Designing Typefaces David Earls A RotoVision book Published and distributed by RotoVision SA Route Suisse 9, CH-1295 Mies, Switzerland RotoVision SA, Sales & Production Office Sheridan House, 112/116A Western Road Hove, East Sussex BN3 1DD, UK T +44 (0)1273 727 268 F +44 (0)1273 727 269 E
[email protected] www.rotovision.com Copyright © RotoVision SA Autumn 2002 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission of the copyright holder 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 2-88046-699-7 Book design: Bikini Atoll Photography: Lee Funnell and Xavier Young Editor: Kate Noël-Paton Production and separations in Singapore by ProVision Pte. Ltd T +65 6334 7720 F +65 6334 7721 ii iiiii David Earls i Designing Typefaces To Mum, Doug and Scut In order of appearance Introduction . 6 Designer profiles Jonathan Hoefler . 12 Jonathan Barnbrook . 24 Akira Kobayashi . 36 Zuzana Licko . 48 Jean-François Porchez . 60 Rian Hughes . 72 Carlos Segura . 84 Erik Spiekermann . 96 Jeremy Tankard . 108 Matthew Carter . 120 Erik van Blokland . 132 Type tutorial Type tutorial . 144 End matter Glossary . 158 Contacts . 159 Acknowledgements . 160 A typeface is not merely a representation of the Roman alphabet. It is the combination of thousands of years of collective human social, technological and economic history, combined with the passion, skill, experience and personal history of its often lone creator. The Phoenicians are widely believed to have created the basis for the Roman alphabet we know and use today.