John Downer (sign painter) explained

John Downer
Birth Place:	Tacoma, Wa
Nationality:	American
Occupation:	Typeface Designer, Logo Designer, Sign Painter
Years Active:	1969-present

John Downer (born 1951) is an American sign painter, typeface and logo designer.^{[1] [2]} Downer began his career as a painter of signs.^{[3] [4] [5]} Among his best-known digital fonts are Iowan Old Style, Roxy, Triplex Italic, and Brothers.^{[6] [7] [8]}

Downer studied at Washington State University and the University of Iowa.^{[9] [10] [11] [12]} His work was featured amongst that of others in the 2014 documentary Sign Painters.^{[13] [14] [15]} He has lectured on type and sign design at conferences and at The Cooper Union.^[16]

Typeface designs

• Iowan Old Style - Venetian old-style serif
• Roxy (Font Bureau) - stroke-modulated sans-serif
• Triplex Italic (Emigre)
• Brothers (Emigre) - chamfered display wedge-serif influenced by nineteenth-century lettering^[17]
• Paperback (House Industries) - text serif face with optical sizes
• SamSans - humanist sans-serif
• Vendetta (Emigre) - inspired by old-style Venetian serif fonts but with sharpened serifs
• Council (Emigre) - condensed display wedge-serif, capitals-only
• Ironmonger (Font Bureau) - angular all-caps display alphabet inspired by lettering on buildings
• Simona (Design Lab) - serif, similar to the work of Fournier and Bodoni

Proprietary typefaces

• Gonnick [for cartoonist Larry Gonnick]
• Screenmax (bitmap serif typefaces at 7 pixel x-height in Roman, Italic, Bold and Black)

External links

• Schriftdesigner John Downer - Klingspor Museum article on John Downer's work (German)
• John Downer Speedballs (Typographica)
• Sostav (Russian) - page on Downer's lettering and influences
• Type design in Iowa - Luc Devroye's page on Downer and other Iowa-based type designers
• MyFonts
• John Downer: Paper signs
• John Downer, TYPO Berlin (German)
• Font Bureau profile page

Notes and References

1. Web site: Downer. John. The Art of Founding Type. Emigre. 19 August 2015.
2. Web site: A sign painter at work. Kombinat. 5 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160911163044/http://kombinat-typefounders.com/news/article/sign_painter. 11 September 2016. dead.
3. Web site: Hoefler. Jonathan. Jonathan Hoefler. John Downer at The Propagandist. Hoefler & Frere-Jones. 21 January 2016.
4. Web site: Défense D'Af: Faux Ghostsign from John Downer. Ghost Signs (blog). 22 December 2013 . 5 May 2016.
5. Web site: Hansford. Vanessa. Sign Painter, John Downer. The Simple Things. 5 May 2016.
6. Web site: Butterick . Matthew . Matthew Butterick . Iowan Old Style . Typography for Lawyers . 2 August 2015 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20150116084100/http://typographyforlawyers.com/iowan-old-style.html . January 16, 2015 .
7. Web site: Berry. John. An American Typeface Comes of Age. dot creative. 2 August 2015.
8. Web site: Downer. John. Call It What It Is. Emigre. 20 March 2016.
9. Web site: Alastair Johnston interviews John Downer. Alastair Johnston. 21 February 2016.
10. Web site: Thomas. Shelbi. The Iowan Type. Iowa Alumni Magazine. University of Iowa Alumni Association. 5 May 2016.
11. Web site: Peters. Yyves. An Exhibition of Hand Lettered Posters by John Downer. FontFeed. 5 May 2016.
12. Web site: Iowa Digital Library collections: John Downer, signpainter . . 30 October 2021.
13. Web site: Peters. Yyves. Sign Painters Movie Explores Contemporary Sign Painting. Font Feed. 5 May 2016.
14. Web site: Uuong. An. Sign Painters: a Sign of the Times. Artscope. 29 July 2014 . 5 May 2016.
15. Web site: Davies. Bree. Sign Painters Shines A Colorful Light on the History of a Hidden Craft. Westword. 5 May 2016.
16. Web site: Introduction to Sign Painting. Cooper Union. 5 May 2016.
17. Web site: Heck . Bethany . Brothers review . Font Review Journal . 2 October 2017 . 13 September 2019.