MATTHEW CARTER BY: BENJAMIN DUPUY Published by Dupuy Designs Company, Inc. Laurel, Maryland

Matthew Carter Copyright © 2009 by Benjamin Dupuy. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief qoutations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Designed and typeset by Benjamin Dupuy Body Type: 10 point font Edited by Benjamin Dupuy table of contents

Introduction 1

Early Life 4

Bell Centennial 9

Galliard 17

Verdana 24

Conclusion 29

Bibliography 32 IN TRO DUC

INTRODUCTIONTION °1 One of the most influential type designers of our time, Matthew Carter is one of the few artists whose works are viewed by millions daily through print and digital type faces. Born in London England on October 1, 1937, Matthew Carter began his journey to becoming a worldwide known type designer. Throughout Carters life he went through a major transition from physical metal type to digital type. During Carters expansive career he has experimented with several aspects of type design. Carter has been directly involved with all aspects of typography in its technological evolution – from metal, to photocomposition, to digital – continuously pushing the technological envelope as it relates to and visual communications.

INTRODUCTION °2 EARLY

Matthew Carter AIGA Medalist, by James Willierd INTRODUCTION °3 LIFE EARLY

LIFEEARLY LIFE °4 Carter’s educational career had Matthews plan was to be able to a great impact on his journey work in all the distinct departments to becoming a successful type to get an overview and learn about designer. Even thought Carter the different aspects of type and was not dreaming to be a type printing. Carter arrived at the designer at his youth age his punch cutting department and career began by coincidence. stayed, learning this craft from Carter began his college career one of its masters, P. H. Rädish. In at Oxford University, but before Carter’s words, “I’ve been serving a beginning his college education at life sentence in type ever since.” It Oxford Carter took an important is here where Matthew Carter was internship that would change the trained and received practice in the path of his future. Carter took demanding field of punch cutting. an internship at the Enschedé The experience gained from this in the Netherlands. internship shaped Matthew Carters I’ve been serving a life sentence in type

EARLY LIFE °5 ever since. future which would play a key role 1963. In the year 1963 Matthew in the development of some of Carter joined Crosfield Electronics. his most successful fonts. Shortly Crosfield Electronics was the British after Carter quit school and worked manufacture of the Lumitype with his father, Henry Carter, at phototypesetting machine. During the University Press Oxford. While his career at Crosfield Electronics, working there Matthew Carter Matthew Carter traveled frequently organized a small museum of the to the type foundry Deberny and press history and collection of 16th Peignot, Paris where Lumitype fonts century punches and matrices. were created under the direction of Adrian . After working two Carter began his career as a free years as a type maker in Crosfield lance designer and continued to as Electronics Carter visited New York a free lance designer and lettering which caused a change in his future artist in Oxford and London until path from type maker to designer. I’ve been Matthew Carter at Crosfield Electronics, serving a life by Bernard Stein sentence in type

ever since. EARLY LIFE °6 In the year 1965 Matthew Carter moved to New York to work for Mergenthaler Linotype. From the years of 1965 to 1971 he held the position of staff type designer at Mergenthaler Linotype. This company was one of the world’s leading manufacturers of book and newspaper typesetting equipment. Matthew Carter worked in New York creating new typefaces for photocomposition. While working here, the most recognized type face design created by Carter Punch Cutting Detail, by Steve Lewis was the script face design, Snell Roundhand. After 6 years of working as a staff designer at Mergenthaler Linotype, Matthew Carter decided to work as a free lance designer.

Snell Roundhand

EARLY LIFE °7 Exhibition, by Paul Hunt EARLY LIFE °8 CENTENNIAL °9 Bell Centennial Matthew Carter went from working this type design he was not just for a company to becoming his thinking about its visual qualities own boss, as a free lance designer on screen but instead Carter was in London working for linotype more focused on how this type companies in the United Kingdom, design would look printed. Carter Germany and the USA. It was had the challenge of designing a during these years working as a type that would be clearly legible free lance designer where Matthew in smaller the ordinary type sizes. Carter created the famous Bell While creating Bell Centennial, Centennial type design which was Carter took several key aspects created for the telecommunication into consideration. Since this type company AT&T. This type design was going to be used in phone was created specifically for the directory Carter had to look into telephone directories of AT&T not only how the type design which are still in use to this would look in small sizes but also present day. When Carter created the budget the company had to

Bell Centennial, an elegant, space-saving font designed for use in American telephone directories.

BELL CENTENNIAL °11 BELL CENTENNIAL °11 mass produce these directories. point sizes used in a telephone Within these limitations Carter had directory, and reduce consumption to take into consideration of the of paper. Bell Centennial was ink used, the lower grade paper created to overcome the limitation which the directories would be telephone directories encountered printed on, the machines which during the printing process, poor would be doing the actual printing, reproduction due to high-speed the speed of the printing process printing on newsprint which caused and several more aspects. Every ink to smear which caused legibility one of these pieces played a very problems as the letterforms important role in Carters design, would blend together. In order for example the paper choice to eliminate these limitations in made by the company was very printing, Carter increased the important, the cheaper lighter x-height of lowercase characters, paper where absorptive but had a slightly condensed the character slick surface which would hold less width, and carved out much ink then higher quality printmaking more open counters and bowls to paper. AT&T briefing on the type increase legibility. To anticipate and design they were looking for blunt the degradation caused by called for a typeface that would ink spread, Carter drew the letters fit substantially more characters with deep ink traps, designed to fill per line without loss of legibility, in as the ink spread onto newsprint dramatically reducing the need for fiber, leaving the characters’ abbreviations and two line entries, counter forms open and legible at increase legibility at the smaller small point sizes. Printed in large

BELL CENTENNIAL °13 format the ink traps were visual but when printed in small point size the ink traps are not noticeable. After research and experimentation Matthew Carter designed Bell Centennial, a type design not from a visual conception but from more of a perceptual perspective which was created to address a particular need. All of Matthew Carters typefaces had a similarity; they each were created to solve a very different problem

Bell Centennial, an elegant, space-saving font designed for use in American telephone directories.

BELL CENTENNIAL °14 BELL CENTENNIAL °15 Bell Layout, by William Iven

BELL CENTENNIAL °16 Galliard

GALLIARD °17 The Galliard typeface created by the letters to create a visually Matthew Carter was created for successful typeface. He successfully the sole purpose to set continuous proportioned the counters which text. Carter expressed his previous aids in the readability of the experience and knowledge of Galliard typeface. Carter was able letterforms through his creation of to transition from photocomposition Galliard. Galliard’s serifs are broad to digital type through the creation and dark cause the effect that of Galliard, performing successfully the letters weave together evenly on professional and non when placed side by side. The professional printers. In its most large x-height of Galliard makes recent release from Carter & Cone this typeface easily readable, Galliard is a fully developed type causing it to be widely popular family which includes roman, italic, with today’s graphic designers. Galliard is readable and legible under a variety of conditions which is the main cause of its popularity. Carter achieved this by detailed planning of the stokes composed in each letter and by constructing precisely the counters created by the letter strokes. While The large x-height of Galliard sketching out this typeface Carter makes this typeface easily readable, causing it to be widely Galliard carefully planned out how much popular with today’s graphic space should be allowed between designers.

GALLIARD °18 experts, alternatives, and fraction Design critics have ranked Galliard fonts. Galliards forms reflect as one of the most significant Carters experiences, his knowledge typefaces of the 20th century along of technology, his understanding of with earlier typefaces such as Paul visual language and his personal Renners Futura and Jan Tschicholds design aesthetics. Galliard is an Sabon. Galliard has had a major old style typeface, whose design impact on visual communications. concept war arrived solely for functionality. This typeface was Galliard is a publishing industry influences by the historical forms of standard. It has been used by French type cutter Robert Granjon. university pressed for scholarly

Galliard Text, by Elsy Saso

GALLIARD °19 books, journals and art catalogs. which introduced a new concept It has been used as a text type of desktop publishing. In the 1980 for books and magazines and the environment of type began to as a display type in packaging expand rapidly and the concept and advertising. Adobe used of desktop publishing led us to Galliard for much of its font think that the functions of being a advertising literature. Bitstream writer, author, typesetter, publisher, used it for much of its corporate artist and printer can all be done communications. Galliards by one person. During the 1980’s solid stroke weights reproduce computers became universal giving well under a variety of printing people the ability to create their conditions. Its compactness makes own typestyle documents. it economical, when typesetting a document in Galliard a large In 1981 Matthew Carter and 3 number of characters fit on a other colleagues left Linotype. page. When first released Galliard Carter, Mike Parker, Cherie Cone was used by high end publishers and Rob Friedman founded the because it was composed of a digital type company Bitstream good character set. Carter created Inc in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Galliard with a full range of Carter served as the vice characters so that they could be president of the company and used frequently and infrequently to was responsible for the design set an extended amount of text. standards. Matthew Carter was Galliard Text, by Elsy Saso As the years went on the demand inspired to form this company for digital type design grew rapidly because the sale of typesetting

GALLIARD °20 equipment was drastically falling. overwhelming responsibility of Bitstream Inc. focused on the working in Bitstream Inc. Carter left design and sale of type itself. in 1991 to form Carter & Cone Type Bitstream Inc. developed a with Cherie Cone. library of digital type. Carter and his colleagues became highly During the 1990’s Carter had some successful in the 1980’s when of his most creative years. In 1993 digital design and production Carter created Sophia and Mantinia became available virtually which were companions of his everywhere in the Western World. previous type design, Galliard. Also Concerned with his personal Matthew Carter created a font not time for design because of the known by its name “Wrigley” but by

Drawings from Galliard was designed for photocomposition (it was released by Linotype in 1978 and taken over three years later by ITC.) The two lowercase letters were marked for digitizing at a latter date, courtesy of Linotype

GALLIARD °21 Printout of a character of Galliard as digitized at Bitstream. The curved parts of the outline are built up from arcs of circles, Courtesy of Bitsream

GALLIARD °22 its use. Wrigley was described as an Egyptian Slab with a 90’s feeling. This type design demonstrated Matthew Carters ability to combine classic qualities with a contemporary style. Wrigley was created as a type design for Sports Illustrated. Three leading news publications, Time, Newsweek and US News & World Report choose Carter to design their proper type face design because they knew that Carter would be able to create a font design that is both visually attractive to the eye while at the same time satisfying the publications need of authentic authorial expression. The magazines knew that they were not hiring just another type designer but a skilled artesian with a unique style but with profound skills that play key roles in the concept of his designs.

Galliard Brochure, by Michael Runeb

GALLIARD °23 Verdana

VERDANA °24 Carter was one of the last Carter to become well known people to learn the art of making as a type designer. Because of handmade metal type. An aspect Carter’s successful ability to create that distinguishes Carter from corporate fonts, Microsoft searched other type designers is his intense out Carter to design them what is knowledge of type. Through his now known as Verdana. prior experience of making metal type by hand Carter was able The task of designing what became to learn the forms of letters and Verdana began with the Microsoft there counter forms. How much Corporation. Microsoft wanted space a letter uses and how much Carter to design a new typeface space a series of letters use up. that would increase visibility on This prior knowledge allowed screen and also appear modern

Matthew Carter giving a seminar on his typeface Verdana photography by MIT media lab

VERDANA °25 so that users would know they are using a new software release. In order to complete this task Carter had to slightly distort bitmaps and letterforms in order to make spacing between the letter better. As with most things these days, it all boils down to cost. Verdana is a web-friendly font that was invented by Microsoft. It’s freely distributed so IKEA wouldn’t have to be facing into costs of purchasing the Futura font for its global network. But Verdana is so ubiquitous, it’s a saving that will end up costing IKEA more in the dumbing down of its brand. Also as Verdana was designed for use on screens, it doesn’t really work that well on print, in catalogues, and on super large roadside posters. When Carter was commissioned by Microsoft to design the typeface Verdana as a solution to screen resolution, it was not the first time Carter has been asked to design a typeface that compensated for a technology which when first introduced was less than perfect. This challenged has followed him throughout his professional life.

IKEA has switched its font from a customised version of Futura to Verdana, courtesy of IKEA

VERDANA °26 VERDANA °27 IKEA recently switched from the typeface Futura to Verdana in its print and Web materials. courtesy of IKEA CONCLUSION

Carter sees two tendencies in type designers: those who have a strong visual personality, and those whose work does not elaborate a signature aesthetic. Carter offered Goudy, Hermann Zapf and Gerard Unger as examples of designers whose work he admires for its singularity of vision. Carter vividly described their fonts as having “residual, skeletal forms.” He sees himself, however, as coming from a different position, attributable to his background in type-founding rather than art or design school. While there may be no recurrent structure from one of Carter’s fonts to the next, there is certainly a great deal of structure particular to each one. One of Carter’s favorite assessments of his work asserts that the letters he draws have “backbones.” This sturdiness of structure is evidence of an analytical rigor that his fonts, writing, and speaking share. His typefaces have the precision, conviction, and distinction of a well-thought argument or clear diction.

CONCLUSION °29 CONCLUSION

When Carter says, “I can’t think of a period in typography that I would rather be working in,” one realizes that he has grasped the implications of his own talent in its intersection with history. When asked what sustains his interest in typography, he offers this: “A font is always a struggle between the alphabetic nature of the letterform, the ‘A-ness’ of the A, and your desire to put some of yourself into the letterform. It’s a struggle between representing something (you cannot take endless liberties with a letterform) and trying to find some iota of yourself in it.” With characteristic modesty, Carter speaks of finding oneself in the letter as opposed to merely putting oneself in it. The statement is a beautiful evocation of the tension between expression and restraint that animates the work of Matthew Carter.

CONCLUSION °30 ABCDE FHIJKL MNOP QRSTV WXYZ ABCDE BIBLIOGRAPHY Drucker, Johanna, James Mosley, and Margaret Re. Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter [Exhibition, 9 Sept. - 2 Dec. 2002, Albin O. Kuhn Library & Gallery, University of Maryland]. Baltimore: U. Of Maryland, 2002. FHIJKL Jacobs, Kerry. An Existential Guide to Type. Metropolis (April 1988) Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1998.

Estersin, Simon. “A Life in Type (part two).” Creative Review, May 2005.

Esterson, Simon. “A Life in Type (Part One).” Creative Review, April 2005. MNOP Mahan, Rachel. “Titan of Type.” Psychology Today, Sep. - Oct. 2008. QRSTV WXYZ BIBLIOGRAPHY °32

“watching me work is like watching a REFRIGERATOR MAKE ICE.” -M.CARTER