworks, and specializes in the design and development of typefaces for editorial and identity purposes. She also designs multi-script type families, including Latin, Greek, Cyrillic and Hebrew. She intends to sell her typefaces via 205 Corp. Between 2008 and 2010 Alice joined Monotype as an in-house type designer, working mainly on custom type designs for international clients (The Times, Turner Broadcasting, Ogilvy, etc.). She has also contributed to the design of new typefaces for the Monotype library, such as the Ysobel type family (in collaboration with Robin Nicholas), and Rotis II Sans. Her type family Capucine is distributed by Process Type Foundry. In 2012 she collaborated with John Hudson/Tiro Typeworks over the development of the Brill typeface family for the Dutch publisher Brill. Since September 2013 she teaches typeface design at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographique in Nancy, and at ESAD Amiens (France). Her type foundry is called French Type. She holds an MA and a PhD from the University of Reading (UK). She collaborates with design studios and type foundries on the design of multi-script typeface families. In 2018 she released the typeface family Faune, commissioned by the Centre national des arts plastiques (CNAP) in partnership with the Groupe Imprimerie Nationale. Alice teaches and supervises research projects at ANRT Nancy and ENSBA Lyon (FR). She is the principal Post-doctoral Researcher on the Leverhulme-funded project Women in Type under the supervision of Fiona Ross at the University of Reading. Her typefaces:
Typecache link. Klingspor link. At ATypI 2014 in Barcelona she spoke about phototypesetting. Speaker at ATypI 2016 in Warsaw on Typefaces for telephone directories, a talk in which she and Dorine Sauzet describe Ladislas Mandel's oeuvre. Speaker at ATypI 2018 in Antwerp. Behance link. Estienne link. Reading link. Another link for the University of Reading. Fontsquirel link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Alphabet Innovations International -- TypeSpectra (Was: MM2000)
| Born in Dallas in 1923, and retired in Florida, Phil Martin had an exciting life, which started as a bombardier in WWII, and went on as a piano bar singer, publisher, cartoonist, comedian and typographer. He died in October 2005. Phil established Alphabet Innovations International in 1969 and TypeSpectra in 1974, and designed most of his 400 typefaces (read: film fonts for use in the VGC Photo Typositor) there: Agenda (1976), Americana (1972), Arthur (1970, by Roc Mitchell), Aurora Snug (1969), Avalon (1972), Baskerville (1969), Beacon (1987), Bluejack (1974), Borealis (1970, by Roc Mitchell), Britannic (1973), Bulletin (1971), Celebration (1969, by Roc Mitchell), Century S (1975), Cheltenham (1971), Clearface (1973), Cloister (1975), Corporate (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Corporate Image (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Courier B EF (2004, originally done at Scangraphic), Didoni (1969, a knock-off of Pistilli Roman with swashes added), Dimensia and Dimensia Light (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Dominance (1971), Egyptian (1970), Eightball (1971, some report this incorrectly as a VGC face, which has a different typeface also called Eightball: it was digitized by FontBank as Egbert. Alphabet Innovations' Eightball had other versions called Cueball and Highball, and all three were designed by George Thomas who licensed them to AI), Fat Chance (Rolling Stone) (1971), Fotura Biform (1969), Franklin (1981), Garamond (1975), Globe (1975), Goudy (1969), Harem (1969, aka Margit; digitized and revived in 2006 by Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari as Johnny), Helserif (1976---I thought this was created by Ed Kelton; anyway, this typeface is just Helvetica with slabs), Helvetica (1969), Introspect (1971, revived in 2012 by SoftMaker as Looking Glass, and by Castcraft as OPTI Looking Glass), Jolly Roger (1970, digitized in 2003 by Steve Jackaman at Red Rooster; Martin says that Jolly Roger and Introspect are his two most original designs), Journal (1987), Kabell (1971), Kabello (1970), King Arthur [+Light, Outline] with Guinevere Alternates (1971, by Roc Mitchell), Legothic (1973), Martinique (1970), Mountie (1970), News (1975), Palateno (1969), Pandora (1969), Pazazzma (1980), Perpetua (1969), Plantin (1973), Polonaise (1977; digital version by Claude Pelletier in 2010, called Chopin Script), Primus Malleable (1972), Quaff (1977), Quixotic (1970), Report (1971), Romana (1972), Scenario (1974), Sledge Hammer (1971), Son of Windsor (1970), Stanza (1971, by Roc Mitchell; this angular typeface was later published by URW), Stark (1970), Supercooper (1970), Swath (1979), Threadgil (1972), Thrust (1971), Timbre (1970), Times (1970), Times Text (1973), Trump (1973), Tuck Roman (1981), Viant (1977), Vixen (1970), Weiss (1973), Wordsworth (1973). In 1974, he set up TypeSpectra, and created these type families: Adroit (1981), Albert (1974), Analog (1976), Bagatelle (1979), Cartel (1975), Caslon (1979), Criterion (1982), DeVille (1974), Embargo (1975), Heldustry (1978, designed for the video news at the fledgling ABC-Westinghouse 24-hour cable news network in 1978; incorrectly attributed by many to Martin's ex-employee Ed Kelton: download here), Innsbruck (1975: revived in 2018 by Olexa Volochay as Tyrol), Limelight (1977), Oliver (1981), Opulent [Light and Bold] (1975, by George Brian, an amployee at Alphabet Innovations), Quint (1984), Sequel (1979), Spectral (1974), Welby (1982). His fonts can be bought at MyFonts.com and at Precisiontype. He warns visitors not to mess with his intellectual property rights, but I wonder how he can have escaped the ire of Linotype by using the name Helvetica. In any case, the fonts were originally made for use on photo display devices and phototypesetters. Some are now available in digital format. Near the end of his life, Phil's web presence was called MM2000 (dead link). Check his comments on his own typefaces. URW sells these typefaces: URW Adroit, URW Agenda, URW Avernus (after Martin's design from 1972), URW Baskerville AI, URW Beacon, URW Bluejack, URW Cartel, URW Cloister, URW Corporate, URW Criterion, URW Didoni, URW Fat Face, URW Globe, URW Goudy AI, URW Heldustry, URW Helserif, URW Introspect, URW Legothic, URW Martin Gothic, URW Martinique, URW Pandora, URW Polonaise, URW Quint, URW Scenario, URW Souvenir Gothic, Souvenir Gothic Antique (the Souvenit Gothic family was designed by George Brian, an employee of Alphabet Innovations at the time: it was AI's first text family), URW Stanza, URW Stark, URW Timbre, URW Viant, URW Wordsworth. Interview. Bye Bye Blackbird performed by Phil Martin in Largo, Florida. The final message on his last web page, posted posthumously read: MARTIN, PHIL, 82, of Largo, died Tuesday (Oct. 4, 2005) at Largo Medical Center. He was born in Dallas and came here after retiring as a writer, singer-songwriter, commercial artist, and comedian. As a high school student, he worked as an assistant artist on the nationally syndicated Ella Cinders, and at 18 wrote and drew Swing Sisson, the Battling Band Leader, for Feature Comics. He was an Army Air Forces veteran of World War II, where he served as a bombardier in Lintz, Austria. On his 28th mission shelling the yards in Lintz, his B-24 was hit and he was listed as missing in action until the war in Europe ended. He was a comedian on The Early Birds Show on WFAA in Dallas. As a commercial artist, he founded two multinational corporations to market typeface designs and is credited for designing 4 percent of all typefaces now used. He also wrote columns and articles for typographic publications. Locally, he sang original lyrics to old pop standards in area piano bars, and in 1999 produced 59 issues of the Web book Millennium Memorandum, changing the title to MM2000 when he issued the first edition of the new Millennium on Jan. 3, 2000. Survivors include his wife, Ann Jones Martin; and a cousin, Lorrie Hankins, Casper, Wyo. National Cremation Society, Largo. Phil Martin's digital typefaces. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Stanley Davis is the designer of the well-known font Amelia (1964), a winner at an international type competition run by Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC). In this article, we investigate why Stan is mad at Linotype and Bitstream (in his words: [...] Bitstream and Linotype have stolen my Amelia font [...] their renditions of it are pathetic). A comparison is made between these fonts: A770Deco (SoftMaker Software GmbH) [true to the original, a feature of most of the SoftMaker collection], BarbarellaSF (Brendel Informatik&SoftMaker Software GmbH, 1990-1993), PerkleDisplaySSi (Southern Software, Inc, 1992), AmeliaBT-Regular (Bitstream, 1990-1992), LinotypeAmelia (Linotype Hell AG, 1997), and Amy (Corel, 1991). Stan is in favor of strengthened copyright protection to avoid this sort of thing. Additional revivals: Yellow submarine (1995, unknown designer), Amelia (Tilde), Amber (2019, Softmaker). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of Adonis (1971) for photocomposition for the Type foundry Amsterdam. This typeface was acquired by Stephenson Blake and cast in type. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French designer of Club (1972), Go (1972) and Or (1970), all at Hollenstein Phototypo. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
André Gürtler
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Designer of the transfer sheet typeface Lucky (Mecanorma, 1972-1973). This Western bullet hole and semi-psychedelic style typeface was designed in 1972 by André Pless for the Mecanorma type contest, and later released by Mecanorma in their Letter-Press transfer sheets. Lucky was digitally revived in 2019 by Andrea Bianchi as the free font Lucky. Lunatique and Lunatique Rounded (2021) are revivals and extensions by The Flying Type (Erica Jung and Ricardo Marcin). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French type designer, b. 1955, who drew the calligraphic Le Griffe in 1973 (Letraset). Fontshop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator (1936-1995) of the following phototype fonts at Studio Hollenstein: Arc en ciel (multilined), Indigo (1972; ornamental, art deco), Or (1967: prismatic). Or was digitally extended in 2016-2020 by Arve Båtevik as Store Norske Tyggis. Indigo was revived as a colour remix in 2021 by Arve Båtevik as Store Norske Stilig. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Padua. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of these typeface of these sixties-style comic book typefaces at Photolettering: Allegretto, Sonic. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Antonio (Tony) DiSpigna
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Arthur Baker
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Arthur Baker Designs (or: Glyph Systems)
| American calligrapher in Andover, MA, who worked for many foundries, and ran several studios. He ran Glyph Systems in Andover, MA, and before that, Alpha Omega and Maverick Designs. Baker grew up in Berkeley, CA, and attended school on the West Coast and New York City. After serving in the U.S. Army, he studied under calligrapher Oscar Ogg and had private lessons with George Salter and Tommy Thompson. Some of Baker's earliest designs were made available through Photo-Lettering Inc., and his first widely-available commercial typeface was published in 1965. Baker's first book was published in 1973. Arthur Baker died in 2016 at the age of 86. Tribute by Allan Haley. His typefaces were all calligraphic:
Some explanations by Freddy Nader: The Baker Argentina and Danmark typefaces were variations on his Signet. Baker originally made Signet for Headliners International in the 1960s, where he worked full time. In 1972 he was approached by VGC and told that they would pay him royalties as well if he made the same typeface for them. Royalties were a relatively new thing back then - Tommy Thompson was the very first person to ever earn royalties in type (in 1944 for his Thompson Quill script for Photo Lettering Inc), and he wasn't a type designer per se, he was a calligrapher. Lured by the idea of royalties coming his way from two different directions for the same face, Baker did a Signet for VGC. When Bob Evans, owner of Headliners, found out, he threatened to sue VGC for trademark infringement (copyright for typefaces was unheard of at the time - every major photo type house had "similar" fonts, and whenever someone got exclusives made by outside designers under a royalty program, it was only a matter of weeks before they were knocked off and changed slightly by other type houses, big and small). So in order to avoid a trademark infringement lawsuit, VGC called their typeface Baker Signet, instead of just Signet, and went further by asking Arthur Baker to make a lighter version and a condensed version. The lighter version was called Baker Argentina, the condensed version was called Baker Danmark. The "Number One" prefix was added to both so that when the inevitable knockoffs happened, type buyers would know which type was made first. About Baker Sans, Freddy writes: The Baker Sans was a knockoff of Helvetica. It was a massive family of a lot of fonts, rendered very ugly by camera stretching and slanting. Eddie Bauer used it as their corporate typeface for a long time in order to avoid the expensive fees of licensing Helvetica. Tim Ryan ended up digitizing it for Arthur Baker in the mid 1990s for a lot of money. That digital version is now being sold by ITF under one of its many companies (either Arthur Baker Design, or Arthur Baker Designs, or maybe Maverick Designs). MyFonts link. Klingspor link. View Arthur Baker's typefaces. Linotype link. MyFonts page. Another MyFonts page. And still another MyFonts page. FontShop link. View Arthur Baker's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Précis Slim (1972). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototype headline sans font Annonce fett (+licht) at Berthold (1967) and Lettergieterij Amsterdam. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
BA Graphics
| Bob Alonso (b. Bronx, NY, 1946, d.2007), the founder of BA Graphics in 1994, was a prolific American type designer. With 33 years of experience at NewYork's Photo Lettering, he specialized in calligraphic script typefaces, but not exclusively so. BA Graphics was located in Chester, NY, and later in Toms River, NJ, and now sells its fonts through MyFonts. Many of its fonts published after Alonso's death in 2007 were completed by John Bomparte. John Bomparte wrote this obituary: Throughout his career at the legendary Photo-Lettering, Inc. (one that spanned four decades), Bob created original typefaces and tailored type by modifying, revising and filling out families, fashioning pieces of type for hand-lettered jobs, as well as being involved with the updating of a number of well-known logotypes. Bob was blessed with natural teaching abilities; and those in social and professional circles who had the good fortune to know him considered him not just a type designer but a mentor and a friend. As one such person close to him put it, he was a graphic technician [...] back when computers were not even in site for graphic arts, he would take on any intricate&complex graphic project that others would shy away from and come up with a solution that achieved a masterpiece. I'll always remember someone saying "this can't be done" and Bob saying let me see it and a short time later, there it was---done&perfect. I would like to think that attitude rubbed off on me. Along with this gift for teaching and explaining the complex, Bob exhibited a level of professionalism that was unsurpassed. A number of years ago when the need came to make the transition from the traditional to digital way of creating fonts, he rose to the challenge admirably. Towards the last few years of Photo-Lettering, Bob played a vital role in the conversion to digital, of many of the typefaces within the collection, notably those fonts that carry the prefix PL. More recently, Bob Alonso released several fonts through ITC, Adobe and his independent foundry, BA Graphics. Bob was on the cutting edge of his best work, and in the circumstance of his untimely passing, left a measure of unfinished designs. However, the spirit of his typographic talents and his fine sense of humor lives on through the many much-loved, and popular fonts he has left us: fonts such as Cookie Dough, Equate, Elephant Bells and Pink Mouse, to name a few. Alonso created these typefaces:
FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Bob Alonso's typefaces. View the BA Graphics typeface collection. An alphabetic listing of Alonso's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
An open all-caps typeface made by Photo-Lettering Inc. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Brooklyn in 1940, he graduated from New York City Community College. Barry worked for Sandgren & Murtha, New York as a graphic designer. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Deutsch Black (1966). This unicase piano key typeface was revived in digital format by Nick Curtis as Blackbarry NF (2011). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer, b. 1946, based in Twickenham, United Kingdom. He made a career in the broadcast business and has for for Channel One Television, Swan Media and The Graphics Department. In the 1970s, he designed these art deco typeface designs for Panache Photosetting / Face Ronchetti: Allumette, Ruthie, Danny Boy. He also designed the Neon Condensed weight for the Pink Floyd album Koda, but Neon was conceived by someone else. Linkedin link. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American type designer who created the retro deco phototype Jackson (1971, Mecanorma), which can be bought from Linotype and URW. For a revival, see Jackson Regular (2019, Nick Öhlo). Still at Mecanorma, he created the (phototype) flower power font Spring, which was revived at Canada Type as Jojo (2005, Rebecca Alaccari). Klingspor link. Fontshop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of Abel Cursive (Compugraphic, 1974). For a digital revival, see Alan Jay Prescott's APT New Abel Cursive (1996). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Bill Garth
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Bill Garth
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British graphic and type designer, most famous for his Data Seventy (1970, Esselte/Letraset), a display typeface that emulates the shapes of the early computer types [see Data EF at Elsner and Flake, and for a free knock-off, Westminster]. A cyrillization of Data70 was done in 1976 by Victor Kharyk. Other designs by Newman include Penny Farthing (1974, Letraset), Odin (1972), Frankfurter (1970, Letraset, with Alan Meeks and Nick Belshaw), Linotype Horatio, and Pump (EF and Linotype versions). On Frankfurter: a lowercase was done by Alan Meeks in 1978. FrankfurterHighlight (by Nick Belshaw) followed in 1978. An inline was added in 1981. Among the revivals, we mention Rafael Nascimento's Choripan (2020), Yorlmar Campos's RNS Baruta Black (2004), Scangraphic's Frankfurter, Linotype's Frankfurter, Infinitype's Farnham, SodftMaker's F821 Deco, and Castcraft's OPTI Frankfurter. See also the film type Frankfurter by Robert Trogman at Fotostar. Zach Whalen analyzes Data Seventy in his 2008 thesis and states that Data Seventy is the first full alphabet based on the MICR font E-13B, since it includes both upper and lower case letters. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Swiss photo-typesetting company. Among their typefaces, we find the 1977-1978 effort leading to Signa (by André Gürtler, Christian Mengelt, Erich Gschwind), and Trinité (1981, Bram de Does, part Bobst Graphic, part Autologic). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Bomparte's Fonts
| Bomparte's Fonts is John Bomparte's (b. Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1959) foundry in Wake Forest, NC. A graphic and type designer, John Bomparte was the assistant to, and a protege of renowned type designer Ed Benguiat, at the legendary Photo-Lettering Inc. It was there that John was surrounded by other great type designers such as Tony Stan, Vic Caruso, Vincent Pacella and Bob Alonso. John designed the art deco sans typeface Hamptons BF, and another art deco headline face, Take Two BF. In 2006, he published the 12-style family Blackletter Sans and the exquisite poster semi-Greek simulation art deco typeface Abstrak BF (modeled after a 1931 ATF font by Robert Foster called Abstract). In 2007, he surprises with the 1920s poster font Michelle BF, the hand-printed Brandy BF, its follow-up Johnny Script BF (2008), the quirky Freaky Frog BF, the dot matrix halftone effect font Subliminal BF, the frizzy Glow Gothic BF (2007), and the gorgeous swashy 3-style blackletter family Black Swan BF (2007). His 2008 typefaces: Jacky Sue BF (based on the hand of Jackie Geerlings), SoHo Nights BF, Hamburger Font BF (a rounded fat face), and the art deco sans serif typefaces Sidewalk Cafe BF (2008) and Hamptons BF (2 weights). Emerge BF (2009) is a flare serif inspired by Admiral, c.1900, from the Keystone Type Foundry. Freedom Writer BF (2009) is a connected handwriting script face. Danielle BF (2010) is hand-printed, based on the hand of Danielle Paradis. Factor BF (2010) is an electronic / futuristic / techno face. FingerSpeller BF (1994) is an American sign language typeface. Retroscript BF (2010) and Capistrano BF (2010) are beautiful connected scripts. In 2011, he added the fat felt tip pen typeface Sherbet BF and the funky rounded display typeface Dragonfly BF. In that same year, he published the stunted black wood type typeface Squat (BA Graphics, based on earlier work of or with Bob Alonso). Typefaces from 2012: Rockport BF (a gaspipe font inspired by 19th century wood types), Wilmington Script BF (an upright loopy connected script). In 2014, Seagrass BF, a connected script, and My Write Hand BF were published. Footloose (2015, BA Graphics) is a dynamic script typeface that was unfinished when Bob Alonso died. John Bomparte finished it. Typefaces from 2016: Shandy BF (a playful connected script). Typefaces from 2018: Petals BF. A flourished curvaceous ornamental didone. Typefaces from 2021: Between The Lines BF (a display typeface with some Super Veloz vibe). Klingspor link. Catalog of some of his commercial fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
A font studio opened by Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase in the 60s. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Polish type and graphic designer, b. 1935. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw under Henryk Tomaszewski in 1961. In 1967, he received Tadeusz Trepkowski's WAG Award and from the 1970s on he worked as Hernyk Tomaszewski's assistant at the Academy of Fine Arts. Best known for his film posters, he lived in Vienna, and then moved to Lower Austria, where is is a painter. At Mecanorma in the early 1970s, he made Zelek Black, Zelek Shadline, Zelek Bold, and Zelek Boldline. Zelek Black looks twisted and almost geometrically impossible. Dan X. Solo in his Dover book "Moderne Alphabets" shows an identical face, renamed Zelda. In 2009, Zelek pops up again in a slightly reworked version by Simon Griffin for Wired UK. Typophile discussion. Dick Pape made a series of Zelek revivals including Zelel Shadline, Zelek Black, Zelek Bold, Zelek Bold Reflection, and Zelek Bold Line. The Russians have their own versions, starting with a 1987 semi-clone by G. Klikushin, which in turn inspired the 1993 face---far removed from Zelek's Zelek---, New Zelek about which its publisher Paratype writes: The typeface was developed at TypeMarket in 1993 by Alexey Kustov on the base of artworks of Viktor Kharyk and Lidia Kolesnichenko (1979), that were developed as a Cyrillic adaptation of the typeface of Bronislav Zelek, Mecanorma. The multicolor layered typeface Bron was published in 2014 by Swiss type designer Jeremia Adatte. In consultation with Zelek, Three Dots Type (Marian Misiak) in Poland did a revival called New Zelek Pro. Klingspor link. Biography at Culture.pl. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer at Photolettering Inc of Clarendon Condensed. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
BVS Boton
| Albert Boton is a Parisian type designer and teacher, born in 1932 in Paris. Boton died in 2023. In 1957 he started work at Deberny&Peignot under Adrian Frutiger. From 1958 to 1966 he helped create several typefaces for the Hollenstein phototype catalog. In 1968 he became the art director for Robert Delpire publishers, but continued designing typefaces for the Hollenstein collection and later for Mecanorma and Typogabor. From 1968 to 1997 he was a teacher of type design and calligraphy at the École nationale des arts décoratifs (ENSAD) in Paris. From 1988 to 1998 he taught type design at the Atelier National de Recherche Typographiques. In 1981 he became art director and head of type department at the design agency Carré Noir. Interview in the ENSAD Journal B. His company is called BVS Boton. He is the designer of Berthold's Boton family (1986), FF Bastille Display package (2002, consists of FF Aircraft, FF Aircraft TF, FF District Bold, FF District Bold TF, FF Studio, FF Studio TF, FF Zan), FF Elegie (2002, art nouveau, a take on Auriol), Agora (1990, Berthold: a lapidary typeface), Chadking (1958), Roc (1959), Brasilia (1960), Primavera (1963), Rialto (1964), Black Boton (1970), PL Brazilia (PhotoLettering, a sans family), Zan (1970), Pharaon (1971, a great fat slab, eventually digitized by Monotype), Pampam (1974), Hillman (1972, an Egyptian family at Mecanorma), Tzigane (1973, a condensed family at Mecanorma), Chinon (1973, Mecanorma), Hudson (1973), Boton and Navy Cut (1986, for Mecanorma), the Scherzo family (at the Agfa Creative Alliance), Carré Noir (1996, also at Agfa), Bellini, Praxitel, Albotoni Book (made in 1974 originally), Kit, FF Page (2003, in PageSans and PageSerif families). Since 1998, he distributes his own fonts through BVS Albert Boton:
Citroen's logo font at Delpire. Klingspor link. Bio at FontFont. Pictures of an exposition in 2003. Linotype link. FontShop link. MyFonts link. Aude Degrassat wrote a thesis on Boton in 2008 at Estienne. View Albert Boton's typefaces. Announcement of his death. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the multilined paperclip typeface family Elektrik (1977). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
A URW++ cargo stencil typeface based on a PhotoLettering Inc. Design from the 1960s. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Renowned Canadian type and graphic designer (b. Welland, Ontario, 1912, d. 1967 from a heart attack on a flight between New York and Toronto). He ran the Eveleigh-Dair Studio from 1947-1951 in Montreal with partner Henry Eveleigh. He worked mainly as a freelance designer, was department store art director and even typographic director for the National Film Board of Canada (1945). Dair lectured on typography at the Ontario College of Art between 1959 and 1962, and taught for a couple of years at the Jamaica School of Arts and Crafts. In 1956 and 1957 he received an RSC fellowship to study type design and manufacture in the Netherlands. During this period he had the opportunity to study metal type and hand-punching at Enschedé Foundry in Haarlem, where he created a silent film called Gravers and Files documenting one of the last great punchcutters, P. H. Rädisch. There is a beautiful modern version of the movie with voiceover by Matthew Carter. He created Canada's first roman typeface, Cartier (1967, MonoLino Typesetting Company Limited) for Canada's centennial. Cartier was unfinished when he died. Rod McDonald finished it, to become a working and much larger typeface family called Cartier Book in 2000. Cartier has a sequel: Raleigh (Ingrama, 1977), co-designed by Robert Norton, David Anderson and Adrian Williams is sold by Bitstream, Adobe, Linotype, Paratype, and URW++. It is characterized by a bloated belly N. Raleigh was produced in 1977 by Robert Norton, and was based on Carl Dair's Cartier typeface. It was renamed Raleigh after Dair's death. Adrian Williams added three weights for a display series, and Robert Norton designed the text version. Several typefaces were influenced by Cartier. These include Ludwig Ubele's award-winning FF Tundra (2011). For a full revival, including both a facsimile and an interpretation, see Nick Shinn's Dair (2017). Author of Design with Type (1952, revised and expanded in 1967 and republished by the University of Toronto Press (First Edition) in 2000). He also wrote several wonderful short treatises on various topics in type design. John Berry discusses Dair's seven different kinds of contrast, size, weight, form, structure, texture, color and direction. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer in the 1970s who won a Letraset type competition in 1973 with her wire frame design, Bombere. Harold Lohner revived the font under the name Wireframe (2000). See also here. Postscriptum: Carla was born Carla Bombere, then was Carla Ward for some time, and is now Carla Bombere Nees. Klingspor link. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Sol (1975, with Marty Goldstein) and the neotech font family Harry (1966-1970, with Marty Goldstein). Harry was revived digitally by Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir as Harry Pro (2009, Red Rooster). Sol was extended and revived by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King in 2010 at Canada Type as Sol Pro (20 styles). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer (1893-1983) of the photo type era who worked for Photolettering Inc. His typefaces there include: Beauchamps Expanded Italic, Belgique Bold, Belgique Bold Italic, Berkshire, Bodoni Bold Italic, Cameroon, Centidot Condensed 2, Centidot Semi Condensed 2, Century Thin, Century, Chateau 2, Classique, Classique Italic, Classique Wide, Continental Condensed, Didot Light, Didot Light Italic, Didot Medium Italic, Didot Bold, Didot Bold ItalicDidot Demi Bold Expanded, Didot Extra Condensed, Distingue Thin, Elite Didot, Elzevir 3, Elzevir 3 Italic, Elzevir 4, Escorial Extra Condensed, Ester, Etroit Didot Condensed 2, Etroit Didot Condensed Obl., Etroit Didot Condensed 3, Expanda, Galaxy Didot, Marquis, Noblesse, Onyx Condensed Italic, Overture Script Light, Palladium, Rheinlander Bodoni Light, Rheinlander Bodoni 4, Soverign 3, Soverign 3 Italic, Venice, Venice Wide. Several of these typefaces were digitized by the reincarnated PhotoLettering by House Industries. The latter include Coryn Galaxy Didot (2013, Tania Raposo). There was a discussion on Typedrawerrs in 2021 regarding Photo-Lettering's Centidot Contempora. Florian Hardwig wrote there: Photo-Lettering's Centidots combine Century-like shapes with Didot hairlines. Centidot Contempora is shown in the Alphabet Thesaurus, Vol. 2 (1965) in five numbered weights, without designer credits. It was preceded by Coryn Centidot, drawn by C.E. Coryn (1893-1983). The fact that Centidot Contempora's name isn't preceded by the designer's family name suggests it was produced by the staff of Photo-Lettering, Inc. And as it was derived from an existing idea, no individual designer got credit. As far as I know, there is no digitization available. Stylistically related typefaces [include] Mort Modern, Eames Century Modern, Trivia Serif, Zahrah. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French typographer, born and died in Paris, 1897-1983. Founder of ATypI, son of Georges Peignot, and lifetime director of Deberny&Peignot. Designer of Peignot (with Adolphe Mouron Cassandre). Founder of ATypI. Starting in the late fifties, the company prepared the fonts for Lumitype, European Photon. In the sixties, Charles Peignot invested heavily in Lumitype, which used up some of the money to buy control of Deberny&Peignot, and let Charles go. Deberny&Peignot closed in 1979, at which time the designs passed to the Haas'sche type foundry in Basel/Münchenstein. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Graphic artist, b. 1930, Chicago, IL, d. 2017, Edina, MN. Hughes moved to Minnesota in 2002, but he spent most of his career as a lettering artist in Chicago and Milwaukee. He worked briefly for ATF in 1948. Hughes designed ads for the yellow pages in Milwaukee and worked for ten years as a letter designer at the Milwaukee Journal. At age 30 he became a freelancer, drawing letters for international ad agencies and design studios such as J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett. Hughes gained a reputation for his versatility as a lettering artist. He designed fonts for several food products, including Raisin Bran, DiGiorno Pizza and Quaker Oat Bran, and developed an entire alphabet for Marlboro. He once was given the job of designing the catchphrase for Tony the Tiger, the cartoon mascot for Kellogg's Frosted Flakes. His retail typefaces include Indy Italic (1990, Letraset), an informal script, and Century Nova (American Typefounders, 1966, one of the last metal typefaces), the latter as a variation on Century Expanded. | |
British author of A Show of Hands (Typographica, 1953, pp. 4-11). The journal Typographica was edited by Herbert Spencer and published sporadically between 1949 and 1967. This article has many images of printer's fists and pointing hands. Plinc Hasler Circus (2011, House Industries) is a digitizztion of a photo era font, Circus, done by Hasler for Photo-Lettering, Inc. in the 1950s. This circus font was digitized by Erik van Blokland in 2011 at House Industries, with a helping hand from Ken Barber. Other typefaces designed by him at Photo Lettering include Regency Inline (caps only), French Antique Inline and Pearl Shaded (decorative caps). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
A film type perhaps first shown by Dan X, Solo (although that is a wild conjecture) that was revived multiple times:
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Christian Mengelt (b. 1938, St. Gallen, Switzerland) is a graphic designer, type designer, and teacher. He studied graphic design under Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder at the School of Design, Basel. In 1964, he set up his own graphic design studio together with different partners, and has cooperated with various design and advertising agencies, such as GGK (Gerstner, Gredinger und Kutter) Basel, Switzerland, and Mendell&Oberer Munich, Germany. With Karl Gerstner and Günter Gerhard Lange, he was briefly involved in the Gerstner program at H. Berthold AG. Early type designs include Univers Compugraphic (1972, Compugraphic) and Cyrillic Gothic (1974, Compugraphic), both realized in cooperation with André Gürtler. From 1972 until 2001, he taught graphic and type design at the Basel School of Design, which he headed from 1986-2001. With André Gürtler and Erich Gschwind, he formed Team 77 in Basel and became deeply involved in most aspects of letterform design and application, which led to these type designs:
Typedia link. MyFonts link. Linotype link. Behance link. Interview by Linotype. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Zürich in 1941, Gassner is professor at the University of Kassel. He designed Vexier (1973), Leopard (1976), Knirsch (1976). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer at Linotype of the multiline art deco or marquee typeface Piccadilly (1973). It can also be viewed as a paperclip face. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Churchward Type
| Joseph Churchward (b. Apia, Samoa, 1933) grew up in Samoa, and moved to New Zealand, where he founded a design studio in Wellington. He lived in Hataitai. He died in 2013 [Obituary by Jack Yan]. His early type designs were released as photolettering through Berthold. In 2000, in partnership with Chank, his fonts are finally being converted to the standard electronic formats. In 1984, he won a Silver Prize at the Morisawa Awards competition. In 2009, he was made a life member of The New Zealand Designers Institute DINZ. MyFonts writes: Churchward Type started in 1962 as Joseph Churchward's freelance lettering service. Within six months he had generated enough work to move from his job as Senior Artist into setting up Churchward International Typefaces, which became one of the largest typesetting companies in New Zealand. In 1969 Joseph was asked to submit alphabet designs to Berthold Fototypes and saw immediate success. He later went on to sign distribution agreements with D.Stempel AG, Dr Böger Photosatz GmbH/Linotype, Mecanorma-Polyvroom B.V and Zipatone. He self-published a handful of original fonts in 1978 becoming the first and only company in New Zealand to publish original photo-lettering. Churchward International Typefaces was forced to close in June 1988 but Churchward Type lives on with a fresh set of independent releases. David Buck has taken on the role of digitisation. Joseph continues to draw alphabets and now has a stockpile of over 300 unique alphabets to his name. Catalog of Joseph Churchward's typefaces:
View Joseph Churchward's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Swedish painter, designer, illustrator, jazz musician and inventor, b. 1944, who studied under lettering artist Erik Lindegren. In 1976, Nordenstam drew a typeface originally called Quickstep. Letters from Sweden, who turned this into a font called Sväng in 2019, writes: Sväng was his initial foray into type design. We feel Sväng is one of the most original display faces from the 1970s. Exploring concepts similar to Aldo Novarese's Stop and Othmar Motter's Motter Tektura, it is more versatile and can be used for a broader range of applications. By removing parts of the letters, Nordenstam created surprising stencil letterforms. The dynamic geometric shapes display a strong 1970s vibe that is impossible to ignore. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototype era typeface Smile. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototypes Pak and Zazi at Studio Hollenstein. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the art deco typefaces Beale Varigated, Beale Charming and Roco (1974, Letraset). For digital versions of Beale, we refer to SoftMaker who made Beale Varigated and Beale Charming (and also B691 Deco and RSVP SF) in 1993, and published Beale Charming in 2019. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Names of Compugraphic fonts. Ulrich Stiehl's compilation of type equivalences, as taken from Compugraphic's 1988 "The TypeBook". [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Compugraphic Corp.
| This company existed as Compugraphic and Agfa Compugraphic from 1960-1995. The timeline:
MyFonts sells Garth Graphic (Compugraphic, and now Agfa/Monotype, by Constance Blanchard and Renee le Winter, based on earlier sketches of John Matt, 1979) and Phenix American (Agfa-Monotype), and named in honor of Bill Garth. Noteworthy is the 1988 catalog "The TypeBook". Images of some typefaces: CG Garamond (now Monotype; see also Garamond Antiqua and Garamond Kursiv), CG Times (now Monotype). Timeline at the Monotype Imaging site. Compugraphic collection of fonts (with CG in the name). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Designer in the 1960s of the art deco typeface Ginger Snap (PhotLettering Inc). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Cruz Fonts
| Cruz Fonts was established in Oakland, NJ, in 2004 by Ray Cruz, who has been a designer of custom lettering and custom typefaces to major ad agencies, publishers and corporate clients in the New York City area for almost 30 years. He has created many display typefaces for Agfa/Monotype, Bitstream, Phil's Fonts and Garage Fonts. Presently Ray Cruz is working as Type Director at Y&R NY, and is an adjunct professor at FIT and Kean University teaching type design. Bio at Garagefonts.
Bio at Garagefonts. P22 link. FontShop link. PDF catalog. View Ray Cruz's typefaces. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Phototype designer for Photo Lettering Inc in New York. Her typefaces there include the uncial / medieval style family Alcock, which includes Alcock Roman, (+Inline), Alcock Light Italic and Alcock Versal. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Dan X. Solo
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At Photo Lettering Inc in New York, Daniel Gelberg designed these mostly handcrafted or script typefaces: Chipper, Falcon Bold, Flurry, Grotesque, Informal, Sequin, Swifty Light, Swifty Bold, Swifty Upright. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
As a young artist and film font manufacturer in New York City, Daniel Hunyady (b. 1941) designed the piano key typeface Hunyday Gothic for John N. Schaedler Inc. in 1974. Schaedler suggested the name Hunyady Parquet. That great typeface was digitized in 2017, with Hunyady's permission, by Tobias Herz. Presently, Hunyady runs Hunyady Graphics in West Kill, NY. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Daniel Robichaud
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Type designer of the photolettering era (1960s) whose work is slowly but surely being digitally revived by Nick Curtis, and by Photo-Lettering, the House Industries subsidiary that bought the PhotoLettering Inc type collection. FontShop link. His typefaces:
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David Moore
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Designer of the cloud emulation typeface family Cumulus (Photolettering). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
David Trooper
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Daylight Fonts
| Japanese foundry with excellent web pages on early 20-th century type design. Shin Oka, or Shinya Okabe (b. 1976, based in Himeji) created various revival fonts in or just before 2009, many connected in some way to Tom Carnase and the phototype era. He specializes in 1970s and 1980s typefaces, often with open counters and high contrast. His fonts:
In 2020, Shin Oka released the caslon-sinspired Ivy Ivy, the piano key version of a fat Bodoni, the fashionable Gara Gara, the 1970s font Bern Bern, Super Bodo Bodo, the art deco / Bauhaus typeface Sophi Sophi, the art deco typeface Fifty Four, the fashion mag typeface Rache Rache, the Peignotian sans typeface Mid Mid Sun Sun, and the display didone Fau Fau. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Dutch typeface designer, b. Amsterdam, 1909, d. Baarn, 1998. Trained and worked at the Lettergieterij in Amsterdam under S.H. de Roos, starting in 1926. He worked with de Roos on the design of the typefaces Nobel and Egmont. Dooijes studied at the Amsterdam College of Arts and Crafts and at the Academy of Art. In 1940, Dooijes succeeded de Roos as artistic director of Lettergieterij Amsterdam. He was director of the Gerrit Rietveld Acedemie from 1968 until 1975. Author of Mijn leven met letters, and Wegbereiders van de moderne boektypografie in Nederland (Amsterdam, De Buitenkant, 1988). His typefaces:
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Dick Pape
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Dick Pape: Via Face Don
| Hans Donner was the designer in the photolettering era of Via Face Don at Mecanorma. A digital version of this alphading family, also called Via Face Don (2012), is due to Dick Pape and can be downloaded here. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Born in 1943, Zembsch began his career in graphic arts as a typesetter. He subsequently studied graphic design at Mannheim (in 1968) and Stuttgart. While working as a packaging designer for the pharmaceutical firm of Mann&Schröder, in his spare time he designed the winning entry in Letraset's International Typeface Competition for 1972/73, a typeface named Beans. Another font, Jumping Jack, was first released as dry-transfer sheets by Mecanorma in 1975. He later worked as advertising manager for a German publishing house and, in 1977, he became an independent graphic designer, operating as Zembsch' werkstatt in Munich, specializing in book design. In addition to illustrating book jackets for other authors, he has written and illustrated several of his own works. Zembsch and partner Sophie Weiss currently run a design firm in Munich. In 2009, Nick Curtis designed a digital extension and modification of Beans called Free Holeys NF. Alan Jay Prescott's revival is called APT New Beans. The digital re-issue of Beans was done by Charles Grant and Lineto, and released by Lineto in 2008 as LL Beans and in 2020 as Jumping Jack. First designed in 2011, LL Jumping Jack remained unpublished for several years. In 2019, it was overhauled and its character set was completed by Sascha Bente at Lineto, with approval by Dieter Zembsch and Charles Grant. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Carboni. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Sign painter and artist, b. 1930, Springfield, MO, d. 2017, Kansas City, MO, who was in the US Air Force in WWII and has a BA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Designer of the film font Chrome. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. From his obituary in the Kansas City Star: During the school years he worked at several sign shops and for Hallmark Cards. He then free-lanced while looking for a career job. In 1957 he was "discovered" by Hal Sandy, who had a small but creative sales promotion agency. Thirty-six years later, Don retired from Sandy, Inc. after having advanced to Vice-President and becoming part owner of the company. [...] In 1993, Ann "Smiley" Havlicek (his second wife) and Don formed their own free-lance company, Vernon & Assoc., and worked out of their home. . [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designed the calligraphic font Aristocrat (1978, Letraset). FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Skin & Bones (1972, a multiline face). Mark Simonson says that he looks like Sonny Bono. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Doyald Young
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Doyald Young: Logotypes and Letterforms
| Graphic designer, typographer, type designer, author, teacher and lecturer, born in 1926 in Holliday, TX. He died on February 28, 2011 due to complications following a heart operation. He attended Los Angeles City College, Los Angeles Trade Technical Jr. College, and Art Center College of Design where he has taught for 27 years and holds the honorary title Inaugural Master of the School. Doyald drew characters, often of a calligraphic or handlettered nature. He was deeply influenced by his mentor, Hermann Zapf. Steve Heller writes: When digital programs like Fontographer made it easy for anyone with a computer to create typefaces, many of them purposefully inelegant, he advocated a high level of craftsmanship that he believed had been lost. In so doing, Mr. Young challenged a new generation to reject so-called grunge design in favor of precision. When the American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded Young its 2009 Medal for Lifetime Achievement, Marian Bantjes wrote Taste. Practicality. Formality. Understated prestige. The combination of those qualities forms as perfect a descriptor of Young's work as any you are likely to find, both in the process and the result. Although he is widely known for his elegant curves and scripts, he has never been a showy designer---there is not a trace of ego in his work. The range of letterforms able to flow at any time from his hand is great, and there is no way to particularly define Young's mark unless you have seen the hand-drawn comp. That is where his work is unmistakable: perfect letterforms drawn in pencil at a surprisingly small size without so much as a mark of hesitation or awkwardness. The style varies but the fluidity and perfection do not. Links and media: Scott Erickson's movie on Doyald Young. FontShop link. Klingspor link. Short obituary and video. Longer video about his life. Steven Heller's obituary in the New York Times. Obituary by Marian Bantjes for AIGA. He was adored and respected for his craft and gentleness. Portrait. Another portrait (credit: Louise Sandhaus). Author of several influential texts:
His typefaces include the extra bold condensed sports scripts fonts Home Run Sanscript (1999) and Home Run Script (1999, a connected bold retro signage script), Young Gallant (2010, a formal calligraphic script based on the alphabets his teacher, Leach, trained him on), ITC Eclat (1985, 1992, fat script face, which was used for titles by Comedy Central and the Queen Latifah movie Beauty Shop), Young Finesse (2003, an Optima-inspired thin headline typeface used in his book, Fonts&Logos), Young Finesse Italic (2006), Guts (1976, VGC), and Young Baroque (1984, 1992, Letraset; calligraphic Spencerian copperplate script; this is copied by Castcraft as OPTI Yen Script). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
DR Fonts
| Originally from Montreal, Daniel moved to Los Angeles to create visual effects and contributed to the movies Apollo 13, The Fifth Element and Titanic. He developed an interest in animation, created the short film Tightrope, and directed the feature-length cartoon Pinocchio 3000. Daniel Robichaud worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Digital Domain and FOX. At Letraset, he published the semi-stencil typeface Epitaphe. In 2021, he set up DR Fonts and released the 20-style techno sans font family Absentia Sans (2021) and the 20-style Absentia Slab. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
DTrooper Foundry
| Dave Trooper (New Jersey) was associated with the photo type foundry VGC. Almost 40 years later, he set up his own digital type foundry, DTrooper Foundry, which publishes digital versions of his typefaces. Creator of these typefaces:
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Designer of Helserif (1976-1978, Alphabet Innovations). This is Helvetica with square serifs attached onto it. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Detrich Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in New York in 1927, Ed grew up in Brooklyn. He died in 2020. Ed was once a very prominent jazz percussionist playing in several big bands with Stan Kenton and Woody Herman, among others. He has created a large number of typefaces between 1970 and 1995. About his career, he once said: I'm really a musician, a jazz percussionist. One day I went to the musician's union to pay dues and I saw all these old people who were playing bar mitzvahs and Greek weddings. It occurred to me that one day that's going to be me, so I decided to become an illustrator. He designed more than 400 typefaces for PhotoLettering. He played a critical role in establishing The International Typeface Corporation (or ITC) in the late '60s and early '70s. Founded in 1971 by designers Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns, and Ed Ronthaler, ITC was formed to market type to the industry. Lubalin and Burns contacted Benguiat, whose first ITC project was working on Souvenir. Ed became a partner with Lubalin in the development of U&lc, ITC's famous magazine, and the creation of new typefaces such as Tiffany, Benguiat, Benguiat Gothic, Korinna, Panache, Modern No. 216, Bookman, Caslon No. 225, Barcelona, Avant Garde Condensed, and many more. With Herb Lubalin, Ed eventually became vice-president of ITC until its sale to Esselte Ltd. Ed Benguiat taught at SVA in New York for more than fifty years. Ed is a popular keynote speaker at major type meetings, including, e.g., at TypeCon 2011, where he entertained the crowd with quotes such as I do not think of type as something that should be readable. It should be beautiful. Screw readable. His typefaces---those from PhotoLettering excepted:
Links: Linotype, CV by Elisa Halperin. Daylight Fonts link (in Japanese). Catalog by Daylight, part I, part II. Pics harvested from the web: Portrait With Ilene Strivzer at ATypI 1999. One more with Strivzer. With Jill Bell at ATypI 1999. In action. At TypeCon 2011 with Matthew Carter and Alejandro Paul. At the same meeting with Carole Wahler and with Roger Black. FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Ed Benguiat's typefaces. Ed Benguiat's fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
New Yorker, b. Bethlehem, PA, 1905. In 1928, Rondthaler and Harold Horman cofounded Photo-Lettering Inc in New York City---it started for real in 1936. An excellent typographer, he cofounded ITC in 1970 with with Herb Lubalin and Aaron Burns. Editor/author of Life with Letters--As They Turned Photogenic, and Alphabet thesaurus; a treasury of letter designs (1960, Reinhold, NY). Volume 3 was published in 1971. In 1975 he was awarded the TDC Medal, the main prize of the Type Directors Club. In 2007, House Industries made this funny clip. Sadly, Ed died in August 2009. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Edward Rondthaler
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American designer who created the upright curly semiscript Belcanto (1970s, Photolettering). This typeface was revived in 2007 by Nick Curtis as Glissando NF. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
American type designer, designer, writer, b. 1906 or 1915. For some time he was assistant art director at Monotype and art director at Intertype. He made several phototype typefaces. His typefaces include:
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Designer from the phototype era, active At Studio Hollenstein. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Lettering artist from New York. ATF sales manager and director of typeface design. He created the often-copied calligraphic Murray Hill (now available as Murray Hill EF) in 1956. Versions of Murray Hill are in different places, including most shareware archives. Commercial versions at SoftMaker (Melville Pro), ICG and Bitstream, for example. Mac MGrew: Murray Hill and Murray Hill Bold were designed by Emil Klumpp for ATF about 1956. They are smart, free flowing, modern scripts, nearly vertical, and letters are not connected. Their refreshing informality has made them popular for advertising as well as for stationery and announcements, while their nearly complete lack of kerns has made them durable, practical, and easy to set. The name, incidentally, is said to have come from a New York telephone exchange, before the days of all-numeric dialing, serving an area of the same name in which many large advertising agencies were located. He also made the informal script font Catalina (1955) as well as many photolettering typefaces. Catalina was digitized as Enamel Brush by Ray Larabie in 2009. His life and work are discussed in the link. MyFonts link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
German designer of the titling typeface Vineta (1972 or 1973, VGC), an inline shaded Clarendon. A digital version of this was made by Bitstream called Vineta BT. Other photo-era typefaces by Völker: Voel Beat (a 3d-face, Berthold, 1978), Voel Bianca (a psychedelic typeface related to Motter Ombra; Berthold, 1978) and Voel Kars (a multiline electronic circuit board simulation face; Berthold, 1978). Fontshop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Swiss type designer. As Canada Type puts it, Tuba started with a reconceptualization of a somewhat flawed '72 alphabet idea by Swiss graphic designer Erwin Poell. During the back-and-forth of the custom project, other ideas seeped into the design, mostly from other Canada Type fonts, like Fab, Jonah, Jojo and Teaspoon. The end result was what the client called a "sugar circuit trigger alphabet". This now is the retail version of that project. Tuba has art nouveau influences. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Phototype designerat Photolettering, where he created Rohner Expanded (stencil) and the elliptical typefaces Rohner Downtown and Rohner Uptown. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Photo era foundry set up in the 1960s by John McConnell and Chris Dubber in London. I could only find Pluto Outline, the art nouveau typeface Desdemona (a digital version was created in 1992 by David Berlow at Font Bureau and in 1994 by Richard Beatty; Letraset showed Desdemona in its 1981 and 1986 catalogs; the original is from the late 19th century by Karl Brendler&Soehne, Vienna), Stack, and Oxford (a multiline face) on-line. Steve Jackaman worked in the studio in Newman Street and Hanway Place, and recalled El Paso (a Western/Mexican simulation face) when he created El Paso Pro (2011, Red Rooster). In 2017, Steve Jacakaman (Red Rooster) designed Lodestone Pro, which is based on Marvin (1969, by Michael Chave). According to Wes Wilson's web site, Face Photosetting led the way by launching a number of Art Nouveau revivals which were taken from Ludwig Petzendorfer's "A Treasury of Authentic Art Nouveau Alphabets". A selection of these, which included Arnold Böcklin, Edel Gotisch and Eckmann Schrift, were made more widely available when Letraset produced them for their dry transfer product. They published a number of books and catalogs, ca. 1976-1977: Face headline catalogue [1981/82] (1977), Specimens of Delittle's wood type, Face book of typefaces, Type catalogue (1976). Some of the typefaces were Cyrillicized, such as Bullion Shadow (1970; Cyrillic version by Victor Kharyk, 1978). Bully Pulpit Plain NF (2014, Nick Curtis) is a revival of Bullion Shadow. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Face Ronchetti
| Or Mick Chave. Michael Chave was director of Face Ronchetti in London. Phototypefaces by him include Aetna 1968, Alten Book 1969, Amigo 1972, Antique schmal 1975, Antique Tuscan 1975, Antique Tuscan Extended 1975, Arnold fett 1968, Bevelled 142 1975, Childs 1969, Cupid 1970, Curly Hairline 1969, Joanna 1969, Marvin 1969 (also at Face Photosetting), Matra 1971, National 1973, Pipeline 1970, Secession 1976. Digital revivals of the avant garde typeface Marvin:
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Facsimile Fonts
| Foundry which offers fonts by Robert Trogman, a graphic designer now living in Palm Springs, CA, where he runs Trogman Signs. His fonts include
He writes for Recognition Review as Dr. Type and gives seminars on typographic design. A type consultant, he was at one point lecturer on typographic layout and design for California State University at Los Angeles. As Trogman explains to Harold Lohner about Roberta: I originally hand cut this font in 1962. It is based on a Belgian restaurant sign. I named it after my daughter Roberta. Many Mexican food companies used this font, but they didn't know it was from Europe. Dan Solo was going to digitize it for me, but he retired from the font business last year. Just give me credit for the design and it is all yours to do what you want. Trogman's picture. Roberta D was remade by Ralph M. Unger in 2003 for URW. Trogman, however, is upset with URW: URW++ has been warned by me to stop selling typefaces I originally licensed to Berthold Fototype, Stempel, Bitstream, Mecanorma and Letraset. They have never responded to my accusation of piracy. He is a graduate from the University of California at Santa Barbara. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Filmotype Sales Company was located at 4 West 40th Street in New York City. In 1955, they published a catalog entitled Lettering Styles Display Types, from which some samples are shown in the link. The catalog has no full alphabet specimen and is thus of limited value for type historians and type revival experts. Frank J. Romano writes here: In 1952, Al and Beatrice Friedman [the founders of Filmotype] introduced the Filmotype, a simple manual phototypesetter that was not much bigger than a shoebox and used 2-inch filmstrips with all glyphs in linear order, with marks below them so that the operator could position the letter and expose it to the photo paper. The process was blind in that you could not see the letters as they were exposed. The Friedmans would go on to introduce the Alphatype phototypesetter. The Sybold Report mentions: Filmotype has a 35-year history as a supplier of filmstrip headline setters. Its founders later moved on to start Alphatype Corporation, keeping Filmotype as a subsidiary. In 1987, Harry and Seta Brodjian, who were Alphatype employees, acquired Filmotype with the intention of rejuvenating the company. In 1989, the firm began development of a digital headliner. A year later, it began digitizing its fonts. The company was renamed Filmotype Corporation. The fonts were at one point sold in packages such as a 30 dollar TrueType Font Package of 100 designer typefaces and an EZ Effects Windows program. Typefaces were renamed: Clarendon becomes Clarion, and so forth. At that point, Filmotype had offices in Glenview, IL, and was run by Gary Bunsell. About the renaming practices, the typophiles mention that Filmotype fonts were given letters&numbers by VGC when they pirated a substantial number of them. Their original names were attached by someone going through a dictionary and just picking arbitrary words for Filmotype fonts that were initially just letters and numbers also. In 2006, the Filmotype collection was bought by Font Diner. In 2007, Font Diner started publishing digitizations of the collection: Glenlake (condensed Bank Gothic, by Mark Simonson), MacBeth (script), Alice (casual script), Zanzibar (calligraphic), La Salle (brush writing originally by Ray Baker in the 1950s, named after Chicago's LaSalle Street), Quiet, Ginger (Mark Simonson; masculine headline typeface genetically linked to Futura), Austin (paintbrush), Brooklyn (hand-printed), Honey (handlettered script), Jessy (handwriting), Modern (i), Vanity. In 2010, Stuart Sandler published a book entitled Filmotype by the Letter, in which he details the company's history. He also set up Filmotype as a foundry in Eau Claire, WI. Additions to the Filmotype collection in that year include the signage typefaces Filmotype Kentucky, Filmotype Kingston, Filmotype Harmony and Filmotype Hamlet, and the geometric sans Filmotype Fashion (orig. 1953). The signage typefaces were originally made by Ray Baker for Filmotype in the 1950s, and were digitized by Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari. Activity in 2011. Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari revived the condensed sans typeface Filmotype Giant (2011) and its italic counterpart, Filmotype Escort (2011), as well as Filmotype Prima (a sho-card face from 1955). Neil Summerour contributed Filmotype Horizon after an original signage typeface from 1954. Mark Simonson created Filmotype Gay, a tall monoline sans originally from 1953. Filmotype Ford (2011) and Filmotype Jamboree (2012, an informal script based on a 1965 original) are due to Stuart Sandler. Filmotype Quartz is an inline face. Activity in 2012. Alejandro Paul contributed two scripts, Filmotype Yukon (based on Palmer style penmanship) and Filmotype Zephyr (formal italic roman). Later in 2012-2014, the production took off, with many contributions by Patrick Griffin and Charles Gibbons (who created Filmotype Zeal in 2013 for example). Typefaces from 2021: Filmotype Kinzie (by Lily Feinberg), Filmotype Andrew (by Patrick Griffin; a bold and wide extension of the retro casual script font Filmotype Athens). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Fiorello (Photo-Lettering) is a squarish sans face. Digital revivals include CG Fiorello (Compugraphic), PL Fiorello (Photo-Lettering Inc), and F731 Deco (SoftMaker). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Font Diner (or: Stu's Font Diner)
| Stuart Sandler (Minneapolis) runs six foundries: Font Diner (est. 1996), Sideshow, Breaking The Norm, the Tart Workshop, Font Bros (est. 2006), and Filmotype (est. 2006). He runs a handful of other companies and web shops as well, including Mister Retro (est. 2004). He is passionate about retro type. DaFont link for their free fonts. Fontspace link. Interview. Catalog of the best selling Font Diner fonts. Images of Stuart Sandler's best-selling fonts. Free fonts: Rickles (2007, script), AirConditioner (2002, fifties style upright script), BahamaSlim (2004), BlackNight (2002, blackletter), BlackWidow, BubbleMan, ChannelTuning, Corrupter, CreakyFrank, DecayingKuntry, FeaturedItem, FontOnAGrain, FontOnAStick, Fontdinerdotcom (one of the earlist beatnik style digital typefaces), FontdinerdotcomHuggable, FontdinerdotcomLoungy, FontdinerdotcomSparkly, Fontdinerdotcom Jazz Dark, Fontdinerdotcom Jazz Light, Hothead, KeeponTruckinFW, Leftovers (2002), MaverickBE (stencil face), Musicals, PickAx, Rickles (2009; upright script), RocketScript (2002, retro script), Schnookums, SinsofRhonda, Spacearella (2002), StencilGothicBE, ThatsSuper, Turnpike (2009), Witless, XerkerFW. Commercial fonts: Continental Railway (1998, retro connected script), Anastasia, Chatty Cocktails (1998, art deco), El Nino, Guest Check, Hamburger Sandwitch (1998), Jumping Bean (1998, comic book style), Lionel Classic (1998, an art deco all caps face), Milwaukee, Motor Oil, and the greatest of them all, Coffee Shop (1998, exaggerated ascenders), a must! Other typefaces: Permanent Waves (1998, + Expanded: retro connected script), Yarn Sale (curlies), Fat Sam (not bad!), Etiquette, Taylors (1998, another great display font; co-designed with Dan Taylor), Kentucky Fried (1998, comic book / signage style), Beer Wip, Seuss, Jack Bisio and FinerDiner, Shivering, Dry Cleaners (2002), Singlesville Script (2002), Dripping Blood, Bowlorama, Action Is, Automatic, Chicken King (2002), CocktailShaker (2002, at Chank), Concurso Italian and Concurso Moderne (2003), DoggieBagScript, Johnny Lunchpail (2000, comic book style), Kitchenette (connected retro script), Lil Tipsy (2003), Milwaukee Neon (1998), Milwaukee Neon Shadow (1998), Motorcar Atlas (2000), Regulator, Stovetop (2002), Swinger (2002), WARNING (2002, rough stencil), BEBlob, BECROSS, DecayingAlternate, Decaying, EvilBrew, TheBlob, Insane Asylum, Creepy Crawly, Crossover, Fire Baaaad!, Rotten Teeth, Candy Good, EvilOfFrankenstein, HMan, HManPt2, PlasmaRain, Chicken Basket (2004), Chowderhead (2004), Cocktail Script (2004, upright), Country Store (2004, Western style), Dairyland (2004), Emblem Chief (2004, fifties diner script), Motel King (2004), Queen Rosie (2004), Sweet Rosie (2004, blackboard bold), Secret Recipe (2004), Square Meal (+Hearty) (2004), Bahama Slim (2004), Space Immortalizer, Matchbook and BE Streetwalker. Many font have a cool retro/fifties look. The InFlight Meal font set (2001) includes Al's Motor Inn, American Highway, Kiddie Cocktails, Lionel Text, Mosquito Fiesta, New York to Las Vegas, Pink Flamingo, Refreshment Stand, Starlight Hotel, Volcano King. The LasVegas font set: El Ranchero (2002), Hamburger Menu, Hamburger Menu Marquee, Holiday Ranch, International Palms, Lamplighter Marquee, Lamplighter Script, Las Vegas to Rome (stone chisel face), Leisure Script, Leisure Script Marquee, Mirage Bazaar (2002), Mirage Zanzibar (Arabic theme face), Mister Television, StarburstLanes, Starburst Lanes Twinkle, Vegas Caravan. At ITC, he published ITC Kiddie Cocktail (2003), ITC Mosquito Fiesta (2003), ITC Volcano King (2003). In 2006, Font Diner acquired the Filmotype collection and its trademark, Filmotype. Sandler writes: Filmotype initially manufactured a simple manual phototype machine utilizing display typeface designs on 2-inch filmstrips. Additional films were sold to start-up typesetting companies in order to increase their product selection. Font Diner will create new digital versions of the Filmotype collection, recreating it to meet todays graphic design standards. [...] We intend to release the Filmotype library in OpenType format so the original designs can be fully realized with a dynamic feature set including alternate glyph forms and automatic substitutive ligatures. In 2007, Font Diner started publishing digitizations of the collection: Glenlake (condensed Bank Gothic, by Mark Simonson), MacBeth (script), Alice (casual script), Zanzibar (calligraphic), La Salle (brush writing originally by Ray Baker in the 1950s, named after Chicago's LaSalle Street), Ginger (Mark Simonson; masculine headline typeface genetically linked to Futura), Austin (paintbrush), Brooklyn (hand-printed), Honey (handlettered script), Jessy (handwriting), Modern, Vanity, Filmotype Ford. In 2010, Stuart Sandler published a book entitled Filmotype by the Letter, in which he details the company's history. Free fonts on the Google Directory, dated 2010: Fontdiner, Swanky, Cherry Cream Soda, Permanent Marker, Homemade Apple, Schoolbell. In 2012, David Cohen and Stuart Sandler published these typefaces at Neapolitan: Irish Grover Pro (2010, a bouncy face), Satisfy Pro (2011, a connected retro script face), and Slackey Pro (2010, a paper cut out style face). At the same place, he also published Crafty Girls Pro (2010, co-designed with Crystal Kluge). With Crystal Kluge, he also co-designed the flowing connected script typeface Aya Script (2012). At Sideshow, he published the pen-drawn connected script Mister Brown (2013) and the retro signage script typeface Cocktail Sauce (2014). View Stuart Sandler's typefaces. Jolly Lodger (2012, Google Web Fonts) is an informal retro script. Typefaces from 2018: Cherry Soda, Deviliette, Fat Sam, Doggie Bag Script, Cherry Soda, Deviliette, Fat Sam, Doggie Bag Script, Black Night (an eerie blackletter), American Cheese (retro display style). Typefaces from 2019: Madelinette Grande (by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge: created by hand with traditional pointed pen, it includes calligraphic penmanship and rustic styles). Typefaces from 2021: Bon Marche (a curly vernaculat script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), Los Angelino (a script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), La Bohemienne deLuxe (a calligraphic script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge), Epicursive Pro (a script by Stuart Sandler and Crystal Kluge). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Jan Jessen's German language pages on the history of type, from its start in 1440, via Linotype (1886), Photocomposition (1949), bitmaps (1965) to vector formats (1975). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
FontBank
| FontBank was Jerry Saperstein's outfit in Evanston, IL. A sub-project was called Alphabets&Images Inc. At first sight, this company seems to have created a collection by extrapolation and adjustment around 1992-1994, but that appears not to be the case (read on). The collection was posted on abf in January 2001, and used to be be downloadable from the Font Bank Lounge. It seems to have survived as part of Xara. List of FontBank fonts. Jerry Saperstein's reply to my original description: Your conclusion with regard to the original 325 fonts published by FontBank is incorrect. The fonts were not "created a collection by extrapolation and adjustment." For better or worse, all those fonts were hand-rendered in a totally legal manner from photographic enlargements of analog type specimens. In fact, after the Adobe ruling, FontBank received settlements from other "publishers" who had appropriated our code. (Confidentiality agreements prohibit me from naming those parties.) Obviously, if FontBank were unable to establish the original nature of its code, no one would have settled infringement claims with us. (...) The genesis of Alphabets&Images, Inc. also bears some explanation. It was not an "alias" for FontBank, Inc. Rather, it was the name of a joint venture between FontBank, Inc. and Photo-Lettering, Inc. Photo-Lettering, as may you may know, was the king of display film fonts, hosting such luminaries as Ed Benguiat. FontBank was their chosen vendor for digitizing their film fonts. The venture failed when Photo-Lettering went bankrupt. I believe UTC licensed the Photo-Lettering, Inc. collection thereafter. You would, in fact, be quite surprised to learn who FontBank did rendering for, but alas, confidentiality agreements prevent me from disclosing that information as well. Big, big companies seem to insist on clauses like that. Voilà. Homework for my readers: can you recognize Bastion, Borealis, Brandish, Colbert, Coolsville, and Dayton? [Google] [More] ⦿ |
A book by Intertype Corporation with one-line specimens, dated 1954. It is a catalog of their typefaces for the Intertype Fotosetter composing machine. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
FotoStar
| Los Angeles-based company that distributed a 5000+ library of two-inch film fonts for display typefaces, some of which were original, such as Yagi Double (the CNN logo font) and Yagi Link Double. It ceased operations in 1985. Trogman maintains a design studio in Palm Springs, California. The FotoStar collection includes Blippo (1970), Handel Gothic (by Robert Trogman), Buxom (a beveled 3-d athletic lettering typeface sold, e.g., by Elsner&Flake as Buxom SB, Scangraphic) and Embrionic (an ink-trapped typeface family revived by Claude Pelletier). Yagi Link Double was revived by Alex Haigh as Miyagi (2008, Thinkdust). Yagi Bold and Yagi Double were revived in 2010 by Gus Thessalos as Retro Mono Wide and Retro Stereo Wide, respectively. Gus Thessalos revived Yagi Link Double as Retro Stereo Thin. Nick Curtis revived Horse Tank as Feedbag NF (2015), Welling Black as Well Said Black NF (2014) and Angelica as Vauxhall NF (2014). Claude Pelletier too revived Angelica: see his free font Angelica CP (2011). In 2015, Harold Lohner revived Roberta, which Trogman cut based on an art nouveau sign in a Belgian restaurant in 1962. FotoStar is a small web page made by yours truly that showcases some typefaces in the FotoStar collection taken from their catalog, Film Font Digest FotoStar Graphic Supply. |
French type designer based in Toulouse, b. 1950, d. 1999. He was an early graduate of Scriptorium de Toulouse (1972). In his lifetime, Boltana achieved a great deal of success, including the Morisawa Prize in 1990. From 1975 until 1997 he was also a freelance graphic designer. Brief CV. Read his article in Cahiers GUTenberg, Ligatures&calligraphie assistée par ordinateur (1995). Fontshop link. Frank Adebiaye wrote François Boltana et la naissance de la typographie numérique together with Suzanne Cardinal in 2012. His fonts:
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Swiss type designer (b. 1948, La Chaux de Fonds) who graduated in 1968 from the Kunstschule in Lausanne. He created the dot matrix/marquee typeface Mecanorma Chicago (1969, Huerlimann Medien AG), which was published as Chicago MN by Mecanorma and can be bought from URW. He won a Letraset type competition in 1973 for the starred dot matrix/marquee typeface Astra in 1969, co-designed with Natacha Falda. Some have his name as François Robert Falda [I think he was married to Natacha Falda]. He also designed the bold headline sans typeface Trebor (1970). Swiss type design link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer at Photo Lettering Inc, whose creation Gonzales Jeanette (ca. 1971) was later digitized and extended to Cyrillic by Elvira Slysh at Paratype, as Astron (1991). Bob Alonso revived it as Lorraine Script (2000). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American lettering artist, 1902-1975. Designer of Trophy Oblique (Agfa, 1950), Caslon No. 641, News Gothic Condensed Bold and other News Gothic weights (1958-1966) and many other photolettering typefaces such as Satanic and the playful didone, Century Bartuska. For digital revivals, see PL Trophy Oblique by Monotype, and Baryton (2020, of Century Bartuska) by Coppers and Brasses. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Author of Typencyclopedia: A Users Guide to Better Typography. A type guru, he is Professor emeritus of Rochester Institute of Technology and founder of Electronic Publishing Magazine in 1976. He occasionally writes on early printing technology, such as here. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of the textured typeface Modernique at Photolettering. Not to be confused with Dan Solo's art deco typeface Modernique. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Photolettering foundry in the 1970s, located at 211 43rd Street, New York City 10017. One of my correspondents explains: Franklin Photolettering was the smaller film type joints catering to the major publishing and advertising industries in New York City in the 60s and 70s. They started out with a few originals to get into the game, but within a year or so they started putting out copies or slight modifications of existing stuff from Photolettering and VGC (you can see how that happens---someone comes in for some ad copy in Barker Flare, for example, and he asks if they have something like Eightball, so they say "sure, we can do that"). Even though they did have a bit of original stuff, they didn't have not enough to stand out like PL, Mecanorma, VGC or Letraset---also the sheer number of film fonts available on the market by the mid-70s meant that unless you dumped a lot of money on marketing, big-time design would ignore you----so not much room was left for smaller film type houses. Their catalog is published in binder form in Film Alphabet Compendium Franklin Photolettering. In 1974, Paul E. Kennedy published Modern Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged from the Franklin Photolettering Catalogue (Dover). Typefaces by them included
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Painter, sculptor and type designer, b. ca. 1930. Graduate of the Kunstschule Augsburg, Germany. Since 1976, he is an active member of the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum. Based in Rifton, NY, his paintings can be seen in many places, such as Fine Art in Ulster County, New York. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Heigemeir Bold and Bold Open, Modula (1972) and the art deco typeface Organda (1972). Organda became a Mecanorma face. Digital revivals of Organda include Organ Grinder (2019, SoftMaker). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
At Photo Lettering Inc in New York, Fred George designed Blowoulded. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
British type and graphic designer who taught at the London College of Printing and headed Letraset. His typefaces:
Linotype link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Aka Fred Peter. We find the name Friedrich Peter at Monotype and most other foundries. Designer, visual artist and calligrapher (b. 1933, Dresden, Germany) who moved to West Berlin in 1950, where he studied lettering design, painting, graphics, typography and calligraphy at the Academy of Visual Arts. He emigrated to Canada in 1957 with his wife, and started teaching in 1958 at the Vancouver School of Art, which later became the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, and this until 1998. He has many designs for postage stamps, coins and medals in Canada between 1980 and 1998. He is an all-round artist who is also famous for his contributions to calligraphy. His typefaces:
FontShop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Ivy League (1975, +Open), an athletic lettering typeface. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Burmese (1973) in styles called Black, Outline and Drop Shadow. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer at Photo Lettering Inc in New York. His (phototype) typefaces there include Biscayne Vertical, Floridian, Greenwich and Miami. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Photo era type designer in Colorado who created the oriental simulation typeface Sukiyaki in 1968, while he was a graduate student at Cal State Long Beach. Sukiyaki was published by Lettergraphics International. Gene was a professor at Metropolitan State College (now University) in Denver, Colorado, where he taught advertising design and illustration, including lettering. There is a plethora of digital copies and revivals of Sukiyaki---sadly, none of these give proper credit. Examples include the ubiquitous free font Hirosh (by Aarrgghh, or Jonathan Smith, who does not mention Sukiyaki, even though the glyphs are identical) and Itto (by Chris MacGregor). In 2020, Steve Harrison did a proper digital revival giving full credit to Eidy---his typeface is also called Sukiyaki. The images below show Gene's original artwork (courtesy of Sara Tack) and, for comparison, Jonathan Smith's Hirosh, and Steve Harrison's Sukiyaki. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Gene Gable
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Georg Salden
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Type designer who published these fonts at Photo Lettering: Aqua Bold (signage font), Black Gothic Condensed, Gothic Bold, Nixon (a soft poster face), Stencil Condensed. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer who made type for a while for Phil Martin at Alphabet Innovations/TypeSpectra. His creations there include the Souvenir Gothic family (1977), and possibly Opulent Light and Opulent Bold. George Thomas, another ex-AI employee, wrote this about him: George Brian did the art on many of the later works and probably had an influence on many of Phil's ideas. See also here. Digital revivals of Souvenir Gothic include URW Souvenir Gothic and Softmaker's Sunset Gothic. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of Hubcap A through D at Phoolettering. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Letter designer at Mergenthaler from the mid-1930s and head of the letter design department from the mid-1950s until his death in 1971. He worked on and produced Caslon Old Face in the 1950s (Klingspor mentions 1964 though), a faithful revival of William Caslon I's classic face. The lowercase is Moxon's 1669 Great Canon. A digital version exists at Bitstream. Klingspor also credits him with Times Semibold in 1970 at Mergenthaler / Linotype. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer at Photo-Lettering in the 1960s. He made the hypocritical typeface Thomac. This was revived in 2010 by Nick Curtis as Kallilu NF. Other typefaces at Photolettering include Blitz, Blurb, Boldoni, Brush casoni, Connecticut, Glendale, Holly, Lindan, Manhattan, Santa Fe, Stratford, Stymac, Wayne and Wilshire. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
George Thomas
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Gerard Huerta
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Gerard Huerta Design
| Lettering artist, b. 1952, head of Gerard Huerta Design in Southport, CT. Lettering and logos of Huerta were used by Swiss Army Brands, MSG Network, CBS Records Masterworks, Waldenbooks, Spelling Entertainment, Nabisco, Calvin Klein's Eternity, Type Directors Club, the mastheads of Time, Money, People, The Atlantic Monthly, PC Magazine, Adweek, Us, Condé Nast's Traveler, Working Mother, WordPerfect, Scientific American Explorations and Architectural Digest, as well as corporate alphabets for Waldenbooks, Time-Life and Conde Nast. Designer and vice-president of New York's Type Directors Club. Based in Southport, CT. He made many famous logos and created several logo-fonts. Huerta worked for some time at CBS Records. His type designs include a custom Franklin Gothic in the late 1970s as part of Walter Bernard's redesign of Time Magazine. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Gilbert Powderly Farrar
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Born in 1938 in Udine, Italy, Giorgio Giaiotto studied architectural design with Carlo Magnani, and then worked in newspaper typography and finally moved to cartoon design. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Giorgio (1966, wood type style). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in 1890, lettering artist Guido Rosa and his brother Lawrence (1894-1929) co-designed an antiqua typeface with a Kursiv for ATF. It was never published. He also created Modern Outline Roman Capitals. At Photolettering, we find several phototypes that refer to Rosa, such as Rosa Calligraphic, Rosa Italic, and Rosa Roman. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer (b. 1925) who studied at Werkkunstschule Offenbach and worked at Bauersche Giesserei. All his fonts were published at Berthold with the exceptions explicitly mentioned:
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Designer of the clownesque semi-psychedelic font Pierrot (1973). It was published in digital form by Linotype. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Frozen Alaska (1977). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of PL Fiedler Gothic (a squared sans), published by Photolettering. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer in the photoloettering era of Via Face Don at Mecanorma. A digital version of this alphading family, also called Via Face Don (2012), is due to Dick Pape and can be downloaded here. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of the phototype didone typeface Ronco at Photolettering. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer (b. 1938, Switzerland, based in Paris) who studied typesetting in Zürich from 1954-1958. Later he studied with Emil Ruder and Armin Hofmann in Basel (1965-1967). From 1967 until 1971, he was a type designer with Mergenthaler Linotype in Brooklyn, NY, where he worked with Matthew Carter. From 1971 until 1975, he worked with Frutiger in Paris, and became a freelance designer in 1976. From 1990 until 2006, he led some labs at the Atelier de Recherche Typographique, NRT, in Nancy. From 1998 until 2002, he had his own design bureau together with Ursula Held: Atelier H. He has also taught at the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich. He codesigned CGP (used in Centre Georges Pompidou; 1974-94, with Jean Widmer, and Adrian Frutiger), Centre Pompidou Pictograms (1974, for the same project in Paris), Cyrillic (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger for IBM Composer), Frutiger (in 1976 with Adrian Frutiger at Stempel), Gando Ronde (a formal script, with Matthew Carter in 1970; Linotype; called French 111 at Bitstream), Helvetica (with Matthew Carter in 1970; Linotype), Helvetica Compressed (with Matthew Carter, ca. 1974?), Iera Arabic and Iera Roqa Arabic (1983, Institut d'étude et de recherches pour l'arabisation; Honeywell Bull), Metro (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger; used in the RATP), Univers and Univers Cyrillic (in 1970 with Adrian Frutiger; Linotype), and the Siemens custom type family (in 2001, a cooperation with URW). Siemens (2001-2007, URW++), the project he is best known for, won an award at the TDC2 Type Directors Club's Type Design Competition 2002. Siemens Sans, Siemens Slab and Siemens Serif are here. Siemens Sans Global (4000 Euros) covers Turkish, Baltic, Romanian, Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, and Hebrew. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Berlin in 1938, Hans-Jürgen Wolf studied graphic arts and painting with Richard Blank at the Design Institute of Berlin. As a graphic artist, he joined the studio of Schering AG in Berlin. Author of Geschichte der Typographie (Historia, 1999) and Geschichte der graphischen Verfahren (Historia, 1990), a detailed work on the history of typesetting and printing machine companies. Designer of Wolf Antiqua (1966, VGC). This typeface is available as Justine (NovelFonts) and OPTI Julie (Castcraft). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Swiss typographer (b. Zürich, 1939, d. 1998). He had his own studio, Lutz Verlag, in Zürich. He published books such as "Typoundso" and "Ausbildung in typografischer Gestaltung". He taught at the schools of design in Zürich and Luzern for over thirty years, and founded the typography department in Luzern in 1968. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer associated with VEB Typoart in the phototypesetting era. His creations at Typoart include Fleischmann (a serif based on Fleischmann's historical face. An original cursive by Harald Brödel was added to the Typoart collection), Molli (a comic book face), Nidor (a slab serif), and Hogarth Script (a formal copperplate script). Digital versions of Hogarth Script include Gillray Pro (2015, Ralp M. Unger), OPTI Historic Script (by Castcraft), Hogarth Script EF, Hogarth Script URW, Hobson (Softmaker), Hogarth Script (2005, a Cyrillic extension by Alexandra Gophmann), and Hogarth Script (Linotype). MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Co-founder with Edward Rondthaler of Photo-Lettering Inc in 1936 in New York City. He designed the firm's initial collection of typefaces by photographing existing metal designs. These included Carnival (a Western reverse stress typeface). Carnival was digitally revived at House Industries in 2013 by Dan Reynolds. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer (1936-2001) who studied at the School of Visual arts in New York. At Photolettering Inc, he made the phototype font Alef-Bet (Hebrew). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Harry and Seta Brodjian acquired Filmotype in 1987 and ran the company for a while. Earlier, in 1970, Harry had designed the calligraphic initials typeface VGC Constanze, which was digitized and revived in 2007 by Canada Type as VIP (Rebecca Alaccari). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Harry C. Pears
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Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Venture (1972). This font was digitally revived in 2007 by rebecca Alaccari at Canada Type as Chopper. Canada Type writes: In 1972, VGC released two typefaces by designer friends Dick Jensen and Harry Villhardt. Jensen's was called Serpentine, and Villhardt's was called Venture. Even though both typefaces had the same elements and a somewhat similar construct, one of them became very popular and chased the other away from the spotlight. Serpentine went on to become the James Bond font, the Pepsi and every other soda pop font, the everything font, all the way through the glories of digital lala-land where it was hacked, imitated and overused by hundreds of designers. But the only advantage it really had over Venture was being a 4-style family, including the bold italic that made it all the rage, as opposed to Ventures lone upright style. One must wonder how differently things would have played if a Venture Italic was around back then. Chopper is Canada Type's revival of Venture, that underdog of 1972. This time around it comes with a roman and an italic to make it a much more attractive and refreshing alternative to Serpentine. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of photo typefaces. These include:
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Defunct film type era foundry started in 1954 in New York City. Its 1959 catalog has 458 typefaces, and its 1984 catalog had blossomed to 1319 photo types. George Abrams started out at Headliners. Headliners is also famous for its release of The Morgan Press collection of wood typefaces. Headliners moved to the suburbs of New York City and set the trend for some years with its Neo series in 1979. ITC and Headliners were then known for their typefaces with large x-height. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Dutch type connoisseur after whom Antonio Pace's Linotype Gianotten (1990) is named. Born in 1940, he worked for 40 years in the production and distribution of graphic arts equipment and fonts, at companies such as Tetterode, BT and Buhrmann. As a student of Willem Ovink, he got very interested in legibility of typefaces. On his own contributions to typography, he writes: Since 1964 I was involved on the production of our typefaces for Morisawa. Later on we produced typefaces for photocomposition for Bobst (Autologic), Berthold, Compugraphic, A.M., Harris Composition, Itek, Scangraphic and others. Tetterode owned the rights for typefaces like Nobel, Lasso, Polka, Orator, Promotor, Lectura and Hollandsche Mediaeval. LinotypeLibrary owns the licenses for these fonts since October 1 2000. Gianotten left Tetterode in 2000. News about LinotypeGianotten. Linotype's press release. PDF samples of LinotypeGianotten. Article on Gianotten by Wim Westerveld in 2006. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
New Jersey native who lives in San Francisco. He states: "Over the years I've had the good fortune to be very involved with photolettering and type design. In the 1980's I set headlines, letter by letter by letter, on a VGC Typositor at Phil's Photolettering in Washington DC. The desktop computer quickly destroyed that entire industry, and that is how I became involved with computer graphics. In the early 1990s, I designed type for FontBank, and consulted for several other type companies, including Microsoft and Galoob Toys. It's nearly impossible to make a living in type design these days, as the industry was basically done in by a combination of legal precedents and rampant piracy. Having worked on "conventional" / Wester / Roman fonts for so long, I've acquired a preference for unusual or obscure fonts or alphabets. I am always available for type design work or consulting." His designs (not downloadable) include Coptic Chelt, Fruthrak Sans, Ojibway Futurae, Cyrillic-Helv-Flash-8pt, KTR-katakana10, Celestia, Daggers, Enochian Times and Nugsoth. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in New York in 1918, Herbert Frederick Lubalin died there in 1981. Founding editor and art director of U&lc from 1973-1981. Co-founder of ITC in 1969, together with Edward Roundthaler and Aaron Burns, as a result of the marriage of Lubalin Burns & Co (est. 1969) and PhotoLettering Inc. Professor at the Cooper Union in New York from 1976-1981. Director of the avant garde magazine Fact between 1965 and 1967. His fonts: Pistilli Roman (VGC, see here; with John Pistilli), L&C Hairline (ca. 1966, VGC, with Tom Carnase), ITC Avant Garde Gothic (with Tom Carnase, Gschwind, Gürtler and Mengelt, 1970-77; see Avignon on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002), ITC Busorama (1970), Ronda (1970), ITC Lubalin Graph (1974; see Square Serif on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002; poster by Pablo Monachese), ITC Serif Gothic (with Tony DiSpigna, 1974; see Serenade Two on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002). His companies: Herb Lubalin Inc (1964-1969), Lubalin, Smith&Carnase Inc (from 1975 onwards). In 1985, Gertrude Snyder and Alan Peckolick published Herb Lubalin. Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer (New York). Retrospective at ITC. Revivals: Receding Hairline NF (2014, Nick Curtis) revives L&C Hairline. Pudgy Puss (2007, Nick Curtis) is an ultra-fat modern digital display type based on Fat Face (Herb Lubalin, Tom Carnase). | |
Designer of the film font Frager Punch. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
German type designer, printer, type teacher and type designer (b. Mannheim, 1903, d. Bayersoien, 1978). Ex-student of Rudolf Koch. He taught at the Werkstätten der Stadt Halle and at the Werkkunstschule Offenbach. From 1956 on, he was Director at the Academy for graphic design in Munich. Designer of Post Mediaeval (1944, Berthold, 1951), Altschrift, Post Fraktur (1933-1937, Berthold; + Halbfett, + Post Fraktur Zierversalien, 1933-1937; for a digital version, see DS Post Fraktur by Delbanco, Post Fraktur by Gerhard Helzel, or Post Fraktur and Postillon by Ralph M. Unger (2014)), Post Antiqua (1932-1940, Berthold; also called Post Roman; for digital revivals, see Corel's Prose Antique and Softmaker's P790 Roman), Post-Kursiv (1943, Berthold), Post-Schmuck (1949, Berthold), Dynamik (1952), eight fonts for Photo Lettering in 1954 (among which Frei bewegte Antiqua, Schmalfette Grotesk, Feder-Kursiv, Eckige Kursiv and die Schwung-Kursiv), and Post Marcato (1961-1962, an art deco bold sans, Berthold). Scans of a logo/poster for the Deutsche Bundespost, a poster for the Deutsche Bundesbahn (1952) and a poster for a theater performance in Halle in 1932. In 1999, Harald Süß wrote a brief biography. Picture, dated 1940. | |
Type designer at PhotoLettering in New York. His typefaces there include Bagatelle, Brush, City Script, Functional and Park. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Calligrapher (b. 1935, Reichenberg, d. 2018) and professor of calligraphy and writing at HGB Leipzig (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig) since 1968. Her typefaces:
Author of Handbook of Type and Lettering (1992, Design Press, or Lund Humphries), a translation of The Sixth Edition of Schrift und Schreiben (Fachbuchverlag GmbH Leipzig, 1971), which has been lauded as the best books ever on type and typography. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototype poster font Alpha Midnight for John N. Schaedler (Liberty house Schaedler Inc, New York City) ca. 1969. It was digitally revived by Alan Jay Prescott as APT New Alpha Midnight (1996). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Memphis, TN, in 1908, Holland had a studio in New York. From 1926 to 1936 he traveled across the country, designing theatrical posters for various motion picture companies. He was art director for several advertising agencies, notably J. Walter Thompson. He specialized in lettering and typographic design for publishers and taught calligraphy and letter design at Columbia University. For Photolettering in New York in the 1970s, he created the film typefaces Holland Antiqua, Holland Seminar (a transitional typeface family from 1973, and the first typeface family released by Compugraphic), Holland Title, Beleza (a script) and Squire. Digital descendants of his typefaces include Holland Seminar by Monotype. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Holly Goldsmith
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Intertype
| Defunct foundry. One of its typographic directors was Gilbert Powderly Farrar (1886-1957), who designed Bert Black. Intertype's typefaces include Monterey (1958, Rand Holub, its "version" of Murray Hill; available from Bitstream now), Imperial (designed by Ed Schaar; now a Bitstream font), Intertype Vogue (ca. 1930, see Am Sans by Volker Busse for a free digital version), Stuyvesant (1940, now available from Bitstreeam), and Nuptial Script (now an Adobe font). MyFonts writes: Harris inherited the Harris-Intertype library, made up of the typefaces cut by Intertype to compete with Mergenthaler from the First World War. A small group of original typefaces centers on newspaper typefaces and scripts. In the thirties C.H. Griffith at Mergenthaler believed the linecaster to be unsuitable for the development of scripts, which led Ed Schaar at Intertype to claim this market as their own. Intertype became Harris-Intertype ca. 1960, and Harris ca. 1975. Cyrillic typefaces in their library, ca. 1930. The firm still exists as Harris Corporations in Melbourne, FL, but is no longer producing fonts. Leonard Spencer, in his article Linotype / Intertype Linecasting Machines How They Differ writes: Intertype started as International Typesetting Machine Company in 1911. Many of first machines were rebuilt Linotype bases with improvements patented by the new company. When World War I broke out, International Typesetting Machine Company was reorganized as the Intertype Corporation, and by 1917 had three machines for sale: Model A one magazine, Model B two magazine, Model C three magazine. Intertype was first in cold type with its Fotosetter in 1950. This machine continued the circulating matrix principle but had film image instead of the punched character. Stuart Sandler adds this piece of information: The Harris-Intertype Fotosetter was the first photo typesetting machine invented. It marks the beginning of the Cold Type era and is the machine responsible for it . . . Incidentally this is the machine that inspired the creation of the Filmotype by its inventor Allan Friedman when he saw it unveiled to US audiences in 1948. Instead of lead slugs, the Intertype which was a Linotype machine had replaced them with small film negatives and proceeded to set type as you would imagine the bastardization of a lead type and photo type machine only could. There are many reasons Cold Type caught on and it became the standard some time after that period till digital typesetting machines like the Alphatype came into their own. It wasn't until the release of the first MacIntosh in 1984 when Cold Type was eclipsed by desktop publishing. Mac McGrew: Ideal (originally called Ideal News) was designed by Herman R. Freund for Intertype in 1926, for the New York Times. It has much the appearance of Century Schoolbook, but with shorter ascenders and squattier capitals. The italic is a little closer to Century Expanded Italic, providing more contrast with the roman. Sturdy serifs, substantial hairlines, and open loops make it a practical typeface for the demanding production requirements of high-speed newspaper use. Ideal Bold is heavier than the Century bold typefaces. View a few digital typefaces with roots in the Intertype collection. Another famous type is Cairo. Mac McGrew: Cairo is Intertype's adaptation of Memphis, originally designed by Rudolf Weiss for Stempel in Germany about 1929, and first imported into the United States as Girder. Except for Litho Antique, this was the first of the modern square-serif typefaces, which are revivals of older typefaces known as Egyptians. The Intertype typefaces appeared in 1933 to 1940. Lining Cairo features several sizes of caps on 6- and 12-point bodies in the manner of Copperplate Gothic. Compare Memphis, Stymie, Karnak. Farrar is also the author of The Typography of Advertisements That Pay (1917, D. Appleton and Co., New York). Local download. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Type foundry and vendor active in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was associated with International Type Founders (ITC). It was based in Nashua, New Hampshire. John Schappler was art director at Itek Composition Systems from 1979 until 1984. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American lettering designer. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the art deco typeface Shotgun (1972). Bitstream has the digital versions Shotgun and Shotgun Blanks. The Cyrillic version of Shotgun was done in 1997 by Diai JS in Petroslavsk, called Target. See also SoftMaker's Shotgun (2019). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Threshold (1976), Hairpin (1975, a paperclip face), and Hairpin Hairline (1975, outlined version). A low quality free version of hairpin is here. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer of the rounded sans typeface Jaget Doron and the piano key typeface Jaget Rina (VGC). Rina is his daughter and Doron his son. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in San Francisco in 1908, Burke died in 1975. He studied at the University of California in Berkeley. From 1949 until 1963, he was type director for Mergenthaler-Linotype, succeeding C.H. Griffith. He developed the TeleTypesetting System (TTS) for magazines and designed some fonts for native American languages. He designed Trade Gothic (1948-1960), Majestic (1953-1956) and Aurora (1960). Aurora is a newspaper type. Bitstream's digital clone is News 706, now simply called Aurora. Mac Mc Grew: Aurora is a newspaper typeface designed by Jackson Burke for Linotype in 1960, and is made only in 81/2-point, combined with its own italic or a choice of standard bold typefaces, as far as we can determine. Of course, its origins go back to the German grotesques, ca. 1928. Mac McGrew: Majestic is a newspaper typeface produced by Linotype staff designers in 1955. It is similar to Corona, but was made in very few sizes. Mac McGrew writes about Trade Gothic: Trade Gothic is a Linotype family of gothics designed by Jackson Burke, and is basically very nearly the same as News Gothic. An early typeface on that machine was Gothic No. 18, which in small sizes was like a nineteenth- century face, but in large sizes was essentially the same as News Gothic Condensed. In 1948, with the return to popularity of American gothics after European sans serifs had replaced them for a while, the small sizes were recut, to match the larger ones, and all were paired with Gothic No. 20, an adaptation of Alternate Gothic No.2. The following year more condensed versions of both weights were offered as Gothic No. 17 and 19. The bolder weight was very similar to Alternate Gothic No.1, but the lighter weight retained its round-sided design, unlike News Gothic Extra Condensed. As the popularity of these typefaces continued to grow, Linotype changed the name to Trade Gothic Condensed and Extra Condensed, with their bold typefaces, and in 1955 added Trade Gothic and Trade Gothic Bold in normal widths. The light or regular weight is virtually the same as News Gothic, but the bold weight has flat sides on its round letters, making it a wider version of Alternate Gothic, unlike the News Gothic Bold developed about the same time by Intertype and a little later by other sources. (In a 1977 Linotype specimen book, the names reverted to Gothic Nos. 17 to 20.) Trade Gothic Extended and Bold Extended were announced early in 1959; for this bold weight the flat sides finally gave way to round sides, more like the News Gothics from other sources. Compare Monotone Gothic, which is essentially a wide version of News Gothic. In 1962 the last of this family appeared as Trade Gothic Light and Italic, the upright typeface being similar to Lightline Gothic. Unfortunately, Trade Gothic regular had been called Light (in distinction from its bold mate) in some Linotype literature, leading to some confusion when the actually lighter version appeared later. Altogether it has been a very popular and widely used series. Compare News Gothic, Alternate Gothic, Monotone Gothic, Lightline Gothic, also Record Gothic. Digital versions of Trade Gothic appeared at Adobe and Linotype. In 2008-2009, Akira Kobayashi and Tom Grace unified and extended Trade Gothic to Trade Gothic Next (17 styles). SoftMaker has Transfer Gothic and URW offered Tradus. Links to implementations: Trade Gothic (Adobe), Trade Gothic (Linotype), Trade Gothic Next (Linotype), Trade Gothic Next Soft Rounded (Linotype), News Gothic (Bitstream), News Gothic (ParaType), News Gothic (Tilde), News Gothic (URW++), News Gothic (Adobe), News Gothic (Linotype), Trade Gothic for Nike 365 (Linotype), Monotype News Gothic (Monotype), News Gothic No. 2 (Linotype), News Gothic SB (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), News Gothic SH (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), News Gothic EF (Elsner+Flake), News Gothic No 2 (URW++). In 2017, Lynne Yun (Monotype) made a layerable and colorable extension of Trade Gothic called Trade Gothic Display. Fontshop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. FontShop link. View various versions of Jackson Burke's Trade Gothic. View digital versions of Trade Gothic. Another catalog. And another one. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer. In 1953, he made a bouncy display typeface that was digitally revived by Stuart Sandler in 2007 as Filmotype MacBeth, and by Mario Arturo as Brook Flair (2012). Also in 1953, he drew a brush typeface for Filmotype. Sandler digitized and expanded it in 2007 as Filmotype Austin. Filmotype Reef (1953) is a fat poster typeface revived by Sandler in 2011. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Czech designer (b. 1939, Jindrichove Hradci) went to the Art School in Prague (1954-1958) and the Academy of Art, Architecture and Design in Prague (or: School of Applied Arts) (1959-1965). From 1973 until 2003, he taught at that academy, and headed the Font Studio at the School of Applied Arts. His best-known student was Frantisek Storm. His typefaces:
At the ATypI in Prague, Frantisek Storm said about Jan Solpera: Solpera always plays with the alternates. At that meeting, Storm described Solpera as a precise and patient man, who insisted on having many alternates (in his types). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Jay Schechter (b. 1941, New York) studied art, design, and lettering at Hunter College. He managed photographic reproduction at TypoGraphic Communications in New York from 1966 until its demise in 1984 [TGC was a successor to Rapid Typographers]. He became the Director of Typographic Design at Characters, which also bought up the fonts from Techni Plus, until that company too closed its doors, ca. 1992. Creator of phototype typefaces at VGC, such as Jay Gothic and Jay Gothic Bold (1965) [these typefaces are available as OPTI Jaffa from Castcraft]. After TGC, he worked for Characters (which also bought up the fonts from Techni Plus) until that closed (approx. 1992). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Jay Rutherford
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Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Barry (1975). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French type designer and calligrapher (b. 1947, Rennes, d. 2015) who worked mostly in Cergy-Pontoise. From 1962-1965, he studied typographic art in a school under the Paris Chamber of Commerce. From 1973 until 1985, Jean Larcher, who had studied calligraphy as well, worked as a freelance calligrapher in and around Paris. From 1985, he taught calligraphy both inside and outside France. He wrote several books, including Character Traits (2014). While calligraphy was his passion, Jean was also fascinated by op-art and geometric patterns. His fonts are all phototypes except for the metal font Latina. His typefaces: Abécédaire à Renayures (1991, for Collector magazine), Beauté (1966, for Magazine Votre Beauté), Castillejo-Bauhaus (1980, Rapitype Madrid), Catich (1998), Digitale (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Gautier (1992, Agence J.-P. Gautier&Associés), Guapo (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), Hollywood Script (1989), Honolulu (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Incise Volume (1981, for Cergy Magazine), Jamaica Experience (1978, for Rock Hebdo Magazine), Lancöme (1981, Rapitype, for Lancöme), Larcher (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Latina (1987, Mécanorma), Liberté Égalité Fraternité (1985, for the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale), Logement (1980, Rapitype, for Cergy Magazine), Menhir (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), New Crayon (1980, Rapitype, for Cergy Magazine), Optical (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Plouf (1970-74, Hollenstein Phototypo), Rasgueo (1979, for U&lc Magazine), Revival (1979, for 20 ans Magazine), Soleil (1973-75, Hollenstein Phototypo), Super Crayon (1976, Titrage CCT), Tornade (1974, Hollenstein Phototypo), Veloz (1987, Mécanorma), Vibrator (1976, Titrage CCT). 3D Alphabet (by Character) is inspired by an alphabet coloring book designed by Jean Larcher, 1978. | |
French designer (b. 1939), calligrapher by training, who lives in Villeneuve-Saint-Georges. He is the designer of Sélune (1998, Creative Alliance, with influences of Grandjean and Didot), Garonne (1972, Hollenstein Phototypo), Loire (1991-1997, Creative Alliance), and Rhône (1987, Mecanorma). FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer, graphic designer and illustrator, born in Marseille in 1942. Allessandrini (sometimes spelled Alessandrini in various publications) used to work at Paris Match, Lui and Elle. His typefaces: Akénaton 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo) (1975, VGC??), Alias 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Allessandrini 7 1972 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Anarchiste (Mécanorma), Andronique 1984 (Mécanorma), Astronef 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Circus World, (Mécanorma), Cléopatre 1984 (Mécanorma), Combinat 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Éclipso 1982 (Mécanorma), Electric-Type 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Futuriste 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Germain 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grand Dadais 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grand Large 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Graphic Man 1973 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Grossium 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Gyptis 1977 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Hypnos 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo: a psychedelic face), Legitur, Mikado 1977 (Mécanorma: oriental simulation), Mirago 1970 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Priam 1976 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Showbiz 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Sigle (Mécanorma), Technos 1984 (Mécanorma), Trombinoscope 1964, Vampire 1969 (Hollenstein Phototypo), Wotan, (Mécanorma). Inventor of the classification system Codex 1980 that provoked heated responses from luminaries such as Vox, baudin, Blanchard and Mendoza. Author of Typomanie / Jean Alessandrini; préface de Massin (Paris: La Noria, DL, 1977). In 2013, David Rault wrote the monograph Jean Alessandrini Le poète de la lettre. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Soul (Light, Medium, Bold, Open) (1972). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Jerry Mullen's connected Repro Script from 1953-1954 (ATF)---in my view, a mediocre representative of the fifties scripts---was revived/interpreted by:
Mac McGrew writes: Repro Script was designed for ATF in 1953 by Jerry Mullen. It is a continuous script except for a few letter combinations, nearly monotone in weight, and narrow. It is informal, but not as much so as Brody, which is another of the foundry's attempts to replace its delicate old traditional scripts with contemporary typefaces. Steve Watts says it was designed to work with News Gothic Condensed and other plain sans serifs, but the connection is not apparent. Compare Brody, Brush, Kaufmann Script.. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Jerry Saperstein
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Jim Rimmer (b. Vancouver, 1934, d. 2010) was one of the great contemporary type designers whose creations had a lot of flair, individuality, and charm. Based in New Westminster (near Vancouver, BC), Jim Rimmer was also an illustrator. Obituary in the Globe and Mail, dated April 27, 2010. He designed Albertan (Albertan No.977, Albertan No.978 Bold) and Cloister (2000; a roman type family originally done by Morris Fuller Benton) in the Lanston collection. He also designed typefaces like Juliana Oldstyle (1984), Nephi Mediaeval (1986), Kaatskill (1988; a 1929 typeface by Goudy, revived and optimized for Lanston in type one format; the Kaatskill Italic was done by Rimmer based on Goudy's Deepdene), RTF Isabelle (Roman and Italic; 2006. A pair of delicate serif typefaces based on typefaces by Elizabeth Friedlander) and Fellowship (1986). ATypI link. Jim began work as a letterpress compositor in 1950. He entered the field of graphic design in 1963, working as a designer lettering artist and illustrator, and freelanced in this capacity from 1972 to 1999 in the same capacity. In 1960, he began collecting letterpress printing and typefounding equipment, and operated a private press and foundry (Pie Tree Press&Type Foundry). FontShop link. His metal typefaces at Pie Tree Press include:
In 1970, Jim made his first film type, Totemic. This sturdy text type was revived in 2015 by Canada Type as Totemic, and contains as an extra a et of stackable totems. Jim has designed and produced a collection of digital types, and over the past 20 years has designed and cut six metal types. He recently completed a Monotype Large Comp type named Hannibal Oldstyle, is currently cutting 14 point matrices for Cartier Roman, and is making drawings for the cutting of a 14 point Western and Eastern Cree. Samples and discussion of his Cree typeface. Jim in action in 2003. According to Gerald Giampa from Lanston, Jim is the most talented type designer alive in 2003. About his typefaces, I quote McGrew: Fellowship was designed and cut by Jim Rimmer in Vancouver in 1986, and cast by him for private use. He says, "The design is the result of the feeling of joviality and 'fellowship' I experienced at the meeting (American Typecasting Fellowship in Washington, D.C.). The design was not so much drawn as it was written. The letters were written quickly in a calligraphic manner with an edged pencil and then enlarged and inked to make a dry transfer sheet. As in my two previous designs (see Juliana Oldstyle and Nephi Mediaeval), Fellowship was cut not in steel, but in type metal, and then electroplated to make castable matrices." Juliana Oldstyle was designed and cut in 1984, as a private type. He says, "It represents my first attempt at cutting a metal type. I drew my letters completely freehand, hoping to capture a punchcut look. My artwork was then reduced and made into a dry transfer sheet, which I rubbed onto type-high typemetal blanks. I then cut the letters and electroformed copper matrices." Nephi Mediaeval was designed and cut in 1986, for private use. He says it "was inspired by the Subiaco type of the Ashendene Press and by its inspiration, the type of Sweynheym and Pannartz. My design breaks away from those types slightly in form and is softer in general feeling. In time I will cut other sizes." In 2012, Rimmer Type Foundry was acquired by Canada Type. The press release: Canada Type, a font development studio based in Toronto, has acquired the Rimmer Type Foundry (RTF) from P22 Type Foundry, Inc. The RTF library contains the complete body of work of Canadian design icon Jim Rimmer (1934-2010), who was an enormous influence on Canadian type design and private press printing, and the subject of Richard Kegler's documentary, Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century. The RTF library contains many popular font families, such as Albertan, Amethyst, Credo, Dokument and Stern, as well as quite a few analog designs that were never produced in digital. Now that Rimmer's work has been repatriated, it will be remastered and expanded by Canada Type, then re-released to the public, starting in the fall of 2012. Jim's analog work will also be produced digitally and available to the public alongside his remastered and expanded work. Once Jim's designs are re-released, part of their sales will be donated to fund the Canada Type Scholarship, an award given annually to design students in Canada. This will be done in coordination with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), the national professional association that awarded Jim Rimmer with the prestigious GDC Fellowship in 2007. Jim Rimmer digitized Elizabeth (+Italic). From 2006 until 2012, the Rimmer Type Foundry collection was offered by P22. It included:
Jim Rimmer passed away early on January 8, 2010. His friend Richard Kegler (P22) wrote this obituary the next day: Jim was a multi-talented type designer, graphic artist, bookbinder, printer, letterer, technician and a most generous teacher. He was never glory-seeking and turned down most speaking engagements offered to him, not out of vanity or indifference, but rather thinking that he was not worthy of being given a spotlight. Jim offered free typecasting instruction to anyone who asked and came to visit him in his studio in New Westminster BC. He took as much time as needed and was generous to a fault. Anyone who took him up on this open invitation can attest to the intense and elegant chaos of his studio and work habits. I was fortunate enough to know Jim but for only a few years. What started as a business arrangement grew into a mutual respect and ongoing correspondence that I can only describe as life changing for me. His kindness and generosity were exceptional and his diplomacy even when given the opportunity to speak ill of anyone else was measured and kind. Jim's dedication to the craft of type design and related arts was beyond most if not all contemporaries. After his "retirement" from his professional life as a graphic artist and illustrator, he tirelessly worked on type designs for book projects where all aspects of his skills were applied. His book "Leaves from the Pie Tree" (I encouraged him to change the title from his original plan to call it "Droppings from the Pie Tree"...a truly self-effacing Jim Rimmerism) is the best single tome that summarizes his life and work. He designed the books typeface in Ikarus (as he had with the 200+ other type design he created), cut the matrices and cast the type, wrote the text using an autobiographical introduction and continued to explain the process he used to cut pantographic matrices for his metal typefaces. The multi-colored lino cut illustrations, book design, individual tipped in sheets and attention to press work and binding would be impressive for one specialist to complete on each component. The fact that Jim did all of this himself is awe inspiring. A trade edition of this book has been printed by Gaspereau press but does not hint at the grandeur of the beautiful book that is Pie Tree. Jim's follow up of his edition of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer (set in his Hannibal Oldstyle font designed for and fitted onto on a monotype composition caster) was recently completed and is equally if not more imposing as a fine press book, but with a sympathetic humor and humanity that would knock the stuffing of any other fine press attempt at the same material. Almost two years ago I visited Jim for a week and filmed footage for a documentary on his cutting of the Stern typeface. For various reasons the finishing of the film has been delayed. I truly regret that Jim could not see the finished version. With the film and his Pie Tree book, Jim generously conveys information on making metal type that has otherwise been largely lost and previously limited to a now defunct protective guild system. It was his wish that the information and craft be kept alive. Jim's last email to me was in classic Jim form hinting at his tireless dedication to his work: details of a new type family for a new book. He was one of the great ones. He will be missed. Sumner Stone: Jim's insights into Goudy's typefaces in particular, and his devotion to doing everything in his own shop made me think he was perhaps Fred's reincarnation, but it took me awhile to realize this due to the self-deprecating personality you so accurately describe. His passing is truly a great loss to our craft. Rod McDonald: I would like to relate a telephone conversation I had with Jim last month because I believe it shows his incredible spirit, and wonderful sense of humor. My wife and I visited Jim in November and were delighted to hear that his doctors had pronounced him cancer free. He looked good, just a little tired, but that was to be expected after his recent radiation treatment. Of course he was also anxious to get back to work. Less than two weeks later I received an email from him informing me that they had discovered that the cancer had spread to his lungs and, not only was it inoperable, he now only had six months to live. This sudden turn of affairs was devastating for me and I called him, hoping I think, to hear that it wasn't as bad as it sounded. He said it was bad and apparently nothing could be done. However he felt he would outlive the six months and in fact we even talked of getting together in the fall. The conversation then turned to his latest type family and when I gently asked him how long he thought it it would take to complete he simply said "I've got lots of time, after all I'm only going to be dying during the last fifteen minutes". I knew Jim for thirty-five years and will miss him more than his work, and that's saying a great deal. In 2012, Canada Type, which had purchased Rimmer's designs started publishing some of Jim's lesser known designs. These include Cotillion Pro (2012, a very graceful typeface with high ascenders), Fellowship (2013, calligraphic), Poster Paint (2012, a take on Goudy Stout), Zigarre Script and Zigarre Rough (2012, brush scripts that were actually drawn with a marker), and Alexander Quill (2012, a calligraphic monastic typeface). In 2013, Canada Type remastered several of Rimmer's typefaces, including in particular Isabelle Pro: Isabelle is the closest thing to a metal type revival Jim Rimmer ever did. The original metal typeface was designed and cut in late 1930s Germany, but its propspects were cut short by the arrival of the war. This was one of Jim's favourite typefaces, most likely because of the refined art deco elements that reminded him of his youthful enthusiasm about everything press-related, and the face's intricately thought balance between calligraphy and typography. Not to mention one of the most beautiful italics ever made. Lancelot Pro (2013) is a calligraphic all caps typeface based on Rimmer's digital original from 1999. Pictures: Jim Rimmer casts 48pt ATypI keepsake (by John Hudson), Remembering Jim Rimmer (Facebook group), In his studio, a picture taken by the Globe and Mail. Another pic. Making Faces (trailer) (movie by Richard Kegler). Klingspor link. ContentDM collection. Jim Rimmer at the Fine Press Book Association. Rimmer Type Foundry link. View all typefaces by Jim Rimmer. An alphabetical listing of Jim Rimmer's typefaces. Catalog of Jim Rimmer's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
New York-based advertising designer. Codesigner with Herb Lubalin, Ed Benguiat and Antonio DiSpigna of the rigid slab serif typeface ITC Lubalin Graph (1974). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
According to Identifont, Joe Taylor designed Blippo Black in 1969 at FotoStar. Currently he is the curator of the Mt. Blanco Fossil Museum in Crosbyton, TX. It was inspired by Herbert Bayer's 1925 experimental "universal typeface". Blippo versions: Scangraphic, URW. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the (phototype) LED simulation fonts Touring (1973) and Vienna (1973), which can be seen in the Berthold Headlines E3 book from 1982. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Author of Lettering (1946). Designer of fonts such as Cavanagh No. 17 (1939, Ludlow). At Photo Lettering Inc, he designed Appalacia, Beacon Shaded, Billboard, Bingo, Bruce (+Italic), Calliope (Western), Chandelier, Dahlia, Dock Stencil, Eighteen Ninety (Western), Fournier, Hamilton, Hansa (blackletter), Initials 1 and 2, Jason, Kaleidoscope, Lenox Gothic Italic, Ogden, Parliament (blackletter), Pony Express (Western), Royal (roundhand), Shaded, Tiffany, Versailles, Yonalassi (script), and Zinnia. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
John Bomparte
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Designer of the film font Lorish Shadow. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Lettering artist, stonecutter, calligrapher and sculptor, b. 1939, Newport, RI. Son of John Howard Benson (1902-1956), stonecutter and calligrapher, who was also born in Newport. He has created inscriptions for monuments including the John F. Kennedy memorial at Arlington National Cemetery, the National Gallery of Art, and the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC. Trained in sculpture at the Rhode Island School of Design, John was owner and operator of the historic John Stevens stonecarving shop for more than thirty years. He trained his son Nicholas, who now runs the John Stevens Shop (since 1993), and has lately returned to the full-time practice of making sculptures at his studio in Newport. His typefaces include the understated calligraphic scripts Alexa (1995-2002, Adobe), Balzano (1994, Adobe) and Caliban (1995, Adobe), the titling typeface Aardvark for Font Bureau (1991, with Jill Pichotta), and several phototypefaces for architectural applications. Sample of his work from 1973 now at the MoMA in New York. Wikipedia link. Font Bureau link. . Fontshop link. Linotype link. View the typefaces that were made by Benson. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
John Goodger was involved in a firm called Goodger Valleau and Associates at 2050 Mansfield Street [now Hotel Saint Germain] in Montreal. At a certain point Goodger Valleau and Associates began using the names Artisart for the art studio, Artistat for the stat house, and Art Etc., for design projects. John designed the Visual Graphics Corporation font Goodger Pointy (a phototype) in the early 1970s. Some peop;le on the Typedia blog say that Goodger Pointy appears to be similar to the Mergenthaler Linotype style Metro, designed by W. A. Dwiggins. Acknowledgment: Thanks go to Montreal-based graphic designer Gerry L'Orange who used to work under Goodger. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in 1925, died in 2003. He worked for the advertising agency Sudler & Hennessey, where he was head of lettering design. Frances Elfenbein met him first in 1957 at Sudler&Hennessey. She writes: John was the most skilled and creative letterer I had the privilege of knowing. He did the finished lettering for most of the designs Herb Lubalin created [at S&H], always adding refinements to the very rough sketches he received from Herb. In addition he created his own very beautiful roman serif typeface. He was "the Man" for lettering, and each and every art director in the agency sought to have him work on their project...of course Herb came first. When I broke my ankle skiing in 1963, John lettered the word "Love" in script on my cast...he was a sweet guy, and professionally very modest in spite of his formidable talent. Herb started his own design firm in 1964. John did not go with him, preferring to remain at S&H until his retirement. Tony Carnese who had been trained by John inherited his mantle and worked in the same greystone as Herb Lubalin Inc. I worked in the office alongside John in the mid '80's at S&H. He frequently sang as he lettered, always a surprise to people who realized that he stuttered when he spoke. [...] He had an enormous amount of patience. In the late 1950's we still had to use metal (Monotype) for large point sizes. Herb hated the letterspacing and line spacing that resulted from the shoulders and leading on individual characters. He achieved the results he wanted (very tightly kerned letters and tightly leaded lines) by having John cut apart each individual letter from clay-coated proofs only to reassemble the letters and lines. This was a monstrous task when the type was 24pt Century Expanded. John did it and never complained, and to tell the truth he agreed that the text did look much better. Thank you Frances for sending me this touching description. In 1964, Herb Lubalin made a typeface with him called Pistilli Roman (photocomposition format only, VGC). There are also Bold and Black weights. It is one of the most gorgeous extreme-contrast didone headline typefaces ever made. A picture of the VGC typeface competition poster. Revivals of Pistilli Roman:
Klingspor link. Poster by Michaela Kriener. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Scotford Uncial (1965). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American John Russell designed Russell Square (1973, VGC), which was named after a London neighborhood. It is a monoweight straight-line octagonal sans with angled stroke endings. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
John N. Schaedler was an old school New York type designer, who had his own studio in the city. In the 1970s, Schaedler published Swinger, a film type by Ray Cruz. Around the same time, the psychedelic typeface Loose New Roman was designed. In 2010, Nick Curtis revived the latter typeface as Loo Snoo Roman NF. Tabasco and Paprika, geometric oddities with Paprika being the bilined variant, were revived in 2010 by SoftMaker as Tabasco and Tabasco Twin, respectively. Download Tabasco Twin here. Hiroshi Yamashita's Alpha Midnight (ca. 1969) was revived by Alan Jay Prescott as APT New Alpha Midnight. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
John Schappler (1921-2017) graduated from the University of Iowa (1959), John had been a student of Father Edward Catich at St. Ambrose College, in Iowa, and had also worked with Ray Da Boll and R. Hunter Middleton. He worked from 1959-1965 at IBM on type design for typewriters in the era of IBM's Selectric typewriters. He was the designer of the typefaces IBM Script, Adjutant, and Delegate. From 1967 until 1971 he was director of type design at Ludlow Typograph Co. He was manager of typeface design at the Chicago office of Compugraphic (1971-1973) and director of typography at Sun Chemical (1973-1976) and type and art director at Itek Composition Systems (1979-1984). He retired in Nashua, NH. John carved the tombstone of Victor Hammer, who had been his friend and mentor. He designed these typefaces at Itek: Paul Mark (1977), Rita Script (1978). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator (b. 1941) of typefaces at VGC, such as Solitaire (1965). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
At Photolettering, John Yavroyan designed the LED typeface Evga. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Influential French type designer, born in Sèvres in 1926, d. 2018. He worked with Maximilien Vox in the early 1950s. From 1954 to 1959 he was the assistant of Roger Excoffon at the Fonderie Olive, Marseille. From 1985 until 1990, he was a professor at the Imprimerie Nationale, Paris, where his students included Thierry Puyfoulhoux, Frank Jalleau, and Poul Søgren. Neufville republished many of his fonts. Books about his work:
FontShop link. Linotype link. FontShop link. Wikipedia link. Showcase of Mendoza's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Joseph Churchward
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Designer and lettering artist in the 1970s. He published Mr. Big (1972, Berthold AG), a decorative font that saw several digital revivals:
His Media Serif (1976, H. Berthold AG) was digitally revived by Elsner and Flake---this is one of the typographic horrors of Western society, with clumsy serifs pointing the wrong way. at some point, Brendel Studio and Linotype were also offering versions of Media Serif. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
German type designer, d. 1984. He created Kap Antiqua (1970s, VGC). For a remote revival, see Patrick Griffin's P22 Barabajagal (2018). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator (b. 1938, Lasdehnen, Germany) of typefaces at VGC, such as Domning Antiqua (1966). In the Berthold Types Collection, he has Quadra 57 BQ (1974, a great slab serif), Viola (1973, didone) and Simone BQ (1974, didone). View Karl-Heinz Domning's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer (b. 1929, Wiesenkirch, d. 2010) at Typoart Dresden (former East Germany). Karl-Heinz was enrolled in the Humanistic Gymnasium at Elbing from 1939 to 1945 and changed to the Wernigerode High School after his family had to flee to central Germany. From 1949 to 1951, Karl-Heinz Lange studied at the Werkkunstschule Halle, where one of his teachers was Professor Post. After 1951, he continued his studies at the Hochschule for Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig with an emphasis on book design. He received his diploma in 1955 with distinction based on his design of a hot metal typeface. From 1956 to 1961, Karl-Heinz Lange worked as a lecturer for Type and Commercial Graphics at the Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst in Magdeburg. From 1961 to 1963, he taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, and finally as a freelance commercial designer in Magdeburg. From 1969 to 1976 he was Artistic Director at Henschelverlag, Berlin. From 1976 until 1994 he was Professor of Type and Typography at the Fachschule für Werbung und Gestaltung in Berlin. From 2005 to 2007 he taught at the Fachhochschule Magdeburg/Stendal. Karl-Heinz Lange was awarded the second prize at the International Type Design Contest 1971 for a headline typeface, and, in 1984, at the XIth Biannual of Graphic Design in Brno, he won a silver medal for Publica. He created the telephone book typeface Minima and redesigned the Typoart Super Grotesk (Arno Drescher, 1930) as well as the newspaper typeface Magna (originally by Herbert Thannhaeuser). His fonts include:
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Phototype designer. He created the psychedelic / art nouveau phototype typeface Fortunata (1971, Berthold). That typeface was revived by Kevin Allan King and Patrick Griffin as Spadina (2010, Canada Type). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of Genny (1970), an avant-garde typeface from the photo type era. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of a revival of the paper-fold stencil typeface Norton Tape (2012) at Photo-Lettering. This typeface was originally designed by S.E. Norton for Photo-Lettering. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Krzysztof Kochnowicz
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Born in 1921 in Transylvania, he trained at the Fine Arts Academy of Budapest (Hungary) and then at the Beaux-Arts in Rouen (Normandy, France). Ladislas Mandel was a stonecutter, painter and sculptor. However, he spent his life in France, mostly as a type designer at Deberny&Peignot, where he worked since 1954. In 1955, he headed the type atelier. He was taught by and cooperated with Adrian Frutiger during nine years at Deberny, finally succeeding Frutiger in 1963 as type director. In 1955, he was in charge of the transformation of the Deberny type repertoire from lead to phototype. He created original designs under the label International Photon Corporation, and turned independent designer in 1977. After that, he specialized in typefaces for telephone directories, and made, e.g., Colorado in 1998 with Richard Southall for US West. He cofounded the ANCT in Paris in 1985 and taught there and at Paris VIII. In 1998, he published the book Ecritures, miroir des hommes et des sociétés (éditions Perrousseaux), which was followed in 2004 by Du pouvoir de l'écriture at the same publisher. He died on October 20, 2006.
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Lawrence Wallis
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Lawrence Wallis: A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments, 1886-1986
| In his 1988 slim book, A Concise Chronology of Typesetting Developments (London: The Wynken de Worde Society and Lund Humphries), Lawrence Wallis chronicles the history of photocomposition. The information below is from that source, via Paul Shaw's page on that topic.
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London-based film type company. They sold and/or used the main typefaces at the time. I do not believe that they ever made original type. Just for history's sake, a few shots from their catalog: Andrich Minerva, Arnholm Medium Sans, Bodoni, Craw Clarendon Condensed, display typefaces (list), Ehrhardt, Jana, Jana, lightline Gothic, Modern No. 20, Pistilli Roman, text typefaces (list). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of Westminster (1973, Berthold), related to VGC's Amelia (1967) and based in the look of the magnetic ink bank cheque font MICR E-13B that was developed in the mid 1950s and is used by banks from the 1960s onwards. Klingspor's site says that he is German, but that is wrong---he is British. In an interview, the writer says: There is one space age one called One Up, a ghastly 60s thing, and the guy who designed that, Leo Maggs, talks about how he wished he hadn't designed it. "Way back in the swinging 60s," he says, "when my youthful soul was consumed with enthusiasm, if not naked ambition, I was surprised and delighted to have my first typeface, Westminster, accepted by Robert Norton. I produced several further designs, most of which were properly strangled at birth. One Up unfortunately survived... Looking at it now I feel much as I imagine a mature film star must feel when, 30 years after the event, she comes across photographs of herself as a struggling starlet revealing all for the readers of popular girly magazines, and I wish I hadn't done it." [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Lee (1974). Lee Bold is the typeface used in Charlie's Angels (the credits for both the TV show and the movie, as well as in the VHS logo) and in the film "Whose life is it anyway?". There are other weights such as Lee Regular and Lee Italic. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Les Besnardtypo
| The French type designers Michel (b. 1942) and Rosalyne Besnard (b. 1946) live in Rouen. Under the brand Les Besnardtypo, they jointly designed Micmac (Agfa Creative Alliance, 1997), ITC Odyssee (1996), ITC Typados (1997), Rom (Creative Alliance, 1998), Bouchon (Letraset, 2000), Huit (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1972), Sargon (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1974: bilined and futuristic), Migraph (Agfa Monotype, 1999), PistolShot LT Std Normal and Light (Linotype, 2003), Nazca (Monotype Imaging, 2005), Sargon (Monotype Imaging, 2006), First One (Monotype Imaging, 2006: a family for teaching the alphabet to children), Mickros (Monotype Imaging, 2007), Pantin (Monotype Imaging, 2007), De Gama (Monotype Imaging, 2008), Pasta (Monotype Imaging, 2008). As of 2015, Monotype sells De Gama, Filao, First One, Gamira, Huit, Makina, Mickros, Modern B42, Nazca, Pantin, Pasta, Robotool, Sargon, Season. Linotype page. FontShop link. Another FontShop link. View Michel Besnard's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Leslie Usherwood
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The most famous Canadian type designer (1932-1983). Usherwood studied at the Beckenham School of Art, and practiced as a lettering artist in the commercial art field for 15 years. Typesettra was created in 1968, and had more than four type designers in the early eighties. In 1977, Typsettra began designing original typefaces for Berthold, Letraset and ITC. Usherwood's typefaces:
Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
LetterGraphics
| Photolettering foundry run by Marc Jones Barry Kimbrough in Culver City, CA. Russell Bean worked for the Los Angeles studio of Lettergraphics International in charge of lettering, logo design and converting type designs to film fonts. It was at this time (1973) that the Washington family (digital version at Type Associates, Russell Bean's present company) was completed. The company ceased operations in the mid-1980s. The 1968 catalog of Lettergraphics featured typefaces like the psychedelic Mod Poster in Alfred Roller's Viennese secession style. The 1974 catalog of Lettergraphics shown in ULC 1974 includes these typefaces:
Digital revivals:
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Chicago-based company founded in 1939 by Edwin W. Krauter, which created lettertypes from the 1930s until the 1970s. In 2010, Stuart Sandler (Font Diner) announced that it intends to digitally revive the collection. He writes: Founded in 1939 by Edwin W. Krauter of Chicago, Lettering, Inc. produced its own patented Photo-Ray process of lettering (US Pat 2165861) in which transparent letters made from original alphabets were assembled by hand and then placed in a line (angled or curved if so desired) and then photographed. This "glass setting" process created flawlessly set headlines and, with multiple character forms to choose from the headline looked authentically lettered. An early competitor of Photo Lettering, Inc, they employed such notable lettering artists of the time as Oscar Ogg, Ray DaBoll and Ray Baker, among others. At its height in the late 1960s, Lettering, Inc. had as many as 14 franchises operating in the US and Canada and was continually producing new alphabet designs. As the market changed and computer technology evolved, Lettering, Inc. became less of a supplier of type to the ad agencies and became more involved as a supplier of high-end graphics and type to the big Detroit auto makers. Today, from its Southfield, Michigan office, Lettering, Inc. continues to provide various graphics services to a diverse group of customers. Each Lettering, Inc. alphabet was originally designed with nearly 3-4 alternate glyph forms for every character and ligature pair, many with well over 300 Latin characters alone. Stuart Sandler, President of Font Diner, Inc. intends to release the Lettering, Inc. library in OpenType format so the original designs can be fully realized with a dynamic feature set including every alternate glyph forms and automatic substitutive ligature as it was designed by the original artists. "We're also thrilled to be working from the original ink drawings on board by the original Lettering, Inc. artists that have been in the Lettering, Inc. archives since the 1930s." says Sandler. "We are very happy to work with Font Diner to once again make these beautiful and unique typefaces available to the public." says Karin Krauter of Lettering, Inc. "So much of this wonderful collection has never been seen before and we're pleased to honor and revive the work of these highly-skilled and talented lettering artists from the heyday of lettering to be appreciated and enjoyed by modern designers again", explains Sandler. An illustrated history of Lettering, Inc. is currently being researched and written by Sandler with the assistance of many current and former Lettering, Inc. employees. His work will accurately re-tell the evolution of Lettering, Inc., its founder Ed Krauter and the significant contributions of Lettering, Inc. to the typographic industry. A re-release of the original Lettering, Inc. catalogs is also planned. Sample. Another sample. And another one. In 2012, production started with Feather Script (Patrick Griffin). In 2013, the large advertising headline sans family Directors Gothic (Neil Summerour) followed. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Phototype era American type designer. Jeremy Mickel created a digital version his (prismatic, beveled, roman caps) Trillium typeface in 2011 at the new digital PhotoLettering / House Industries. Copeland's original Trillium was done at Photo-Lettering, Inc. in 1960. He also designed Copeland Milo (a connected script) at PhotoLettering Inc. John Moore says that Copeland's style inspired him when he made Scripta Pro in 2014. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the Cloe font (Varityper, 1979). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American type designer who was associated with the photocomposition company Visual Graphics Corporation. He created the horizontally striped caps typeface Maximus (1973, VGC). A digital version exists at Bitstream called Maximus BT. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Or Lou Dorfsman. Celebrated graphic designer, b. 1918, Manhattan, d. 2008, Roslyn, NY. U&LC wrote in 1988: For more than forty years, Lou Dorfsman was responsible for much of the design and advertising done by CBS, Inc. As Vice President and Creative Director of Advertising and Design, his work has set a standard aspired to by corporate communicators around the world. This retrospective exhibition also includes graphic design, exhibition design and advertising done for other clients, including Dansk Designs International. The recipient of many design awards, Lou Dorfsman was elected to the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1978, the same year that he was awarded the annual medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. By 1964, he was selected as the director of design for all of CBS and was later promoted to senior vice president and creative director for marketing communications and design in 1968. In this role he maintained creative control over the network's use of the CBS Eye logo to its proprietary CBS Didot typeface created in the 1970s by Freeman Craw. He would go on to win the TDC Medal in 1995. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer (1912-2003) associated with Visual Graphics Corporation. Creator of the Victorian typeface Davida (1965, VGC). Digital versions of Davida include Davida EF by Elsner&Flake, a Bitstream version, Delaware (Softmaker) and Ruminata (at Photo Lettering). Bio at Linotype. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Foundry prominent in the photolettering period featuring fonts by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase. The typefaces have the acronym LSC in their names, such as LSC Book. The company evolved into Lubalin, Burns and Co, which in turn evolved into ITC, which was set up in 1970 by Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns and Edward Rondthaler. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Ludlow
| Foundry in Chicago run by Robert Hunter Middleton. Myfonts.com writes that its type library was largely derivative, with some original scripts. After Middleton's death, and Ludlow's demise, most of the typefaces from the Ludlow library were licensed exclusively to International TypeFounders, Inc., (ITF) and are part of the Red Rooster collection. Fonts by Middleton at Ludlow include Bodoni Campanile, Bodoni (see Bodoni D Black by URW, and Bodoni Campanile Pro (2017) by Steve Jackaman), Coronet, Mandate, Lafayette (now sold by Font Bureau), Tempo (see Tempo by Monotype), and Umbra (now sold by Bitstream and Monotype). Ludlow house typefaces revived by Steve Jackaman include Caslon RR Extra Condensed, Chamfer Gothic (the original being from ca. 1898), and Gothic Medium Condensed. A renewed Ludlow was established in 2001 and is run from the UK. Current (2002) catalog: Admiral Script (Robert H. Middleton's formal script, 1953: see the digital revival by Ralph Unger in 2005), Adrian VGC (2003), Annonce Grotesque (Wagner&Schmidt, 1914), Delphian Open Title (Robert H. Middleton), Flair (connected writing, 40-50s style), Franklin Gothic ExCnd Title, Founders Garamond (based on the Berner type specimen of 1592), Lotther Text (blackletter based on an alphabet of Melchior Lotther, 1535), Ludlow Ornaments (2001), Ludlow Stygian (art deco, which inspired Nick Curtis' 2009 font Kharon Ultra NF), Maxim (Peter Schneidler, hand-printed font from 1955), Orplid (Hans Bohn), Samson (Robert H. Middleton), Speedball Roman, Ludlow Stencil (1937, Robert H. Middleton; a digital revival includes Jeff Levine's Favorite Stencil JNL (2015)), Tempo MedCond (Robert H. Middleton), Theda Bara (great titling type), Vulcan Shaded (based on the design of the Richard Gans Foundry in Madrid), Karnak Black (Egyptian slab serif originally designed by Robert Hunter Middleton in 1930), Oriana (blackletter font based on a design of the Imprimerie Nationale, Paris), Ludlow Square Gothic (revival/modernization of a 1920s font by Robert Wiebking for Ludlow), The Hardy Arcade (like Umbra), Ogre, Vulcan Bold (a display font inspired by a 1925 design of the Richard Gans Foundry, Madrid), Walbaum. Crestwood (2006, Ascender) is an updated version of an elegant semi-formal script typeface originally released by the Ludlow Type Foundry in 1937. References: Ludlow Typefaces A Supplement, November 1933, Ludlow Typefaces Typefaces Recently Produced, April 1936, Ludlow Typefaces [Edition D] (between 1940 and 1956). View a list of digital typefaces derived from the metal typefaces at Ludlow. Ludlow Foundry: List of some digital fonts. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as China (1975). That typeface was digitized and extended twice by Mark Simonson, first as Changeling (2003) and then as Changeling Neo (2009). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
He once said Each letter should have a flirtation with the one next to it. The story told by his son Clyde (Chromatype, Charlotte, NC) in 2010: It was a quote developed during the time of using the typositor for phototypesetting headlines. Herb Lubalin, Aaron Burns and ITC were clients of ours who often required the careful and considered placement of one letter next to the other. We had to take into account the positive and negative space between letters. This was being done in a red light safe darkroom, exposing each letter one at a time and watching it develop under a "glass" which held liquid photo developer. Being a flirtatious man, my father came up with that quote during that period which was around 1985-1986. A couple of years later he became a consultant for a few companies including Adobe in their earliest years. That quote can be found in one of Adobe's first specimen books "Adobe Type Guide, Volume 1". [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Majus Corporation
| George Thomas is a font expert who owns Majus Corp in Dallas, a company he founded after having contributed to many of the major font foundries. Creative Alliance designer: The first font to be released from Majus Corp., and licensed exclusively to the Creative Alliance, is Civilite MJ. The typeface was originally cut by Robert Granjon in 1557. This Civilité dates from 1994 and is based on a model by Louis Ferrand (1922). He also created the film fonts Eightball, Highball, and Cueball, which were licensed to Alphabet Innovations (Phil Martin's company). MyFonts page. Phil Martin said about him: George Thomas came to work for me. A technical genius in my view. He made my studio the branch office of Merganthaler. When type director Mike Parker quit Merg to found Bitstream and hire away all Merg's type-knowledgable people, Steve Byers had no way to keep Merg in production except for what George and I did for him. His fonts have the MJ suffix. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Designer of photo types. Creator of Schüller Regular, Medium and Bold (1986), available from Berthold. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Marc Jones Barry Kimbrough
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Designer of the funky Photo-Lettering Inc font Picnic. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototype cursive typeface Batik (1980, Berthold AG). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Thor (1973). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Markus Roman and Basilea (1965), which won the 1965 VGC National Type Face Design Competition. Patrick Griffin writes about Messenger (2010, Canada Type): Messenger is a redux of two mid-1970s Markus Low designs: Markus Roman, an upright calligraphic face, and Ingrid, a popular typositor-era script. Through the original film typefaces were a couple of years apart and carried different names, they essentially had the same kind of Roman/Italic relationship two members of the same typeface family would have. The forms of both typefaces were reworked and updated to fit in the Ingrid mold, which is the truer-to-calligraphy one. Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Hill did another revival / extension of Basilea, called MarkusLow (2010). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Steen Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Rowland Grotesk. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Eastern Souvenir (1969, 3 weights). Eastern Souvenir was created for the identity of Eastern Airlines. It is based on the 1967 Photo-Lettering typeface Souvenir by Ed Benguiat. Benguiat's Souvenir in turn was a revival and extension of a metal typeface designed in 1914 by Morris Fuller Benton called Souvenir that appears in the 1923 ATF specimen book. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
German type designer, b. Berlin, 1903, d. Berlin, 1993. He studied at Unterrichtsanstalt des Staatlichen Kunstgewerbemuseums Berlin in 1921. In 1923, he was hired by Atelier Wilhelm Deffke and later became an independent graphic designer. His typefaces include many scripts:
Klingspor file. FontShop link. Linotype link. Catalog of some of his digital descendancy. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Sol (1973 or 1975, with C.B. Smith) and the neotech font family Harry (1966, with C. B. Smith). Goldstein was born in Chicago in 1939, and co-founded the groundbreaking Creative Black Book. He graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1960. His father was called Harry, hence the name of the font. Harry was revived digitally by Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir as Harry Pro (2009, Red Rooster). Sol was extended and revived by Patrick Griffin and Kevin Allan King in 2010 at Canada Type as Sol Pro (20 styles). The Quick Brown Fox GmbH copied the original Sol, and that version ended up as Digital Sans in the Elsner & Flake collection in the mid-nineties. In 2015, Elsner & Flake published the 36-style extension Digital Sans Now. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Iowan designer who created the phototype fonts Jamon Book and Old Hamcherry (1966). FontsInUse link. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer in the photo type era, who worked for Photo Lettering Inc and was based in New York. His typefaces include Bigtown Bold, Casual, Christmas (blackletter), Crayon Casual, Kerr Lightline, Madison Avenue, Kerr Stencil (+Bold) and Ultra Slim Light. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Tim McGuinness runs McGuinnessDesigns.com. He published several cheap font CDs such as Expresiv Art Fonts (1995), Expresiv Brush Script Fonts (1995), Expresiv Classic Fonts (1994), Expresiv Ornamental Fonts (1994), and Expresiv PhotoLettering Fonts (1994). Typophile has a discussion in which these collections are called cheap knock-offs. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Menlor D and Menlor Casual D (Lettergraphics) are phototype fonts in the style of Old Hamcherry (1966, Max Dingksbuhms). In 1978, Castcraft published a similar typeface, Mabley. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Mergenthaler
| The Mergenthaler company was formed in 1886 to develop and market Ottmar Mergenthaler's (1854-1899) invention of the linecaster. Under Chauncey Griffith's typographic direction from 1915 to 1949 the company assumed the leading position in the Americas in both book and newspaper production, originating a large and varied library. Under the direction of Allied Corporation, the company lost control of the overseas companies and became the American marketing arm of Allied Linotype, which was based in Frankfurt. Some types, both metal and photo, were developed at the company by William Addison Dwiggins, Chauncey Griffith, Jackson Burke and others. Also called Mergenthaler Linotype. German postage stamp showing Ottmar Mergenthaler in 1954, designed by Hermann Zapf. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
American letter designer in the phototype era. He contributed to the Photo-Lettering library with many Spencerian designs. His typefaces include
Author of the article Notes on Designing for Photo-Lettering (Print Magazine, Volume IX, Number 1, June-July 1954). A second MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Michael Chave
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Designer at Letraset of University Roman, 1972-1983 (originally a font from the 1960s: Typographic Systems International [TSI]/Lettergraphics). Redesign by Michael Daines in 1972, and re-redesign by Timothy Donaldson & Phillip Kelly in 1977 in the Letraset Type Studio, based on his and Mike Daines' original design. His Hawthorn (1968) is a slightly serifed black typeface of elegant proportions. The lower case a is too far below the baseline though. He also released the Monotype Small Office/Home Office package: Diversities (dingbats), Gravura (calligraphy), Humana Medium, Humana Sans Medium, Orbon Bold, Pink (distressed), Stylus (architectural lettering) and University Roman. I am not sure if this is the same Michael Daines, but a certain Michael Daines made the iFontMaker font Monzter (2010, hand-printed). Linotype link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Di Canzio Sans. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Michael Sharpe
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Michel Besnard
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Creator of the multiline typefaces Oxford (1970s), Optex (1970, Letraset) and Michel (1970s, A. Hollenstein). At Mecanorma, he created Bronx (Shaded, Dropshadow) and Surprise. Optex was digitized and extended in 2010 by Jonathan Hill as Olympik. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Milka Peikova (b. 1919, Pavel, Bulgaria, d. 2016, Sofia, Bulgaria) was a famous Bulgarian artist. She created paintings, posters, book covers, portraits of famous Bulgarians, textile designs and alphabets, both individually and together with her husband Georgi Kovachev-Grishata (1920-2012). She is a graduate of the Bulgarian National Art Academy, class of 1948. She founded Cosmos magazine and designed for the Women Today and Problems of Art magazines. In 1979, she designed an alphabet that was extended to an 8-style Latin / Greek / Cyrillic stencil typeface---Milka (2016)---by a team of designers at Lettersoup that includes Ani Petrova, Botio Nikoltchev, Adam Twardoch and Andreas Eigendorf. The basic Milka font is a clean stencil design, while the Aged, Baked, Brittle, Crunchy, Dry and Soft styles are inspired by stencil and letterpress techniques and expand the usefulness by adding various degrees of warmth or roughness. Milka Peikova also designed the first Bulgarian typeface for phototypesetting called Grilimil with her husband Georgi Kovachev-Grishata. She is the recipient of the first prize for a typeface at the Bulgarian National Book Exhibition and Illustration [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Milton Glaser (b. 1919, New York, d. 2020) was an important American graphic designer who founded Push Pin Studios (in 1954) in New York where he worked with Seymour Chwast. He left in 1970 and founded Milton Glaser Inc in New York in 1974. He taught classes at SVA, where according to Michael Samuel he said to his students: There are three responses to a piece of design---yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for. One of his most iconic designs is the New York City logo from 1977 set in ITC American Typewriter. Glaser designed type on art boards. In the 1973 monograph Milton Glaser Graphic Design, George Leavitt is credited for lettering execution. Author of Sketch & Finish: The Journey from Here to There (2020, Princeton architecural Press). Glaser's typefaces:
Musings about life (dead link). Linotype link. FontShop link. A brief tour of Milton Glaser's typography. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Mo Lebowitz
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French type designer who designed Aïda, Monika and Silvia, all in 1972 at Hollenstein Phototypo. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Japanese publishers in 1980 of a phototype book called Display typefaces. Scans by Maniackers. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of phototype typefaces at VGC, such as Accant (1978) and Erwin (a comic book / psychedelic style face). Erwin was digitized by Nick Curtis and extended to Nerwyn NF (2010). At Photo Lettering (New York), he designed Erwin, Joanie, Off Beat (beatnik style), Space Age, Space Age A and Space Age Outline B. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
A list of phototype equivalences for fonts from these foundries: Alphatype, Apple, AM, ATF, Autologic, Baltimore, Bauer, Berthold, Bitstream, CompuGraphic, Deberny+Peignot, Harris, IBM, Ill, Intertype, Itek, Lanston Monotype, Letraset, Linotype, Ludlow, Monotype, Neufville, Photon, QMS, ScanGraphic, Simoncini, Stephenson Blake, Tegra, Typoart, Weber, Xerox. These were scanned from a book, but I forgot which one. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Photographer. Type designer in the 1970s who won a Letraset type competition in 1973 with her design, Astra, co-designed with François Robert. Her name is sometimes Natasha Falda-Robert, as she seemed to have married François Robert. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer in 1983 of ITC AvantGarde Mono and ITC Souvenir Mono. Note: The geometric sans family ITC Avant Garde Gothic was designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase and based on Lubalin's logo for Avant Garde Magazine. Ed Benguiat designed the condensed fonts for ITC. Souvenir was originally drawn by Morris Fuller Benton in 1914 as a single weight for the American Type Founders company. It was revived in 1967 by Photo-Lettering and optimized for phototypesetting equipment. ITC was formed in 1971 and, with the help of Photo-Lettering, introduced ITC Souvenir as one of its first typeface families. ITC Souvenir was designed by Ed Benguiat and comes in four weights, each with a matching italic. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator at PhotoLettering Inc of the decorative caps family Buzzard. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Norton Photosetting Ltd
| Oxford, UK-foundry of Robert Norton (1929-2001). It produced Else NPL (1982). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Twentieth century book designer and calligrapher, b. Richmond, 1909, d. 1971. Ogg was an architecture graduate of the University of Illinois in 1931. The New York Times writes: He won recognition as one of the outstanding graphic artists of his time. His first book, Alphabet Source Book, published in 1940 by Harper, was a copy book of lettering styles. The 26 Letters, published by Crowell in 1948, a history of the alphabet from cave drawings to contemporary type fonts, was illustrated by 275 of his drawings. For Photolettering in New York, he designed these typefaces: Ogg Folio, Ogg Irish Uncial, Ogg Roman 3 and 4, Ogg Italic 3 and 4, and Ogg Semi Uncial. Digital revivals include Ogg (2013) by Lucas Sharp. Sharp's Ogg is a fashion mag typeface loosely inspired by the hand lettering of Oscar Ogg. Lucas Sharp's Salter Roman (2021) is based on two designs penned by Oscar Ogg in 1942. The first is his title page design for Design & Paper No.11 (Marquardt & Company, New York); the second is his design for Gates of Aulis (Gladys Schmitt, The Dial Press, New York) that same year. The former became the basis for the lowercase, while the latter informed the uppercase. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Austrian graphic and type designer (b. 1927, Austria, d. 2010, Hard, near Bregenz) who set up Vorarlberger Graphik Studio in 1951 in the town of Hard am Bodensee (Lake Constance) after graduating in 1950 from a graphic arts academy in Vienna. He specialized in poster design, and in the late 1960s, early 1970s, he turned to logo and type design. His typefaces:
The web site Motter Fonts is managed by Othmar's grandchildren, Peter and Siegmund. An excerpt from his obituary at FontShop: Motter was the first Austrian designer who managed to establish his type designs on the international scene. In the early 70s four of his headline typefaces were produced by Berthold and Letraset: the striking ornate display sans Motter Ombra; the aforementioned Motter Tektura, a constructed sans; the striking geometric all lowercase typeface Motter Alustyle; and the curvaceous bold display script Motter Femina. In the following years the all-round graphic designer interrupted his type design activities, profiling himself through international assignments as a logo designer, winning several competitions. | |
German designer of the phototypeface Black Wings (1976, H. Berthold AG). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Ottmar Mergenthaler
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Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Collins Bicentennial (1975), which comes in Solid, Open and Ornate subfamilies. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Arlenette. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer at Canada Type. Wikipedia tells us that Patrick Griffin had been locked away in a mental institution by Carter and Barbara, after he walked in on his mother performing oral sex on Jackie Gleason. He had a nervous breakdown and was sent to a mental hospital, where he came to the conclusion that Gleason was evil because he was fat, leading him to hate fat people. However, that is a different Patrick Griffin. The real Patrick Griffin, a graduate of York University, lives and works in Toronto, where he founded Canada Type and made it the most successful Canadian type foundry. His work is summarized in this 2009 interview by MyFonts. It includes lots of custom work for banks, TV stations, and companies/groups like New York Times, Pixar, Jacquin's, University of Toronto, and the Montreal Airport. His retail fonts include the following.
Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Author of Modern Display Alphabets: 100 Complete Fonts Selected and Arranged from the Franklin Photolettering Catalogue (1974, Dover). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Hungarian type designer (d. 1992) who made Totfalusi Antikva (Fonderie de l'État Hongrois, 1955). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Cactus Bold (1973). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Peter Bain
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Peter Bain Design (was: Incipit)
| Incipit, or Peter Bain Design, was Peter Bain's type and graphic design studio in Brooklyn, New York. It closed down gradually between 2007 and 2010. Peter Bain received his M.F.A. in Design: Visual Communications from Virginia Commonwealth University. He was type director at Saatchi&Saatchi Advertising in New York, and taught at Parsons/The New School for Design and Pratt Institute in New York. After Saatchi, and before Incipit, he was freelancing. After Incipit, he relacted briefly to Virginia to attend VCU and then went on to Mississippi, where he was Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design at Mississippi State University. He lived then in nearby Starkville, MS. He is currently located in Birmingham, AL. He is best known for his wonderful book Blackletter: Type and National Identity (1998, with Paul Shaw). His photocomposition display typefaces were reedited and available in reproduction proofs (for a short time). The photocomposition display typefaces are in two-inch film format, as formerly used on machines such as the Typositor and Filmotype. They are being held in storage, and are no longer listed for that reason. PDF format list. Text format of Bain's file. Bain says he built this from the Typositor type libraries formerly offered by Techni-Process Lettering and Pastore DePamphilis Rampone, which he bought at an auction. Report on his talk in London on blackletter type (2003). MyFonts sells the 4-weight Josef Albers-inspired stencil family Gridiot (2003-2011). His thoughts about the art of Albers: Remember, any idiot can design a typeface on a grid: Gridiot. Speaker at ATypI 2006 in Lisbon. Speaker at ATypI 2013 in Amsterdam. MyFonts link. Behance link. Peter Bain Design. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Peter Bain surveys the era of photo-typography. His introduction: In the 20th century photo-typography fully displaced a 500-year-old tradition of metal type, only to be superseded itself shortly thereafter. Yet most appraisals of type technology and histories of proprietary typefounding still favor type for text instead of eye-catching display. One characteristic feature of 20th century typography was the great effort devoted to ephemera and advertising. This survey is a local view of a half-century, concentrating on display type in New York City. Since New Yorkers have been said to believe they are at the center of the planet, it is fascinating to find a time when it could appear nearly so, typographically. He goes on to explain why and how New york became the typographic center of the globe: The city in the first half of the 20th century was an established communications center for a burgeoning national market. There is ample evidence of local interest in unique letterforms. Sometime Queens-borough resident and typeface designer Frederic Goudy received a commission from retailer Saks Fifth Avenue. The successful New York illustrator and letterer Fred G. Cooper had his distinctive forms included in the same publications that featured an unrelated Windy City designer, Oswald Cooper. Architect H. Van Buren Magonigle and industrial designer Walter Dorwin Teague had both skillfully rendered capitals for print, while their Manhattan offices pursued projects in three dimensions. One of the more curious examples of this fluency in letterforms was a 1943 booklet issued by the Brooklyn-based Higgins Ink Co. The largest portion was a portfolio of thirty-two script alphabets and fictitious signatures by Charles Bluemlein, each accompanied by a handwriting experts interpretation of the admittedly invented specimens. The requirements of publicity and publishing helped drive the demand for handlettering. By 1955, one knowledgeable estimate placed over 300 professional lettering artists working in New York at both comprehensive (layout) and finished levels. It was in a landscape of album covers and bookjackets, magazine and newspaper advertising, trademarks and slogans, store signatures and letterheads, billboards and signs (created by sign artists, not usually graphic designers) that display phototype was emerging in sharp focus. This may have been the peak of market demand for lettering. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Phototype era type designer. In the early 1970s, he created some typefaces for PhotoLettering Inc, such as Riverside Drive (art deco). Riverside Drive was revived digitally by Nick Curtis in 2014 as Maxed Out NF. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Colescombe. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Painter and designer, b. Lochen, Germany, 1926, Graduate under Walter Brudi of the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. He taught at that school from 1962 until his retirement. Designer of these typefaces:
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Phil Martin
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Type designer who runs Philip Kelly Digital Design in the UK. He worked for Letraset from 1969-1994 as a type designer. His type design work there included Arabic and Hebrew letterforms. From 1994 until 1997, he designed typefaces at Signus, and became an independent designer in 1997. His typefaces:
Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. Portfolio. Testimonial of Kelly's days at Letraset. View several digital typefaces based on Philip Kelly's designs. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
A subsidiary/part of House Industries in Yorklyn, DE. I quote: Photo-Lettering was a mainstay of the advertising and design industry in New York City from 1936 to 1997. PLINC, as it was affectionately known to art directors, was one of the earliest and most successful type houses to utilize photo technology in the production of commercial typography and lettering. It employed such design luminaries as Ed Benguiat and sold type drawn by the likes of Herb Lubalin, Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast as well as countless other unsung lettering greats. The company is best known by most of today's graphic designers for its ubiquitous type catalogs. Physically, the collection takes up about 1500 cubic ft (42 cubic meters) of space and consists of film negatives and positives of most of the 6500 fonts produced in the company's 55 years. There are also countless patterns, cartouches, borders and dingbats, all of which have been preserved in film negative form. Each negative is approximately 28 in (71 cm) by 5 in (13 cm) high. House Industries, a Yorklyn, Delaware-based independent type foundry, purchased the entire physical assets of Photo-Lettering in April of 2003. Through a partnership with Ken Barber, Christian Schwartz and Erik van Blokland, House Industries is carefully digitizing select alphabets from the collection and plans to offer them through a modern web-based interface. The Photo-Lettering interface has allowed us to reach beyond the rigid confines of typography to offer extended features such as layering, color control and multiple master interpolation over six axes. With some of the most talented minds in display typography behind this new display lettering system, users of the system will enjoy the same refined typography as the original Photo-Lettering customers. A snapshot of their production, as of mid 2012, in alphabetical order:
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Photo-Lettering Inc.
| New York based photocomposition, lettering and digital type business active from 1936-1997, cofounded by Harold Horman and Edward Rondthaler in 1936 (in 1928, but only open for business in 1936). Its designers included Bob Alonso, Vincent Pacella, Vic Caruso, Herbert Post, Holly Goldsmith, and Ed Benguiat. It sold type drawn by the likes of Herb Lubalin, Milton Glaser, Seymour Chwast and many others. It was one of the earliest and most successful type houses to utilize photo technology in the production of commercial typography and lettering, employing over 200 people at its peak. It folded ca. 1990. Ed Benguiat: The alphabet styles in this collection, many of which took over 200 hours to complete, were drawn with pen and ink to exacting standards by veteran lettering artists. I know....during my 35 years employed by Photo-Lettering I produced over 500 complete fonts. In all, 6500 fonts were produced. A partial time line was offered by Peter Bain (italics are quotes from Bain):
In 2003, the entire collection was bought by House Industries. Its fonts included ITC Flatiron (a very wide caps typeface published by ITC in 1997), BenguaitCharisma (1993), FourthOfJuly (1992), Swinger (1992), Parchment (1993), ITC Musica (1996, which was Bel-Canto at Photo Lettering in 1968), and ITC Static (1996; called Bounce at Photo Lettering). Photo-Lettering Collection Revival link at MyFonts. View their typeface library. More images of digital typefaces based on the Photo-Lettering collection. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Photon Inc
| Company in Wilmington, MA, founded by William Garth. MyFonts writes: In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, Photon, under Billy Garth, built a large and rambling library of low quality typefaces, original in nothing but scripts. A group of higher quality material created at Deberny&Peignot for Lumitype - Photon's European arm - under Higgonet and Moyroud was added when the younger Higgonet closed Deberny&Peignot. After Photon went out of business, the library was passed through Dymo (1975) to Itek (1979), and then to Unitex (1983), itself later acquired by Chorus Data Systems of New Hampshirer. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Photo-era foundry located in London. Their house fonts include Blackfriars, Chin Century 2000 (computer simulation family in Nr 1, 2 and 3 versions), De Vinne Ornamented, Granby Elephant, Mexico Olympic (multilined op-art font) and Nova. Fonts are shown in Berthold Headlines E3 (1982). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French designer of Golf (Hollenstein Phototypo, 1970). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
A phototype book published in 1968 by Photo-Lettering. Images by Stephen Coles. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Quad Typographers
| A typesetting and font vending compnay in New York City, active in the 1960s and 1970s. It was run---I think---by Mo Lebowitz (b. 1932, Washington, DC). Quoting the RIT Library: earned a BA degree from the University of Maryland. He spent two years in the Air Force, and then worked in the Washington area as an agency art director. He moved to New York in 1960 where he served, in turn, as art director for American Machine & Foundry, Savitt Studios, and Needham, Louis & Brorby. He opened his own design office in 1966, specializing in, among other things, the promotion and packaging of wine. However, he may have produced his most creative work in the basement of his North Bellmore, L.I., home as the proprietor, or "Prop," of the Antique Press, established in 1960. As the name implies, the Antique Press consisted of an eclectic collection of letterpress equipment, fonts of metal and wood type, and innumerable dingbats (printers' ornaments and cuts), along with a "multitude of parts, pieces, etc., that are at times not even known to the Prop. until he finds them by luck." Here Lebowitz produced a steady stream of posters, broadsides, pamphlets, and other ephemera that were widely collected by his friends and acquaintances in the graphic design community. In an interview published in Print magazine (Nov./Dec. 1964), [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the bilined typeface Burgondy Right (1974). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Bisque (1975). Bisque is B733 Deco for Softmaker and Brisk for Corel. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Led16 (1975). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Ralph C. Coxhead
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Great handletterer (b. 1929 in Far Rockaway, Long Island of Russian parents) who grew up in New York City. He studied lettering with Paul Standard, Georg Salter and Leo Manso at The Cooper Union and graduated from The Cooper Union in 1951. He worked at the same studio as Milton Glaser for the next three years. Rahael become a designer and worked for some time for Lippincott and Margulies in New York. Raphael lived in Colorado for a long time, but is now based in Bellingham, WA. In 1969 he patented a squarish typeface for Tyco Laboratories in Waltham, MA. In 1972, he moved to Newport, RI and resumed his career in lettering, calligraphy and graphic design. His typeface Avia (VGC) was an expansion of a logofont he did for Abex Corporation, almost like a stencil. It is now at Font Bureau, where Jill Pichotta has added the Light and Bold in 2000. His typeface Visa (1966, VGC) won the Second Prize in the 1966 VGC National Type Face Design Competition. Others (thanks, Alexander Tochilovsky) confirm what I thought---that Visa and Avia are the same thing. Finally, Sloop Script Pro (1994, Richard Lipton, Font Bureau) is based on Boguslav's designs. FontShop link. MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer who worked for VGC in the phototypesetting era. He created ITC Quorum in 1977, a font halfway between serif and sans, and the wide copperplate sansserif font ITC Newtext in 1974. Digital versions of the latter exist at Elsner&Flake and Softmaker [Q853 Flare and Quagga on the SoftMaker MegaFont XXL CD, 2002]. At Filmotype, he made the brush script typeface LaSalle (1950s), which was digitized in 2008 by Stuart Sandler at Font Bros in 2008 as Filmotype LaSalle. In 2010, MyFonts credits Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari with the digitization though. Other Filmotype typefaces digitized in 2011 include Filmotype Harmony (original from 1950), Filmotype Kentucky (a 1955 original), Filmotype Kingston (a 1953 original), Filmotype Hamlet (a 1955 original), all in the connected signage type category, and all done by Patrick Griffin and Rebecca Alaccari. The latter two also digitized Filmotype Lucky (2012), a signage typeface from 1953. Bio at Linotype. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Ray Cruz
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Designer of the film font Herness Script. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the psychedelic Photo-Lettering Inc font Teknic. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
French type designer (b. La Houssaye, 1917, d. 2003) whose typefaces include Blason (1978), Continent (1959, Optype - Letterphot), Mopon (1965, Moreau - Lettrage Relief), Nil (1978), Psitt (1954, Fonderie Typographique Française), Castellane&Valensole (Fonderie typographique Française), Roncevalles (1955, Fundicíon Tipográfica Nacional), Solide (1958, Optype - Letterphot), Suresnes, Ulysse (1958, Optype - Letterphot), Uncialis (1950, Optype - Letterphot). A quote from him: La typographie est un art précieux parce qu'elle forme le dernier revêtement de la pensée. Author of Louis Perrin et l'Énigme des Augustaux (Editions des Cendres, Paris, 1998). This book has a history of Perrin as a printer and typographer, with special attention to Perrin's Augustaux type. It contains two fold-out Augustaux type specimens and several examples of Perrin's printing in black-and-white, has a preface by Fernand Baudin, and is printed in Perrin type redesigned by L'Atelier National de Création Typographique in 1986. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer (with Constance Blanchard and John Matt) of Garth Graphic, a text typeface with eight weights. FontShop link. She worked at Compurgraphic in the 1970s. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film font Roberts Square. This font was shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as the Glyphic Series (1972, in piano key style) and Wexford (1972). Wexley (2009, Harold Lohner) is a digital revival of Wexford. Wexford (2009, Daylight) is another digital revival. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer, b. 1928, whio graduated from Washington University Art School, St. Louis. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Jana (1965), which won Third Prize in the 1965 VGC National Type Face Design Competition. For a digital version / extension of Jana, see Rocklidge Pro (2011, Steve Jackaman and Ashley Muir). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer (b. 1926 in St. Paul, MN, d. 2000 in Edina, MN). Designer at the Visual Graphics Corporation of Serpentine (1972), Dingaling (1977) and Woodstock (1978). Mark Simonson says that he looked like Drew Carey. In 2007, Canada Type revived Harry Villhardt's VGC font Venture as Chopper. They write: In 1972, VGC released two typefaces by designer friends Dick Jensen and Harry Villhardt. Jensen's was called Serpentine, and Villhardt's was called Venture. Even though both typefaces had the same elements and a somewhat similar construct, one of them became very popular and chased the other away from the spotlight. Serpentine went on to become the James Bond font, the Pepsi and every other soda pop font, the everything font, all the way through the glories of digital lala-land where it was hacked, imitated and overused by hundreds of designers. But the only advantage it really had over Venture was being a 4-style family, including the bold italic that made it all the rage, as opposed to Ventures lone upright style. One must wonder how differently things would have played if a Venture Italic was around back then. Chopper is Canada Type's revival of Venture, that underdog of 1972. This time around it comes with a roman and an italic to make it a much more attractive and refreshing alternative to Serpentine. His niece, Janis Smith, writes: Dick Jensen, my uncle was not only the original designer of the Serpentine lettering (which he designed for the Visual Graphics Corporation, and is today a trademark of VGC), but he was also an accomplished commercial artist, wood carver and painter. Over the years Dick worked as a commercial artist at Artist Inc., K&K Freelancer, Studio One, and for Tanaka Advertising before retiring in 1998. He won an art award during his career. Unfortunately, my uncle Dick Jensen just passed away this last June 29, 2000 peacefully at home from colon cancer in Edina, Minnesota. My mother, my brother and myself took care of him to the end. He was 73 years old at the time of his death. He was born July 31, 1926, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He left my family and me many beautiful paintings, woodcarvings and memories! Dick Jensen was the son of Anthony and Florence (Dahlquist) Jensen and the grandson of Swedish and Danish emigrants. His father Anthony Jensen was also a sign painter and artist. Dick attended the U of M, Grand Marais Art Colony and was a graduate of the Minneapolis Art Institute in Minnesota. Dick Jensen served in the U.S. Army from 1944-1946 during WWII in Germany, France&Belgium with the 10th Infantry-2nd Armory. He married Jane Manley, Oct. 1, 1954 at St. James on the Parkway church, Mpls., MN. His wife Jane, suddenly died when she was only 39 years old on New Year's Day, January 1, 1972 from acute pancreatitis. Dick and Jane were like a golden couple, they traveled to Europe, had parties and enjoyed life to the fullest. Jane's death broke his heart. Dick's spirit lives on in the hearts of all of those who knew him. Serpentine was at the basis of some digital typefaces such as Serpentine (Linotype), Serpentine (URW++), Serpentine (Adobe), Serpentine (Image Club), Serpentine EF (Elsner+Flake), Serpentine Stencil (Apply Interactive), EF Serpentine Serif (Elsner+Flake), Serpentine Stencil EF (Elsner+Flake), Serpentine Sans (Image Club), Dungeon (Red Rooster Collection), Chopper (Canada Type), and Senator (Softmaker). Klingspor link. FontShop link. Bio at Linotype. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer in the phototype era, who created Hunter in 1976 at Letraset. From a scan, an anonymous designer made Hunter and Hunter Black in 1998. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Kingsville, Canada, in 1924, to American parents, Richard Isbell moved to the States with his family when he was three years old, settling in Detroit, Michigan. Between 1936 and 1943 he took special art classes for gifted students at Detroit Institute of Arts. In 1943 he joined the US Marines. He served in Australia, and later the South Pacific. In 1945, upon discharge, he returned to Detroit and worked for General Motors in the graphic illustration department. He joined New Center Studios in 1947 as a lettering and design artist. Owned by Art Greenwald, an ex-lettering artist, New Center Studios was to be his home for nine years. In 1955, he saw the first use of his alphabets for Mercury and Pontiac cars. Together with a group from New Center Studios, he formed Art Group Studios in 1956. He spent four years there, designing for automotive clients. In 1960, he became graphic director at Headliners International, designing various Oldsmobile advertisements. He continued to design for the automotive industry, becoming a member of the General Motors design staff in 1965 and designing the Chevrolet signature. Between 1976 and 1988 he taught lettering and design at the Center for Creative Studies, as well as at the School of Art and Design, Detroit. Isbell died in 2009 in Detroit. Isbell did typefaces for both ATF and ITC:
Linotype link. FontShop link. . [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
American type designer at Photolettering in the 1970s. His typeface Aphrodite served as a model for Nick Curtis's Mighty Ditey (2007), which mixed art deco with Peignot. It also served as a model for the well-known early digital font Riesling. Odden Creative (Santa Cruz, CA) created another revival called Gillespie in 2015. Other typefaces: the Aimee family (ca. 1970: Fineline, Medium, Open, Outline C, Outline D, Outline E), Laura, Lady Carole, Moon Walk, Moon Walk Open B, Newborn. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
British font software specialist and type designer, 1937-2015, who was universally liked for his modesty even though he knew more than most about the theoretical and technical aspects of type design in the twentieth century. A graduate in natural sciences from Cambridge (1960), he joined Crosfield Electronics Ltd in London, where he was responsible for producing photomatrices for the Photon-Lumitype direct-photography photocomposing machines sold by Crosfield in Europe. From 1974 to 1983 he was a lecturer in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. Between then and the end of the decade he worked in California and France, at Stanford University (where he worked with Don Knuth from 1983-1986 on the Metafont project), Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and the Université Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg. Since then he has been a consultant type designer with the American Mathematical Society, BT, the Civil Aviation Authority, National Air Traffic Services and US West Dex (now Qwest Dex). Author of Printer's Type in the Twentieth Century Manufacturing and Design Methods (British Library Publishing, 2005; Sumner Stone's review of this book). He wrote many type-technical articles such as Designing a new typeface with METAFONT (Springer Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol. 236, pp. 161-179, 1986), Shape and appearance in typeface design (in J H Miller (ed) Protext III: Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Text Processing Systems, 1986), Interfaces between the designer and the document (in J. André, R. Furuta and V. Quint (eds) Structured Documents, 1989), Problems of font quality assessment (with Debra Adams: in Jacques André and Roger D. Hersch (eds) Raster Imaging and Digital Typography, 1989), Presentation rules and rules of composition in the formatting of complex text (in Rosemary Sassoon's Computers and Typography, 1993), Character description techniques in type manufacture (in Rosemary Sassoon's Computers and Typography, 1993), Character generator systems for broadcast television (in Information Design Journal 2:1 (1981), Metafont in the Rockies: the Colorado typemaking project (in Roger D Hersch et al (eds) in Electronic Publishing, Artistic Imaging, and Digital typography, 1998), and Prototyping Telephone-directory Pages with TEX (in: Cahiers GUTenberg 28-29, pp. 283-294). With Ladislas Mandel, he designed the telephone directory typeface Colorado in 1998 for US West. It is one of the few examples of a practical application of a typeface coded in Metafont. Obituary by Gerry Leonidas. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
From the TDC web site: After several years as an advertising agency copywriter and account executive, Dick joined his family's advertising typography firm, and has been involved in typeshop management ever since - working his way over some four decades through all the technology changes from hot metal to today's Postscript. He served as President of Typographers International Association, is the author of dozens of published articles on the typographic business, and has presented seminars to typographic groups in many cities around the country and abroad. Over time, Dick narrowed his efforts to the field of foreign language typography and translation and now heads up the New York City firm, Spectrum Multilanguage Communications. While not laying claim to being a typeface designer by vocation, several Arabic fonts Dick designed were licensed and produced by Berthold; and a number of others were marketed by VGC as fonts for the PhotoTypositor. Dick holds a degree in Public and International Affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Robert Alonso
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Californian poster artist in the flower power era. Designer of the film fonts Botsch Glob and Botsch Toe. These fonts were shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. Classic posters list. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the film fonts Streak and Brightman. These fonts were shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Robert Hunter Middleton
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Designer of the film fonts La Grange and La Grange Black. These fonts were shown in a Lettergraphics ad in U&LC in 1974. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer at Photo-Lettering Inc. Creator of the multiple shadow art deco typeface family Pousse Cafe (A, B and C). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Robert Norton
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Type designer who joined Microsoft's truetype department (b. London, 1929, d. West Huntspill, Somerset, 2001). Death announcement. Obituary by Nicolas Barker. His fonts include:
Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Emphasis (1965). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of the photo era typefaces Fat Cat and Skinny Cat (Photolettering). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Stark Debonair (1975). At Photolettering, he created Stark Classic 1, 2 and 3, and Bel Aire. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Robert Trogman
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Robert Trogman
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Designer at Letraset of the phototype font family Obliq. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Dallas-based foundry with commercial font families by Roc Mitchell such as Avian, Boreas, Caribbee, Dimeter, LogoText, Poetry, Psalmist, Svenska and Revelry. From 1970 until 1974, Roc Mitchell designed typefaces for Phil Martin's Alphabet Innovations. These include Arthur, Borealis, Celebration, Corporate (retro futuristic), Corporate Image, Dimensia Light, Dimensia, King Arthur Light w/Guinevere Alternates, King Arthur w/Guinevere Alternates, King Arthur Outline w/Guinevere Alternates, and Stanza. Alex Rosario situates his revival Corporatus (2018) as follows: Descended from Microgramma and originally designed to be the American competition to distant cousin Eurostile, Corporate is best known for being the typeface used by video game developer and publisher Nintendo for many NES-related media in the West, including its controllers, and by Colecovision for its logo. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
French type designer who designed Pietra Romana in 1970 at Hollenstein Phototypo. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Professor of Art Graphic Design at Lamar Dodd School of Art, part of the University of Georgia, Athens. Born in 1939 in Barre, VT, Arnholm designed the lapidary typeface ITC Legacy Sans family (1992, a 51-font remake of the 1960s Arnholm Sans), and the ITC Legacy Serif family (1992, Venetian). In 2009, ITC Legacy Square Serif and ITC Legacy Serif Condensed were added. ITC Legacy Square Serif won an award at TDC2 2010. His early fonts were released at VGC, the Visual Graphics Corporation: VGC Aquarius (2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, Outline) (1967) (this was digitized in 2007 by Steve Jackaman as Aquarius), VGCArnholm Sans Bold (1965), VGC Fovea (1977). Arnholm also designed WTC Veritas for the World Typeface Center, New York, 1981-85. He created these headline typefaces for the Los Angeles Times, 1980: L.A. Times Regular, L.A. Times regular italic, L.A. Times Bold and L.A. Times Bold Italic. MyFonts page. Linotype bio. FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Ronald Arnholm's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Some (like Linotype and FontShop) say that Ronald Trogram is the designer of Handel Gothic (1980), now sold by URW, Linotype and Elsner&Flake. Kathleen Tinkel clarifies: Handel Gothic came from FotoStar, a 2-inch filmstrip company from L.A. The designer was Ronald Trogram (not Robert Trogman, who was a graphic designer in the 1970s). Well, I will be damned, because Robert Trogman ran FotoStar, and Handel Gothic was a FotoStar font. Identifont goes as far as to say that Handel Gothic was a 1964 font by Don Handel. My question is---did Ronald Trogram design *any* font in his life? [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American designer in New York associated with ITC, d. 2015. Creator of these typefaces:
His fonts are available from ITC, Bitstream and Elsner&Flake (such as Pioneer No2 EF). | |
The French type designers Michel (b. 1942) and Rosalyne Besnard (b. 1946) live in Rouen, France. Under the brand Les Besnardtypo, they jointly designed Micmac (Creative Alliance, 1997), ITC Odyssee (1996), ITC Typados (1997, art nouveau), Rom (Creative Alliance, 1998), Bouchon (Letraset, 2000), Huit (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1972), Sargon (Visual Graphics Corporation, 1974: bilined and futuristic), Migraph (Agfa Monotype, 1999), PistolShot LT Std Normal and Light (Linotype, 2003), Nazca (Monotype Imaging, 2005), Sargon (Monotype Imaging, 2006), First One (Monotype Imaging, 2006: a family for teaching the alphabet to children), Mickros (Monotype Imaging, 2007), Pantin (Monotype Imaging, 2007), De Gama (Monotype Imaging, 2008), Pasta (Monotype Imaging, 2008), Gilde (2014: a monoline script), Didosystem (2017: a connect-the-dots font). Linotype page. FontShop link. Another FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Roselyne Besnard's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Swiss graphic and type designer, b. Thayngen, Schaffhausen, 1937. She studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zurich. In 1968, Rosmarie Tissi and her mentor, Siegfried Odermatt, set up the studio Odermatt&Tissi in Zurich. Her typefaces were all published at Engler Text-Bild-Integration AG: Mindanao (1975), Sinaloa (1972, Letraset, Linotype), Sonora (1972). As of 2023, Lineto is the sole owner of Tissi's typefaces. They explain: Sinaloa was first distributed by Letraset from 1974 [onwards] as dry-transfer lettering sheets in three different sizes. Subsequently, Letraset and/or its legal successors created digital realisations of Sinaloa, which was done entirely without the involvement of Rosmarie Tissi. This ultimately led to the font being distributed for decades without compensation through royalties. In the autumn of 2020, Rosmarie Tissi obtained a retroactive compensation payment from Monotype, Letraset's legal successor, and demanded the removal of her typeface from all their distribution platforms. In 2023, Rosmarie Tissi approached Lineto to work closely with her to digitally remaster and expand her typefaces, and republish them exclusively. This is now taking place in th autumn of 2024; on the first of October 2024 we will launch LL Sinaloa and LL Sonora with an event at the AGI congress in Basel. A few weeks later, LL Mindanao will follow. Obsolete FontShop link. Klingspor link. Obsolete Linotype link. Postscript: Lineto states that Tissi's typefaces were illegally sold by both Fontshop and Linotype for many years until Lineto itself gained legal and exclusive rights to Tissi's work. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Cleveland, OH-based type designer active in the 1950s and 1960s. He made several photo lettering and metal typefaces. These include Layout Gothic No.1, 2, 3, and Roys Gothic No.2, 3. Mac McGrew writes: Layout Gothic was an attempt to do in metal some of the things that advertising artists were demanding of photolettering with its new-found 'freedom" of tight spacing. Roy Rothstein, a Cleveland typographer, redesigned several characters for the Alternate Gothics; these were specially cast by ATF about 1959, and other characters were trimmed for very close fitting. Similar heavier gothics had been made about 1951: Roys Gothic No.2 by Rothstein in collaboration with Jack Forman, Roys Gothic No.3 by Rothstein, and Roys Gothic No.4, an adaptation of Helvetica Extra Bold Condensed, imported from Germany. All this was done in the 60-point size; other sizes were furnished photographically. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the phototype fonts Pinto Inline and Pinto Shadow at Mecanorma. In 2010, Dick Pape revived Pinto Inline, which can be downloaded here. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Or Ropdolfo Wallenberg. Type designer at Photo Lettering, Inc. in New York, whose typefaces include Contrast, Documentary (a blackletter) and Scribe. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Russell Bean
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Creator of Bevel Gothic (Photolettering). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
This machine was developed in New Jersey from 1928 until 1936 for the banknote industry. It feartured master alphabets on glass plates, effectively stating the photo-lettering era. Peter Bain writes: Only a mere handful of the Rutherford machines had been sold and put into use. The Electrographic Corporation, then owner of one of New York City's leading typographers, decided to launch a start-up proposed and staffed by departing Rutherford employees, notably Edward Rondthaler and Harold Horman. The new midtown firm of Photo-Lettering Inc., starting in 1936, took advantage of the underutilized technology, and claimed an early commercialization of phototype. While not text photocomposition, Photo-Lettering was never handlettering as the name implied. Photography freed the typographic image from the historic constraints of metal, allowing flexibility in scale, dimension, and position, variations which had previously required letter-drawing skills. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer who published at Photo-Lettering Inc. His creations include Boldsign, Germanic, Hallmark (connected script), Independent, Palette (a painter's font), and Studio Poptype (retro-futuristic). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer for Letraset, who made Block Up (1974, a blocky shaded 3d typeface) and Iguana (1970s, a tall 19-th century style slab serif typeface). Harold Lohner revived Block Up in 2000. See also here. Salamandre (2012, Claude Pelltier) revived Iguana. Klingspor link. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Sam Ardell
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Designer at Photolettering of Narrative 4. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
New York-based letterer and type designer, b. 1906, Blue Point, NY, who was also known as "Tommy". [Some sources have 1905]. He had a studio in New York City and was the author of several books on type and lettering. He died in 1967 in New York. His oeuvre includes
Author of these books: The ABC of our Alphabet (1942, London), The Script Letter: Its Form, Construction, and Application (1939, New York), How to render roman letter forms (1946, New York), Basic layout design; a pattern for understanding the basic motifs in design and how to apply them to graphic art problems (1950, New York), Script Lettering for Artist (1969, New York). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Governale Tempo (Plain, Open, Open & Shade) (1972). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
This company evolved in 1983 from Dr Boeger Photosatz GmbH (est. ca. 1934). The timeline:
Examples of Scangraphic fonts: Pi Travel+Transportation, Pi Greek Maths, Pi Communication, Pi Signs+Symbols, Futura Round SB, Futura Round SH. A technical discussion by Yves Peeters. MyFonts link. Link to Scangraphic PrePress Technology GmbH in Seligenstadt. Elsner&Flake shop. Home page. View the Scangraphic typeface library. Another link to the Scangraphic typeface library. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the paper-fold stencil typeface Norton Tape at Photo-Lettering. This typeface was digitized in 2012 by Kimberly Winder for PhotoLettering / House Industries. He also created Norton Slpastick (a wood simulation face) at PhotoLettering Inc. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Graphic designer born in New York in 1931, who worked with Milton Glaser at Push Pin Studios in New York from 1954 onwards. Many of his fonts were sold by Photo Lettering. He designed
FontShop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Shinya Okabe
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Photo era designer of typefaces. These include the Photolettering fonts Gothica 3, 4 and 5, which are all semi-calligraphic sans designs with flaring. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
At Photolettering, Sidney Lisson designed the script typefaces Extempora 1 and 2, and Rouge. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Small Cap Graphics
| Holly Goldsmith has a BA in Art from Brooklyn College. She worked first at (Mergenthaler) Linotype, then at Photo Lettering and World Typeface Center before moving to Los Angeles. In LA, she worked at Xerox's type design department for a few years before starting her own company, Small Cap Graphics, where she is engaged in both graphic design and custom type design, with clients such as Agfa Monotype, ITC, DsgnHaus, Disney Corporation and Margo Chase Design. She designed Novella (1996, DsgnHaus: an Arts and Crafts font), ITC Bodoni Six (1994, with Jim Parkinson, Sumner Stone, Janice Fishman), ITC Bodoni Twelve (1994, with Sumner Stone, Jim Parkinson and Janice Fishman), ITC Bodoni Seventy-Two (1994, with Sumner Stone, Jim Parkinson, Janice Fishman), Bossa Nova MvB (1995, at MvB Design), MVB Peccadillo (2002, with Alan Dague-Greene), Havergal (1994, Agfa), and ITC Vintage (1996, with Ilene Strizver). At Bitstream, she designed Melanie BT (a script typeface), Liorah (2000, a connected script), Hank BT, Missy BT, Ryan BT (2000, jungle font), Raven, Raven Evermore. Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Holly Goldsmith's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Type designer for Photo Lettering Inc in New York, specializing in Hebrew type. His typefaces include Israeli Modern (+Rounded), Israeli Oriental, Israeli Script and Torah. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Solotype
| Dover Press sold Oakland's Dan X. Solo's digitizations. Dan Solo (b. 1928, d. 2012) has collected over 13,000 sets of metal fonts, starting when he was 9 years old and growing up in Oakland, CA. Finally, in 2002, he stopped doing that and began converting all of his fonts to computer type. Solotype, his company, was established in Alameda, CA. He printed 30 books on fonts (with Dover), including The Solotype catalog of 4,147 display typefaces, and created hundreds of fonts. In 2007, Dan Solo retired from the font business. He died in 2012. Robert Trogman writes: I know Dan X. Solo personally. He ran a typographic studio in Berkeley for over 30 years. He had a large collection of film fonts, including some of my own. He created thousands of fonts and is now retired and is an avocational prestigitator. Copyrights have run out on most of his fonts. He also protected himself by creating pseudonyms on the questionable font names. Stuart Sandler confirms that many of the fonts in Solo's Dover books are in fact from the Filmotype collection, which Stuart is digitizing right now. Gene Gable writes: Dan Solo of Solotype in Berkeley was experimenting with photo type as early as 1945 and started doing optical special effects in the early '60s. And a number of the larger display-type shops developed their own techniques. But in terms of opening up new markets for display type (and giving designers more control over type setting), Visual Graphics and Letraset lead the way. These companies were proud of, and promoted, the fact that that their products could be used by non-typesetters with little training. Bio. He wrote about himself: Dan X. Solo The Solotype Archive was begun in 1942 when I was 14. I was a kid printer for several years before that. At 16, after a quick three months of training, I dropped out of school and went to work full time as a radio actor and announcer in San Francisco. (Easy to get jobs in those days, due to the war-induced manpower shortage.) In 1949 and 1950, I created a magic show which played West Coast theatres with some success. After that, back to broadcasting. By 1962, I was completely burned out on radio, so I decided to see if I could make a living with my collection of antique types, which numbered about a thousand fonts at that time. In 1962, I sent out 4,000 catalogs showing the type to ad agencies all over the U.S. The timing was perfect (no thanks to me) because there was developing at that time a renewed interest in the old types. Business took off immediately. The Solotype collection was one of four commercial collections at the time, but I seemed to have been more aggressive in marketing than the other chaps. (Well, Morgan Press certainly knew how to market.) Two years into the business, I began to collect alphabets on paper for conversion to photo lettering, which was just becoming mainstream in the type business. We closed the shop for a month every year and went on a type hunt, mostly in Europe where there didn't seem to be much competition among collectors. Other typographers couldn't understand how we could do this, but I believe it made people appreciate the resource we offered even more. Over the years, the collection became quite large. When I closed Solotype a couple of years ago, I got rid of about half the archive (because the fonts were dull, or already digitized, or for a variety of other reasons) leaving me with about 6,000 fonts on paper or film. In 1974, I began to supply Dover Publications with mechanicals for books of 100 alphabets on a particular theme. I did 30 of these books over the years, and 30 more of printers' ornaments, borders, and so forth. Sometime in the 1990s, Dover asked me to digitize books of 24 fonts each, to be sold with a disk in the back. I did 12 of these. The Dover relationship came to an end when Hayward Cirker, the owner and my special friend, died and the company was sold to another publisher. Dover felt that they had covered the type field thoroughly. Now in my old age, my wife and I have a mindreading act that is great fun and good for the ego. Even so, when not traveling, I digitize type for relaxation and enjoyment, but have made no effort to sell it. Until now. Solo's wood type/Western/ headline/ Victorian collection includes Acantha, Bindweed, Dime Museum (2004, a French Clarendon revived by ATF in 1933 under the name P.T. Barnum), Egyptian Oldstyle, Excelsis, Extravaganza, Rigney, Assay, Baraboo Banner, Beijing, Brevet (after a Victorian typeface from 1887 by Ernst Lauschke), Brussels, Cathedral, Cleopatra, Cognac, Crossroads, Dainty Lady, Dangerfield, Diablo, Dutch Treat, Grecian, Lord Mayor, Malibu, Minnesota, Moulin Rouge, Penny Arcade (1992, a Victorian face after an 1890 original called Mural by Boston Type Foundry), Trixie, Valerie, Valjean, and Zorro. Alaska is based on an 1890 design of Marder, Luse and co. Arcade imitates an 1888 design of Barnhart Brothers&Spindler. Bamboo (oriental simulation face) is based on a 1889 creation of Barnhart Brothers&Spindler. Behrens Antiqua and Behrens schrift are revival of early 20th century typefaces by Peter Behrens. Eccentric is a digitization of a 1898 arts and crafts typeface by Kingsley/ATF. Hansard is a revival of a display type published in 1887 by MacKellar, Smiths,&Jordan. Pekin is a digitization of a face, first designed by Ernst Lauschke in 1888 and issued by Barnhart Bros.&Spindler foundry in Chicago under the name Dormer, and revived by them in 1923 under the name Pekin. Charles Henry Beeler made a condensed sans serif issued by Mackellar, Smiths&Jordan foundry in 1887: it was digitally revived as Roundhead. Monument is a revival of a 1893 typeface by the Boston Type Foundry, but was also cast at the Central Type Foundry. Vienna Light is a delicate early 1900s type originally created by the German foundry of Schelter&Gieseke. Other designs: Bareback, Campaign (ca. 1970), Cigar Label (1997), Estienne, Farringdon (a western face), Goodfellow (digitization of wood type from 1895 found at Hamilton and probably due to W.H. Page), Harlem Text (blackletter), Houdini (ca. 1992), Memorial, Quadrille 2 (a simplified Tuscan face), Sparticus, Vanities (a Victorian type), Whirligig. In 2005, MyFonts added Seminary (after a Victorian font from 1885 by Bruce Type Foundry), Margie (formal script based on Marggraff Bold Script by the Dresden foundry vormalig Brüder Butter, 1920s), Fancy Dan, Bamberg (2005, after a condensed wood type from ca. 1850), Fat Face No. 20, French Ionic (quite ugly--based on an 1870 Clarendon derivative by the Cincinnati Type Foundry), Hearst Italic (based on a 1904 typeface by Carl Schraubstadter of the Inland Type Foundry), Hearst Roman (based on a typeface from the Inland Type Foundry allegedly stolen from a hand lettering job done by Goudy, acccording to Goudy himself), Tally Text (early photolettering type of the comic book style), Welcome 1 (based on Van Loey-Nouri's art nouveau typeface from 1900). A list of some digitized fonts:
Images of selected typefaces: Agency Gothic, Alpha Midnight, Alpha Twilight, Anita Lightface (1977), Art Deco Display Alphabets, Ashley Crawford, Ashley Inline, Astur, Bamberg, Banco, Beans, Blackline, Bobo Bold, Braggadocio, Broadway Engraved, Busorama Bold, Busorama Light, Bust, Charger, Checkmate, Colonel Hoople, Corral, Dudley P Narrow, Dynamo, Earth (a futuristic / prismatic typeface revived by nick Curtis in 2015 as Terranova NF), Eclipse, Empire, Ewie, Fat Cat, Fatso, Festival, Futura Black, Futura Inline, Gillies Gothic Bold, Greeting Monotone, Grooviest Gothic, Hess Neobold, Hotline, Huxley Vertical, Inkwell Black, Joanna Solotype, Joyce Black, Koloss, Lampoon, Mania, Mania Contour A, Mania Contour B, Margit, Mindy Highlight, Modernistic, Monograms Stencil, Mossman, Neon, Neuland (+Inline), Phosphor, Piccadilly, Pickfair, Polly, Prismania P, Quote, Rhythm Bold, Shady Deal, Sheet Steel, Sinaloa. The Solotype Catalog is a file with information on Dan Solo's typefaces, annotated with remarks about name equivalences and digitizations. The original file was due to Thibaudeau, but typophiles on alt.binaries.fonts have added to it in 2010. PDF version. Excel version. Text version. See also here. View Dan Solo's typefaces. Another page on Solotype. Dan Solo's typefaces listed in decreasing order of popularity. View Dan Solo's typefaces. View Dan Solo's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Beads (1975). There is a person by that name running the Palm Motel in Santa Monica, CA, but I cannot say for sure if that is him. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American letter designer who created Orbit-B (1972, VGC), an LED font, now digitized by Bitstream as Orbit-B BT. Zach Whalen on Orbit-B: Orbit-B is less common than either Moore Computer or Data 70, possibly because its MICR influence is more subtle and less arbitrarily intrusive, but it still appears frequently in and around videogames and in contexts where some intimacy is suggested between humans and computers. Klingspor link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Graduate of The Cooper Union, who was born in Brooklyn in 1938. He taught at The Newark School of Fine Arts and was art director at L. W. Frohlich in New York. Stan lives in Saugerties, NY. Designer of Stan Free (VGC, 1973) and the liquid font Amelia (1965, Visual Graphics Corporation). Amelia was later "stolen" by Bitstream and Linotype. Here is what Stan wrote: Bitstream and Linotype have stolen my "Amelia" font (their renditions of it are pathetic). My digitized version of Amelia and other fonts I designed are available at: highwoods@hvc.rr.com. Bio at Linotype. MyFonts site. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Steve Zafarana
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Stuart Sandler
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Studio Hollenstein
| Albert Hollenstein is a Swiss type designer, b. Luzern, 1930, d. Vernazza, 1974. He ran Studio Hollenstein in Paris, which specialized in photographic display typefaces. It was operational between 1957 and 1978. Hollenstein designed Pointille (1975, VGC), Siris (Hollenstein Phototypo, 1972), Tivi (Hollenstein Phototypo, 1968), Brasilia (ABM Hollenstein, 1960, with Albert Boton), Primavera (ABM Hollenstein, 1963, with Albert Boton), Rialto (ABM Hollenstein, 1960, with Albert Boton). With Albert Boton, he designed ITC Eras (1976). ITC Eras, a weird high x-height and open-bowled-a fashion victim of the 1970s, was inexplicably copied by many: Ennis (Infinitype), E820 Sans (Softmaker), Incised 726 (Bitstream), ER (itek), Erie (Corel). Catalog of the serif typefaces at Hollenstein Phototypo. Hommage by Peter Gabor. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Designer of the phototype typefaces at Headliners such as Montauk (a script font), Polaris, Poynder, Siena, Tribune and Wembley. Those typefaces can be found in digital format in Joe Treacy's Treacyfaces collection: Tribune became Trantino at Treacyfaces and Triplett at Compugraphic. Richmond Oldstyle (Blackfriars Type Foundry, 1920s) influenced Cypress's Wembley---it became Wembley TF at Treacyfaces and Rowan Oak NF (Nick Curtis, 2007). Polaris appears based on Faust by Albert Kapr (1959)--it is Polaris TF at Treacyfaces. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Tail Spin Studio
| Steve Zafarana (b. 1951, Wakefield, MA) Steve began his professional design career at Compugraphic in 1977 where over the next seven years he assisted in the production of their phototype library. In 1984, he moved to Bitstream and helped in the development of that early digital font library, which included standard and custom fonts. In 1994, Steve and four other designers founded the Galapagos Design Group. In 2001, he returned to Bitstream as the graphic designer for the two subsidiaries, MyFonts.com and Pageflex Inc. His studio is Tail Spin Studio (est. 1999, Norwood, MA). His fonts are available from MyFonts. Steva Zafarana's type designs include
FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Team 77
| Born in 1936 in Basel, Switzerland's André managed the design office at Deberny&Peignot in the late fifties and early sixties. He taught production letter design at the Künstgewerberschule in Basel from 1965 onwards. He started Team 77 with Christian Mengelt and Erich Gschwind in order to make a correct grotesk improving over past grotesks, including Helvetica. Gürtler's typefaces:
Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Techni-Process
| Foundry in the film type era, est. in the late 1940s by Sam Ardell. Its 1957 catalog shows 408 film types and its 1967 catalog has 1016 typefaces. Some of these types are missing from their 1984 catalog. Peter Bain (Incipit) bought the remaining typefaces in 1994, and they are now in Bain's Incipit collection. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
That 70's Type
| In 2007, Gene Gable wrote an article for Creative Pro, summarizing the type scene in the 1970s. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Thinstroke
| Italian type designer, b. 1943, Forio d'Ischia, Italy, who emigrated to the USA. Di Spigna graduated from from New York City Community College in 1964 and then from Pratt Institute in 1967. His first design job was at Bonder&Carnase. In 1969, he joined Lubalin Smith Carnase Inc. He founded his own studio, Tony DiSpigna Inc in 1973. DiSpigna taught typography at the Pratt Institute, the School of Visual Arts and the New York Institute of Technology. In 2009, Tony Di Spigna and Bill Hilson (a colleague at Pratt) founded Thinstroke, which joined Type Network in 2021. DiSpigna's typefaces:
FontShop link. Another MyFonts link. Logo. Klingspor link. Linotype link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
At H. Berthold AG, Thomas Abold published the phototype typeface Abold (1972). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer from Detroit, MI. Creator (b. 1938) of Nevison Casual Script (1965, VGC), which now exists in many digital forms: Nevison Casual (URW++), Nevison Casual (Linotype), Nevison Casual EF (Elsner+Flake), Casual Pro (SoftMaker), Nevison Casual SB (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), Nevison Casual SH (Scangraphic Digital Type Collection). Some call the typeface Nevision. FontShop link. Klingspor link. Linotype link. Compare several digital versions of Nevison Casual. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Graphic designer and lettering artist, born in 1939 in Eugene, OR. He studied with Douglas Lynch at the Museum Art School in Portland and later apprenticed with Lynch. Lincoln studied calligraphy with Lloyd Reynolds and Arnold Bank at Reed College in Portland, OR. After a stint as an agency art director producing national ads for Pendletons womens fashions, Lincoln moved to New York City, where he joined the studio of Herb Lubalin. In NYC he continued his involvement with academia, exploring film at The New School and an intensive workshop with Milton Glaser. Eventually Lincoln started his own studio (occupying the space on east 32nd Street where New York Magazine was born), combining a design practice with teaching at New Yorks School of Visual Arts. Lincoln has served as Art Director at TCA (Benton & Bowles) in Westport, CT, as Creative Director, Redington, Inc., Stamford, CT, as Principal, Thomas Lincoln Design & Motion Graphics Communication, Westport, CT, as Freelance in residence Art Director, Baden & Co., Eugene, OR, and in 1992 returned to consulting and design through his own design office, Lincoln Design, based in Eugene/Springfield, OR. Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Lincoln Gothic (1965), which won the National Typeface Competition. His clients over the years include Acoustic Sciences Corporation, AT&T, Continental Packaging Co., The Ford Foundation, GE, IBM, PepsiCo, RCA, Showtime, Abrams, Colliers, Harpers Magazine, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Random House, Harcourt/ Brace, New York Times, Simon and Schuster, and Viking Press. In 2006, Bitstream published New Lincoln Gothic, a 24-weight family starting with a hairline weight. This digital version was made in Fontographer from the old typositor strips by Lincoln himself. In 2011, Canada Type and Thomas Lincoln cooperated in the production of the roman sans family Roma. This typeface was published in 2012 at P22. Lincoln himself tells the story: My intention in designing Roma was to create a definitive, contemporary sans serif expression of the classic Roman majuscule as depicted in the Trajan Inscription at the base of the Trajan Column in Rome. The Capitalis Monumentalis letter forms of the Trajan Inscription, which date to 113 Ad, have been described by the noted type scholar, calligrapher and historian, Father Edward Catich, as "the best roman letter designed in the western world, and the one which most nearly approaches the alphabetic ideal." And in the 1902 publication, "The Practice of Typography", Edmund F. Strange stated: "No single designer, or the aggregate influence of all the generations since has been able to alter the form, add to the legibility, or improve the proportion of any single letter there in." Mr. Strange's pronouncement was true in 1902 and it is true today. Through the years various type designers have been inspired by the Trajan Roman to offer their own interpretations. Most notably, perhaps, Frederick Goudy's Trajan Title (1930), Warren Chappell's Linotype Trajanus (1940) and more recently, Carol Twombly's literal rendition of Adobe Trajan (1989) and John Stevens' spirited Stevens Titling (2011). There have been many other nice interpretations by other contemporary designers, yet it may still be said that none has improved the form, the legibility or the proportion of any single letter---though it can be said that the letters J, K, U, W, Y and Z, nonexistent in the ancient alphabet, have been added. Less common has been the interpretation of Trajan in sans serif form. Hermann Zapf's Optima (1953), Sumner Stone's ITC Stone (1987) and Ronald Arnholm's Legacy Sans (2000), among other nice sans serifs, reflect characteristics of Trajan but seem influenced by other factors as well, including fonts such as Gill Sans and Syntax. And, while I don't presume to speak for their designers, none of these typefaces seem designed specifically with Trajan in mind. My own Lincoln Gothic (1965), and its subsequent expansion as New Lincoln Gothic (2006), was a deliberate attempt to interpret the particular characteristics of the Trajan majuscule in a contemporary sans serif face. The most significant change in the later version was the addition of a lower case; a challenge that had simmered on my personal bucket list for several years. Roma, though, differs from Lincoln Gothic in one significant way: while the terminals of Lincoln Gothic are flat, in Roma the vertices of letters such as A,M,N,V and Z are pointed. I believe this change is the critical difference that moves Roma closer to my objective of honoring the original Trajan. As with Lincoln Gothic, Roma's strokes have an almost imperceptible entasis that terminate in a subtle flare; a vestige of the serif. The importance of this feature is that it imbues the font with a humanist quality. The serif, as Father Catich points out in his book, "The Origin of The Serif", almost certainly derives from a combination of the flat brush and the human hand; it is what ties the letterform directly to human anatomy and craftsmanship, integrating it in a fundamental way with the nature of man---as distinct from the machine. In 2020, he released Lincoln Electric at Canada Type. Lincoln Electric started its life as an in-house experimental film type Thomas Lincoln drew shortly after concluding his work as part of Herb Lubalin's famed crew in the late 1960s. The master alphabet was drawn on illustration boards using pen and ink and press-type lines. The digital retooling of this Bifur-style typeface (after Cassandre's Bifur from 1929) was done by Patrick Griffin. Klingspor link. FontShop link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer Thomas Paul Carnase was born in The Bronx, New York City in 1939. He graduated from New York City Community College in 1959. Carnase started making fonts in the photolettering era, and lived through the transition to digital. In the 1960s, he opens the studio Bonder & Carnase Inc. From 1969 until 1979, he is vice-president and partner of the agency Lubalin, Smith, Carnase Inc. In 1979, he founds the Carnase Computer Typography studio. In 1980, Carnase becomes co-founder and president of the World Typeface Center Inc., an independent type design agency. He manages the in-house magazine Ligature published by the World Typeface Center from 1982 to 1987. Besides type design, Carnase has designed graphics for packaging, exhibitions, corporate identities and logos for numerous clients, including ABC, CBS, Coca-Cola, CondéNast Publications, Doubleday Publishing and NBC. He has held teaching positions at the University of Cincinnati in Ohio, the Pratt Institute in New York, the Herron School of Art in Indiana, the Parson's School of Design in New York, the Cleveland Institute of Art in Ohio, the University of Monterrey in Mexico, and the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, among others. His fonts include:
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Graphic designer, b. 1931, Glen Ridge, NJ. After studying at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, he founded Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar (which became Chermayeff & Geismar) with Robert Brownjohn and Ivan Chermayeff. His typefaces include A&S Gallatin (1986, Linotype), which was originally designed as a corporate font for Abraham & Straus, a department store based in New York. The photocomposition font A&S Gallatin was done in 1976. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Informal Gothic (1965). Informal Gothic was digitized and expanded by Patrick Griffin (Canada Type) in 2007 as Social Gothic. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Tony Mayers
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New York-based type designer at ITC, 1917-1988. Tony Stan did a version of Jean Jannon's Garamond (ITC Garamond, 1977). Other typefaces: ITC American Typewriter (1974, with Joel Kaden), ITC Garamond (1977), ITC Cheltenham (1975-1978), ITC Cheltenham Handtooled (with Ed Benguiat), ITC Century (1975-1979; see Modern Century by SoftMaker), ITC Berkeley Old Style (1983, a Venetian typeface; after Frederic Goudy), Pasquale, Ap-Ap. About ITC Garamond, Andreas Seidel writes: That one is a modern recreation that in my view breathes much of the 1970s feel and is generally considered the least historical "Garamond". The high x-height does not improve readability, as you will have to adjust the line-spacing accordingly. The Garamond wiki is equally negative about ITC Garamond. Happy (2005, Canada Type, Patrick Griffin) is the digital version of one the most whimsical takes on typewriters ever made, an early 1970s Tony Stan film type called Ap-Ap. Some of the original characters were replaced with more fitting ones, but the original ones are still accessible as alternates within the font. We also made italics and bolds to make you Happy-er (quote by Canada Type). The 1975 revival of Cheltenham by Goodhue (1896) and later by Morris Fuller Benton, resulted in a Cheltenham with increased x-height. Not everyone was pleased with that. Digital versions of ITC Berkeley Oldstyle besides that of ITC include University Oldstyle (SoftMaker), Californian (Font Bureau), B695 Roman (SoftMaker) and Venetian 519 (Bitstream). Linotype link. FontShop link. Klingspor link. View Tony Stan's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of these Letraset phototype fonts:
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Harold Lohner made Good Vibes (2001, based on the analog multiline font Good Vibrations by Trevor Hatchett for Letraset, 1973) and GoodVibesBackbeat (2001). Characters are broken up with tens of vertical lines to achieve an old B/W TV screen effect. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Type Associates
| Russell Bean (Type Associates of Pyrmont, Australia, est. 1993) is an Australian type designer (b. Parkes, NSW, 1947). He worked in many ad agencies and later in the studios of the local photolettering houses, redrawing typefaces for filmfont setting as well as hand-composing headlines using photo-mechanical devices. In the early seventies, he designed a five-weight Avant-gardish family named Virginia (now also digitized). He then worked for the Los Angeles studio of Lettergraphics International in charge of lettering, logo design and converting type designs to film fonts. It was at this time (1973) that the Washington Family was completed. Upon his return to Australia that year, he teamed up with a long time colleague to form a design and art group in Sydney. Russell has been responsible for the creation of many Australian icons, including the Qantas logo. Russell Bean has served on the executive committees of The Australian Type Directors' Club and Australian Graphic Design Association. Typefaces available from MyFonts include Bougainville (1994-2005, a condensed sans family), Bougainville Neo (2021: 16 styles), Fremantle (1994), Beanwood Script (1997, a calligraphic script co-designed with David Wood), Craigie Halpen, Eumundi Sans [also available in the Agfa Creative Alliance], Eumundi Serif, Linear, Melissa, Rhodamine Blue, Sanguine (2004, handwriting), Semaphone (brush writing), Washington (1973, art deco family--really nice geometric letterforms with at least one hairline weight), and Xaltier. He designed ITC Christoph's Quill (2004), Billabong (2006, 1950s handlettering), Charleston Caps (2007, art deco) and the comic book lettering typeface Rhapsodie (2006). In 2007, he added the Threepoints East, North and West sans typefaces. About the Avant-Garde-style geometric sans family Virginia (2008), Bean writes: she was the most popular headline typeface around, at least in my home town in the year of her release circa 1970. That was the year my five-weight design won the inaugural (and only) Lettergraphics International Alphabet design competition and shut out 5000 competitors. Alas, Lettergraphics ceased to trade from its LA studios after the mid-80s and Virginia's two-inch film fonts were left to collect dust on the cutting room floor. The Koomerang family and Karmel (flare-legged retro display) were added in 2008. In 2009, Bean created Comp Sans 226, Argyle Rough, Empirical (12-style DIN-like sans family), Dotmap (pixel family) and Macquarie Heavy. In 2010, he made the poster signage typeface Hangtime. In 2013, he published the hand-printed typeface famiy Progeny. He is associated with Keith Morris in the type foundry Bean & Morris. In 2015, Russell created Macaroni Sans. In 2017, he added the calligraphic script typeface My Pimp. Typefaces from 2019: Aodaliya (an ultra-condensed typeface family). FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Type Labo
| Tokyo-based designer of Paper Clip (1982, VGC) (or I think it is Yutaka, at least). Information-rich web page of Yutaka Satoh, one of the leading independent type designers in Japan. Includes samples of his original fonts. Currently, Japanese only. The hiragana fonts Bokutoh99 and Bokutoh Kuzure may be bought through Font Pavilion. He started Type Labo. The kana/kanji fonts include Osirase, Kekkon, Hikkosi, Akachan, Dohmo, Tanjohbi, Akemasi, Otohsan, Okahsan, Spring, Summer, Bonus, CVhrist, Bargain, Crear, Birthday, Open, Discount, BokutohKuzure-UH, Bokutoh99-UH, Bokutoh99-UK, BokutohKuzure-UK (1998), Hanpu, Hanpuanito. Free font link page. Links to his pay fonts (Japanese and Latin). Old link. Another old URL. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Typeface Research Pty Ltd
| Australian Harry Pears (b. The Quirindi, Australia) is a veteran of the type world. He started his career as a colour camera operator and then as a phototypesetter. He started marketing digital typefaces in Australia, and has designed a few fonts himself. Creator in 2001 of the Celtic look family Lindisfarne Nova (with calligrapher Margaret Layson) at Bitstream (this includes Lindisfarne Nova Incised and Lindisfarne Runes). Harry is the owner of Typeface Research Pty. Ltd. of Lake Cathie, Australia. Author of Decorate with Type An encyclopedia of decorative and novelty fonts (2011), in which he proposes a new categorization of decorative types. MyFonts link. Bio at Bitstream. FontShop link. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Typehouse
| Type foundry that was active during the photo composition era. Creators of typefaces at VGC, such as Moore Computer (1968, an LED face) and TH Alphabet Soup (1975, a VAG Rounded style face). Moore Computer and Moore Swash are both attributed to David Moore. Zach Whalen on Moore Computer: The minimal aesthetic properties of E-13B saw extended influence in a number of type designs created in the late sixties and early seventies, and many of these MICR-based typefaces saw extensive use in relation to videogames. The typesetting and printing industries were undergoing rapid and dramatic changes during this period, adapting to new technologies like photo- and CRT-based compositors, so a number of companies and design studies were going out of business or changing hands. In addition, the decorative typefaces echoing the style of E-13B were often seen as novelty products, so records about several of these typefaces and fonts are cursory may be unreliable. Nevertheless, the evidence indicates that the first full alphabet based on E-13B was a font called Moore Computer, published by the Visual Graphics Corporation (VGC), possibly as early as 1968. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
TypeManufactur (was: GST Georg Salden Typedesign)
| Born in Essen, Germany, in 1930, Georg Salden is the nephew of Helmut Salden (1910-1996), a book and font designer in the Netherlands and a resistance fighter against Hitler. From 1950 until 1954, Georg studied advertising design at the Folkwang School in Essen (1950-1954). Later, he taught typography for five years at Folkwang. Until 1971, he was a freelance graphic designer specializing in typography and calligraphy. In 1966, he received an award in the international VGC competition in New York for the headline typeface York. He completed three fat weights of York (VGC) and four heavy weightys of Angular (VGC) before 1973. At Berthold AG in Berlin, he completed the phototypes Transit in 1969 and Daphne in 1970. From 1971 onwards, he cooperated with six German and 24 international foundries, producing about ten fonts per year, under the name GST (Georg Salden Types) and later Context-GmbH. For example, he did 35 fonts for Fototransit. Between 1972 and 1984, he created these typefaces: Aster 4.2, Polo (7 styles), Bilbao, Caslon (4 styles), Basta (5 styles), Stresemann (8 styles), Parabella, Mäander, Brasil (8 styles), Magnet, Hansa, Bonjour, Tandem, Futuranea (a rounded set of 18 styles; royalties for the name were paid to Bauersche Giesserei), Congress (6 styles), Ready, Salut, Loreley (4 styles), Loretta (4 styles), Gordon (7 styles), Volante, Tap (3 styles), Sketchy (4 styles), Gallopp, 1 Videon, Deutschkurrent, Corvey (2 styles), Klicker and Dalli (2 styles). In 1977, he converted some of his headline typefaces into text fonts for the Diatronic, spending a lot of time on the kerning tables. Before 1988, he drew Basta, Polo, Tap, Turbo, Gordon, Brasil, and Dalli. These were digitized by hand between 1989 and 1992 on the Ikarus system. The families were also expanded. For example, just for Polo, we have these styles: 11, 22, 66, 77, G, Fino, schmal, eng, extracondensed, kyrillisch and griechisch, with old style and lining figures in both Mac PostScript and PC truetype formats. New typefaces in this productive period include Carree, Axiom, Votum, Zitat, Rolls, Essenz, Planet, Trigon, and Deutschkurrent. Videon got four new heavy weights, and Daphne was redesigned for use as a text typeface. In 2003, he set up Typemanufactur which he managed until 2008 with Daniel Resing and Tanja Link. Typemanufactur sold the GST typeface library. In 2009, Ludwig Uebele took over this company by himself. He takes care of the web presence, the font licensing, web font production, opentype production and all managerial aspects. After the end of all contracts with VGC, Berthold AG and GST/Context GmbH, all rights of the font collection belong to Georg himself. Nowadays, he is critical of the lack of quality in recently designed typefaces. In FontBlog, we find a discussion of the Polo vs. Meta controversy, in German, with a reply by Erik Spiekermann who says that his FF Meta was influenced by many types, not just Polo, but also Syntax, News Gothic and Akzidenz Grotesk. The success of Polo reaches beyond FF Meta. For example, Walter Brendel's Glasgow Serial is also based on Polo. Typophile discussion. Also noteworthy is Georg's success in the removal of Revis (2011, Coen Hofmann, URW) from the URW library as it was judged too close to Daphne. Scans and technical discussions of some of his typefaces:
In 1993, Benjamin Kempas made a 12-minute documentary in Georg Salden's life and work entitled Der Schriftgelehrte. Behance link. Fontshop link. Klingspor link. Bio. Wikipedia link. What A Character is a web site dedicated to Salden's fonts. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
TypeShop Collection
| The TypeShop collection was at some point, ca. 2006, part of Elsner&Flake, and its fonts could be licensed via MyFonts. Elsner&Flake provided the history behind this collection and its developer, Brendel: The originator of the big TypeShop Font Collection was Walter Florenz Brendel (1930-1992). As far back as 1972 he had the idea of an electonic and digital system for typeface plotting and cutting as well as automatic modification and reproduction. Before 1972 when type users demanded their type color to be a little lighter or little darker, Brendel as the owner of over 28 typeshops across Europe employing about 600 people, could not meet their demands with the existing typefaces. Consequently he developed a method to satisfy their needs. Brendel was the originator of the concept and the contributor and partner in the development of IKARUS by Dr. Peter Karow. He cut typefaces based on mathematical increments that would allow type weights to be graduated in equal steps. Thanks to his perfectionism, type users can have the luxury of choosing a specific type weight out of seven from as many as 65 font-families in the TypeShop Collection. Mr. Brendel was an accomplished professional type designer. Lingwood, Montreal, Volkswagen, Derringer and Casablanca and many more were his creations. He was a design collaborator for Congress, Litera, Worchester and others. Today all of this fonts complete with a Euro currency symbol are available in four font formats including OpenType. That view of Brendel is perhaps not held by most type designers, who regard Brendel's collection as highly derivative. Albert-Jan Pool: Walter Brendel (1933-1992) was the founder of Brendel Informatik, Brendel & Pabst and the Type Shop group of phototypesetting houses. He also co-founded the European Typeface Corporation (ETC) which was connected with Typo Bach, another group of phototypesetting houses. Brendel's Serials were based on existing typeface designs, which had typically been made fit for creating a range of 7 weights from extra light to extra bold by interpolation. The Serials Typeface Collection used to be exclusively available through Brendel's Type Shops, Typo Bach and others. The German type designer Georg Salden created another range of exclusive typefaces, they were only available through the GST group of typesetting houses. Similar to Brendel's Type Shops and Adrian William's Club Type, the GST group also tried to enforce customer loyalty by offering typefaces that were exclusive to their group. As all of these typesetting houses worked for the same advertising agencies, their typeface libraries show many similarities. Some of these similarities were created on purpose, some of them not. Some of them are just copies, some of them are re-engineered designs, some of them are adaptations of existing designs, some of them are originals. Elsewhere, Elsner&Flake write: Brendel ordered the development of exclusive phototypesetting typefaces in the 70s and the beginning of the 80s for the phototypesetter he himself built, Unitype, which had their basis partially in historical but also in contemporary designs. For what it is worth, here are the font family names: Volkswagen TS, Clear Gothic TS, Franklin Gothic TS, Old Baskerville TS, Accolade TS, Baskerville TS, Belfast TS, Bernstein TS, Bodoni TS, Broadway TS, Casablanca TS, Casad TS, Castle TS, Colonel TS, Clearface TS, Congress TS, Denver TS, Derringer TS, Diamante TS, Digital TS (square gothic), Dragon TS, Enschede TS, Expressa TS, Florida TS, Formula TS, Garamond TS, Gascogne TS, Glasgow TS, Goudita TS, Goudy TS, Granada TS, Grenoble TS, Hamburg TS, Helium TS, Hoboken TS, Horsham TS, Koblenz TS, Leamington TS, le Asterix TS, Le Obelix TS, Limerick TS, Lingwood TS, Litera TS, Media TS, Melbourne TS, Montreal TS, Napoli TS, Nashville TS, Nevada TS, Ornitons TS, Pasadena TS, Penthouse TS, Plakette TS, Plymouth TS, Priamos TS, Quartz TS, Ragtime TS, Ravenna TS, Riccione TS, Rochester TS, Roundest TS, Salzburg TS, Seagull TS, Toledo TS, Veracruz TS, Verona TS, Wichita TS, Worchester TS. Name equivalences between the TypeShop collection and other fonts. View TypeShop's library of typefaces. Another link to TypeShop's library of typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
TYPO
| TYPO, or Sign and Typography Studio in English, was founded by Krzysztof Kochnowicz, b. 1955. Kochnowicz started teaching in 1989 at the State College of Fine Arts (now Academy of Fine Arts) in Poznan, Poland. His typefaces include Sylwia (a modern serif), Corner (pixelish), Jeweler (3d face), and Pricker. He created Anatol MN (1965, Mecanorma), a futuristic-looking stencil face. MyFonts link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Typoart GmbH (or: VEB Typoart)
| Dresden (East Germany)-based font studio that evolved from the former East German centralized press, VEB Typoart. VEB Typoart operated from 1948 until 1989, when it was renamed Typoart GmbH. Typoart GmbH dissolved mysteriously in 1995, perhaps due to bankrupcy. MyFonts catalog of digitizations. Timeline as provided by Typoart-Freunde, a project of Jay Rutherford at the Bauhaus University in Weimar (and published in 2007 in a book by the same title, Heinz Wohlers Verlag, Harrlach):
References on Typoart:
Personal home page of Jay Rutherford. MyFonts link. View Typoart's typefaces. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
Typsettra
| Typesettra was the Toronto-based type house and foundry run by one of the most famous of all Canadian type designers, Leslie Usherwood (1932-1983). Usherwood studied at the Beckenham School of Art, and practiced as a lettering artist in the commercial art field for 15 years. According to many contemporaries, Usherwood did not really design type. Typesettra was created in 1968, and had more than four type designers in the early eighties. In 1977, Typsettra began designing original typefaces for Berthold, Letraset and ITC. Other designers associated with Typsettra included David Anderson. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
French type designer who designed Flora in 1972 (at Hollenstein Phototypo). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Ursula Suess was born in 1924 to German parents in Camden, NJ, and grew up in Munich, Germany, where she attended two semesters of design school at the Academy of Fine Art before it burned down during the war. She then studied calligraphy with Anna Simons for two years. She returned to America in 1946 and established herself as a graphic designer working for Oxford University Press, Macmillan Co., Harper, and other publishers. She also taught calligraphy for 20 years at the Westchester Art Workshop, and at the Cooper Union in New York City. In her fifties, she learned to cut gems and became a gem carver. She moved to Green Valley, AZ, in 1998, and has been applying her artistic versatility with clay, water-color and acrylics. In 1972 she designed Book Jacket Italic, one of film type era's most famous typefaces [copied by Phil Martin as Bagatelle]. In 2010, with the help of Patrick Griffin, she released the revised and expanded digital version through Canada Type. At VGC, she also made Rotalic (two weights). Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Varityper: 1946 Catalog
| The Vari-Typer manual of 1946 was published by Ralph C. Coxhead Corporation, New York City. It contains a number of font specimen for the Varityper machine, predominantly typewriter-style typefaces and type for astrology, chemistry, mathematics and other specialized subjects. A small sample is reproduced here. The original PDF file was created at the University of Wisconsin. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
The winners of the 1966 International typeface Design Competition sponsored by VGC (Visual Graphics Corporation) were André Gürtler (first prize, for Egyptian 505), Raphael Boguslav (second prize, for Visa), Stanley Davis (Amelia), Barry Deutsch (Deutsch Black), Walter J. Diethelm (Arrow), Karl-Heinz Domning (Domning Antiqua), Ernst Friz (Friz Quadrata), Giorgio Giaiotto (Giorgio), Zoltan Nagy (Margaret Antikva), Aldo Novarese (third prize, for Exempla), Friedrich Peter (Vivaldi), Georg Salden (York), Jay Schechter (Jay Gothic), Wayne Stettler (Neil Bold), Hans-Jürgen Wolf (Wolf Antiqua). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
British commercial artist, b. Walsall, 1928, d. 2011, who was known for realist paintings of planes, automobiles, yachts and trains. Phototype era designer of Shatter (1973, Letraset and later ITC), letters that simulate broken glass. Shatter won the Leraset typeface competition in 1973 In 2021, Letterstock published the ultra-decorative font Karlburns and mentions Vic Carless in its credits. Obituary by The Guardian. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
New York-based advertising designer associated with Photo-Lettering Inc. and ITC. His typefaces:
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Vincent V. Apicella, Joanna V. Pomeranza and Nancy G. Wiatt co-authored The Concise Guide to Type Identification (1990, Lund Humphries, London), in which modern day types are classified, listed, and named. It contains equivalences between type names for various type manufacturers. Most importantly, it shows typeface equivalences for various typefaces from the phototype era. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
American lettering artist and type designer from New York. Creator of ITC Cushing (1982) and ITC Pacella (1987). MyFonts.com hints that he may have died. According to Linotype, ITC Cushing has a long history. The font was originally designed [for ATF] by J. Stearns Cushing [in 1897], a Boston-based book printer, and famous American type designer Frederic Goudy expanded it to include an italic weight [in 1904]. These early ATF typefaces became known as Lining Cushing Oldstyle No. 2 and Italic. ATF also brought out a Lining Cushing No. 2 and Italic, Cushing Antique, and Lining Cushing Monotone 553.] A Ludlow version featured narrow capitals and an oblique crossbar on the lowercase t. A Monotype version in one weight of roman and italic had small, inclined serifs, wide capitals, short ascenders and descenders. In 1901, Lanston Monotype introduced Cushing Oldstyle, a slightly condensed typeface with large bracketed serifs and fairly uniform weight. It has little relationship to the ATF and Monotype Cushing. Under a special license from the American Type Founders, Vincent Pacella modified the design for ITC and added some additional weights. ITC Cushing is slightly condensed with large, bracketed serifs. Pacella changed the capital letters to better complement the lower case and replaced the sloping serifs of the italics to linear type serifs to produce ITC Cushing. ITC Pacella was fashioned in the tradition of Century Schoolbook, Corona and Nimrod, accordung to Linotype. In the 1970s, he made a Photolettering Egyptian headline typeface called Blackjack, which was digitized in 2007 by Nick Curtis as Flap Jacks NF. His 1970s semi-psychedelic typeface Carousel became Nick Curtis's Vinnie Culture NF (2007). His Pacella Vega Extended 10 (Photolettering, 1960s) was digitized by Nick Curtis as Palo Pinto NF (2010). MyFonts also credits Pacella with AT Stratford Bold, a thick slab serif. His PhotoLettering fonts Pacella Barrel and Pacella Colossus inspired Nick Curtis to create the beautiful ultra fat western slab serif Earmark NF (2009). The Western poster font Pioneer was revived by Nick Curtis as Trailblazer NF (2010). Bingham (done for PLINC) led Nick Curtis to design the angular octagonal typeface Binghamton NF (2010). Designer of Plinc Goliath, a fat slab serif, based on Film No. 6206 in the PhotoLettering archive. Originally drawn in 1970 by Pacella, Goliath was digitized by Ben Kiel with Adam Cruz in 2011 for House Industries. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Foundry from the phototypesetting era, located on 138 NE 125th Street in North Miami, FL, and also at 5701 NW 94th Avenue in Tamarac, FL, with designers such as Ron Arnholm, Arthur Baker, Ray Baker, Stan Biggenden, Stan Davis, Ernst Friz, Louis Minott, John Russell, L. Scolnik, Dave Trooper and Ernst Volker. The company changed its name to VGC Corp. and became a subsidiary of VRG Group N.V. Inventors of the Photo Typositor. List of typefaces and designers as compiled by Tim Ryan. This list has errors, as pointed out in this discussion on typophile. My own list of typefaces. Typefaces in our list whose creators still need to be identified include Bubble (1982: Bubble Light, Bubble, and Double Bubble) and Rodin (ca. 1974). The 450-page book Visual Graphics Alphabet Library (1985) shows all of its typefaces. PDF version of their 1972 catalog. There are two components to the VGC collection, one is the standard collection of typefaces everyone must have (knockoffs, really), and the other one is the collection of originals. Freddy Nader explains: The reason for the VGC/Typositor catalog showing so many standards is this: in photo type days, every type house had to have a basic set of what was known as the "foundry types". These were your basic Garamonds, Baskervilles, Clarendons, etc. They simply did that in order to compete. Back then, the type house worked closely with the person designing the artwork (who usually worked for the publisher or the ad agency), and they were charging per word for display, and per page for text. So the type houses wanted to maintain a kind of continuity with their clients, and tried their hardest to be the exclusive supplier for a number of agencies. The very first photo type house, Photo-Lettering Inc, survived for the longest time on one client (J. Walter Thompson in NYC). As a side note, book publishers tried their best to stay away from photo type because of its very expensive prices. It was a hell of a lot cheaper to stick to metal type than pay the type house per page of layout. So if you look back at the mass paperback industry, it was still using metal type until late into the 1970s. They only switched to film type when competition between type houses became so fierce that the type prices dropped considerably. But film type was used in book for only a short time, then desktop publishing as we know it made it all obsolete. View some digital typefaces that are derived from the VGC library. Another digital catalog. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Main type designer (b. 1915) at AlphaType in Niles, IL. Bitstream states: AlphaType Corporation, a family-owned company, was founded by Al and Beatrice Friedman in the mid-1960s to make high quality but inexpensive phototypesetters for advertising typographers. In 1981 Berthold acquired AlphaType. His typefaces:
MyFonts and Linotype refer to this designer as Vladimir Andrevich. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Creator of typefaces at VGC, such as Cornball (1972), Relief (1972) and Too Much (1974, +Opaque, +Clear, +Shadow). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Walter Florenz Brendel
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Director of Stempel, which he joined in 1898, and the Trajanus Press. He shaped the growth of the Stempel and Linotype library after the war and during the advent of photocomposition. Son of Wilhelm Cunz (1869-1951) who was one of the original shareholders in D. Stempel AG, and brother-in-law of its founder, David Stempel (1869-1927). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Born in Zürich, 1913. Died in Zürich, 1986. Designer of Diethelm Antiqua (or Diethelm Roman) (Haas, 1948-1950; Linotype, 1957: a stocky text typeface), Sculptura (1957), Arrow (1966, VGC, a Peignotian or lapidary face), Abacus, Aktiv, Capitol, and Gloriette. Digitizations include Sculptura (by Jason Castle in 2005), Seta Reta NF (2010, Nick Curtis, after Arrow), and Diethelm AR (2011, Ari Rafaeli, after Diethelm Antiqua, 1945). Klingspor link. Swiss type design link. Swiss Type Design on Diethelm Walter. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Son of a signpainter, b. 1934, Allentown, PA, d. 2011 Blue Bell, PA. He studied advertising design at the Philadelphia College of Art. Creator of photype typefaces such as Neil Bold (1966, VGC), which was the source of inspiration for Alejandro Paul's Mobley Sans (Umbrella Type), Neil Bold (2010, Patrick Griffin, Canada Type), Nick Curtis's Elephunky NF (2011), and Jas Rewkiewicz's Armstrong (B&P Foundry). He also created Stettler (1965, VGC). Neil Bold also had an outline version called Open. Patrick Griffin explains: That typeface was very popular with jazz and blues labels. Photo-Lettering knocked it off within 2 months of its release by VGC. This was Wayne Stettler last typeface ever; some say it's because he saw it knocked off and just gave up on type altogether. Also some people say the only reason it won in that type design contest was to actually try to convince Stettler to get back into type design. It never happened, he went into garment design and manufacturing shortly after that contest. Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Werner Affolter
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Westcott & Thomson, Inc. for Fotosetter or Fototronic composition | Photo-type era company in Philadelphia located on 1027 Arch Street. I located an image of their typefaces that are lookalikes/i> (by their own admission) of famous typefaces: Biretta is Bembo, Elegane is Palatino, Galaxy is Uniers, Laurel is Caledonia, Medallion is Melior, Plantina is Plantin, Vega is Helvetica, and Zenith is Optima. [Google] [More] ⦿ |
Designer of Billy Beck System 1, 2, 3 and 4 (VGC). [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
A major player in the phototypesetting era. He founded Photon Inc and cofounded Compugraphic. One of Compugraphic's first original designs (1979, by Constance Blanchard, Renee le Winter) was based on sketches by John Matt required a name, and it became Garth Graphic (1979, Compugraphic), to honor Bill Garth after his death. Read about Garth Graphic here. Matt Antique (1980) is now available at Bitstream. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Type designer for Photo Lettering Inc in New York. His typefaces include Car Card, Domino, Fleuron, Flourish (an upright script; 1940s), Graphic, Guild, Heroic, Ivanhoe, Manuscript Black, Marlboro, Megaphone, Modern Manuscript, Orientale and Preston (a fifties style script). Flourish was digitally revived by Jeremy Mickel in 2011 for House Industries as Plinc Flourish. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of these film typefaces at Photolettering: Baskerville 4, Dextra, Flair 4, Gothic Condensed 3 and 6, Wanke Inserat Bold. [Google] [More] ⦿ | |
Designer of the artsy film type techno headline typeface Latus (1971 or 1974, Berthold). This typeface was cleaned up and expanded by Rebecca Alaccari (Canada Type) in digital format as Celebrity (2007). [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ | |
Yutaka Satoh
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Zanzibar is a Filmotype script from the 1950's that has seen several digital revivals:
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Hungarian type designer (1920-1998) (some pubs mention a birth date of 1921), who is responsible for most types in Hungary in the 20th century. He studied graphic arts at the Technical University of Budapest, and became chief engineer and art director at Elsö Magyar Betüöntöde. Author of Techniques of Type Design. He also engraved many postage stamps. His typefaces consist of metal types done at EMB (Elsö Magyar Betüöntöde), a type foundry in Budapest, and phototypes at VGC:
Digitizations of his typefaces:
Klingspor link. [Google] [MyFonts] [More] ⦿ |
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