Type Designers of the 20th Century

An exploration of a significant art: type designing.

The twentieth century saw many developments in printing techniques and how fonts were made. Beginning with cold metal type at the start of the century, the industry moved to hot metal type, phototypesetting, and finally digitization. In each phase, certain type designers excelled in harnessing the latest techniques to create beautiful, innovative, and functional new fonts.

Against a background story of the evolution of technology, the role of the designer, the rise of the advertising agency, and the changing function of the printer, this book explores thirty-eight key type designers, how they worked, the fonts they designed, and their lasting influence on typography. Here, you will find Frederic Goudy and Edward Johnston, Stanley Morison and Roger Excoffon, Hermann Zapf and Adrian Frutiger, and renowned contemporary designers Neville Brody and Carol Twombly, plus many more.

Taken together, the work and working lives of these extraordinary designers chart the radical changes in typography during the twentieth century.

David Jury is a writer, designer, and historian of typography, printing, and graphic design.