Design history what what

Dead and gone


Max Miedinger is most famous for creating the typeface Helvetica (Which I'm using right now! Fun stuff.)  A swiss designer, he created a typeface that became the poster child for cutting edge Swiss design.


Robert Koch  developed the typeface Wilhelm Klingspor Gotisch in Frankfurt after being inspired by fourteenth century manuscripts.


Claude Garamond was inspired by the roman cut by Francesco Griffito when he developed Hypnerotomachia Polophilius.


Ludovico Degli designed an initially italic Blado typeface which was later revived by Stanley Morison in 1923. These italics, called Arrighi italics, are seen as the first cursive typefaces in print.


Bram de Does's work can be seen on the pages of a Dutch dictionary. His typeface Lexicon no. 1 is a vertically compact form, maximizing legibility in tightly packed text.




In the land of the living


Hailing from South Africa, Margaret Calvert  did much of her work after she moved to England. She designed many of the road signs used throughout Great Britain in addition to creating the typeface Transport for the British Rail System. 


Hermann Zapf designed Optima in 1958, a piece in the Liontype collection which remains one of the top five highest selling typefaces in Linotype.


Tim Ahrens designed Linotype Aroma in 1999. The family now includes other variations, such as ExtraLight, Light and SemiBold.


Andreu Balius was inspired by old Catalan typefaces while designing Pradell and Trochut. For Pradell, Balius attempted to capture the style evoked by Audald Pradell's work.


Jonathan Barnbrook, an Englishman, began designing typefaces because of his belief that designers had significant influence on the image and the layout of design but had not power over the typeface. He published the typefaces Exocet and Mason with a questioning mind, drawing influence from a likeminded thinker, Eric Gill, whose social awareness led him to dare defy 'unquestionable' things.