List of typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy explained

The following is a list of typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy.

Goudy was one of America's most prolific designers of metal type. He worked under the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement, and many of his designs are old-style serif designs inspired by the relatively organic structure of typefaces created between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, following the lead of earlier revivalist printers such as William Morris.[1] Eric Sloane, who was his neighbour as a boy, recalled that he also took inspiration from hand-painted signs.[2] He also developed a number of typefaces influenced by blackletter medieval manuscripts, illuminated manuscript capitals and Roman square capitals carved into stone.[3] This means that several of his most famous designs such as Copperplate Gothic and Goudy Stout are unusual deviations from his normal style.[4]

Goudy's taste matched a trend of the period, in which a preference for using mechanical, geometric Didone fonts introduced in the eighteenth and nineteenth century was being displaced by a revival of interest in the 'old-style' serif fonts (preferred by Goudy) developed before this, a change that has proved to be lasting, especially in book body text.[5] [6] [7] [8]

Again unusually for type designers of the period, Goudy wrote extensively on his work and ambitions, partly in order to publicise his work as an independent artisan. He completed A Half-Century of Type Design and Typography, a two-volume survey of all his designs, late in life, in which he discussed all of his work.[9] [10] Not all Goudy's designs survive or have been digitised: several, often designs never cut into metal, were lost in fires which burned down his studio in 1908 and again in 1939. Indeed, in his autobiography Goudy sometimes said he had little memory of some of his earlier designs. He worked extensively with his wife Bertha, who particularly collaborated with him on printing projects. He listed his typefaces with numbers in a similar way to the opus numbers used by composers.

Career

Unlike most type designers of the metal type era, Goudy worked as an independent designer not permanently employed by any one company, giving him particular latitude to work on his own projects. He generally avoided sans-serif designs, though he did create the nearly sans-serif Copperplate Gothic, inspired by engraved letters, early in his career and a few others later. As an independent artist and consultant, Goudy needed to undertake a large range of commissions to survive, and sought patronage from companies (and, especially later in life, universities) who would commission a typeface for their own printing and advertising.[11] This led to him producing a large range of designs on commission, and promoting his career through talks and teaching.[12] As a result, many of his designs may look somewhat similar to modern readers.

Goudy's career took place at a time of progress in printing technology. New pantograph engraving technology made it easier to rapidly engrave matrices), the moulds in which metal type would be cast or the punches used to stamp them in copper.[13] This gave much cleaner results than pre-pantograph punches, which had to be carefully hand-carved at the size of the desired letter, with less difficulty and the ability to prepare designs more easily from large plan drawings.[14]

During the early years of Goudy's career, hand typesetting was being superseded, especially for body text composition, by hot metal typesetting, and his client Monotype was one of the most popular manufacturers of these systems, in competition with that of Linotype. Both allowed metal type to be quickly cast under the control of a keyboard, eliminating the need to manually cast metal type and slot it into place into a printing press. With no need to keep type in stock, just the matrices used as moulds to cast the type, printers could use a wider range of fonts and there was increasing demand for varied typefaces. However, many of Goudy’s designs were used in hand-setting also.

While most of Goudy's designs are 'old-style' serif faces, they do still explore a wide range of aspects of the genre, with Deepdene offering a strikingly upright italic, Goudy Modern merging traditional old-style letters with the insistent, horizontal serifs of Didone faces of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and several such as Goudy Old Style being sold with a swash italic for display use.[15] [16] His sans-serif series, Goudy Sans, adopts an eccentric humanist style with a calligraphic italic.[17] [18] Quite unlike most sans-serif types of the period, it was unpopular in his lifetime but has been revived several times since by both LTC and ITC.[19] [20] [21]

Goudy started his career as a full-time type designer later in life, creating his first font in his early thirties.[22] In his earlier career he had worked first as a bookkeeper, and then as a printer and lettering artist.[23]

Critical assessment

The printer Daniel Berkeley Updike, while respecting some of his work, echoed Goudy's student Dwiggins' comment that his work lacked 'a certain snap and acidity'.[24] [25] [26] He also wrote that Goudy had "never gotten over" a desire to imitate medieval books.[27]

The British printer Stanley Morison, also a veteran of fine book printing whose career at Monotype had moved in the direction of blending tradition with practicality, admired much of Goudy's work and ethos but wrote that Goudy had "designed a whole century of very peculiar looking types", and that he was glad that his company's Times New Roman did not look "as if it has been designed by somebody in particular - Mr. Goudy for instance."[28] Goudy felt in his later life that his career had been overshadowed by new trends, with modernism and a trend towards sans-serifs and sharp geometric type leaving his work out of favor.[29]

Walter Tracy, a leading historian of type design, devoted a section of his book Letters of Credit to a critical assessment of Goudy's work. He was impressed by Goudy Old Style, the blackletter Goudy Text, Goudy Heavy and to a certain extent Deepdene, but felt that Goudy was over-fond of eccentric detailing, such as a "restless" tilted 'e' common in early printing, and felt that Goudy's prolific work rate had prevented him from critically assessing his designs. He noted as an example how his "Bertham" type, named in memory of his late wife ("Bertha M."),[30] was drawn and engraved in sixteen working days: "there cannot have been much time for the objective scrutiny which every design should undergo before it is allowed to emerge from the workshop."

Goudy gave his blackletter designs the adjective text, short for 'textura'. This designation was common in Goudy's time; it is now avoided due to confusion with fonts intended for body text.

1896 to 1904

1911 to 1926

From 1911 to 1926 (with a few exceptions) Goudy's designs were cut by Robert Wiebking. Some were private commissions, others were cut first and then offered for sale.

Kennerley series

See main article: Kennerley Old Style. The Kennerley Series, named for New York publisher Mitchell Kennerley, was Goudy's first major success in his own style.[40]
Goudy described the design as extremely loosely suggested by the 'Fell Types', a set of type in the Dutch style collected by Bishop John Fell of Oxford for the Oxford University Press: "comparison of my type with the Fell letter will disclose little more than an identity of spirit."[41] Others have compared it in some details, notably the tilted understroke on the 'e' of which Goudy was fond, to the type of late 15th century Venetian printer Nicolas Jenson.[42] Many revivals and digitisations have been released since.[43] [44]


1915 to 1926: Cut by ATF

In 1915 and 1916, Goudy was on retainer for American Type Founders and all of his matrices were cut in house by ATF.

Goudy Old Style

See main article: Goudy Old Style. Described as 'an instant best-seller' by Lawson in Anatomy of a Typeface, Goudy Old Style (1915) has remained popular since its creation for ATF as a body text and display face.[51] Goudy described the design as influenced by capitals on a painting, but later said he was unable to find which, although he thought it was by Hans Holbein (Goudy did not say which). The dots (tittles) on the 'i' and 'j' are diamond-pattern, and the descenders were kept short at ATF's insistence to allow tight line setting on their common line system.[52] Many revivals have been released.[53] Goudy later also designed an italic, and A.T.F. a bold weight and a medium, named 'Goudy Catalogue'.

Goudy Old Style became particularly commonly used for display and advertising use. Indeed, in 1937, the printing textbook 26 Lead Soldiers described the bold as 'better known' than the regular.

Goudy Open and Goudy Modern

Garamont

See main article: Garamond. One of Goudy's most popular typefaces in his lifetime, Garamont (1921, Lanston Monotype + 1927, Continental) was loosely based on metal types in the Imprimerie nationale, the French government printing-office, that were at the time thought to be the work of Claude Garamont. Research by Beatrice Warde, published in 1926, revealed that actually these designs were the work of Jean Jannon, working more than fifty years after Garamond's death.[64] [65] An elegant sample created by Bruce Rogers was shown in a spring 1923 issue of Monotype's magazine.[66] Garamont features a large range of swash characters. Mosley has described it as "a lively type, underappreciated I think."[67] LTC's digitisation deliberately maintained its eccentricity and irregularity true to period printing, something Goudy had insisted on in his original design, avoiding perfect verticals.[68]

1926 to 1929

From 1926 until his death, Goudy cut all of his own faces (at least in the pilot sizes).[73] From 1927-1929, Goudy cast type at his own Village Letter Foundry and marketed them through the Continental Type Founders Association. After 1929 he ceased casting his own fonts and they were cast for Continental by the New England Type Foundry.[74]

Deepdene series

See main article: Deepdene (typeface). A crisp design inspired by a typeface designed in the Netherlands, which Goudy's Paul Bennett wrote was Jan van Krimpen's Lutetia.[80] One of Goudy's more popular designs, with several digital revivals, although as of 2016 only LTC's includes the swash capitals and small caps of Goudy's original design conception.[81] [82] Named after Goudy's home in Marlborough.

1930 to 1934

1935 to 1938

University of California Old Style

See main article: University of California Old Style. Goudy's 'California' font (1938, Continental) was cut for the University of California Press. It is a 'Venetian' typeface, loosely inspired by the work of Nicolas Jenson. One of Goudy's most popular designs, several releases exist.

After the original type was commissioned for private use, 'California' was released publicly by different companies, first in 1958, by Lanston Monotype as 'Californian' and then famously under the name of 'Berkeley Old Style' by ITC.

In digital versions, 'California' was released by ITC under its pre-existing brand, as 'Californian' by LTC and Font Bureau (in different digitisations) and by Richard Beatty under the name of 'University Old Style'.[104] [105] [106] [107]

Late designs, 1938 to 1945

"Goudy" faces designed by others

Goudy also cut the matrices for Foster Abstract, an ultra-bold Art Deco block letter designed by his friend Robert Foster. 1931, Continental with matrices cut by Goudy and cast privately.[118] Goudy personally felt that the design 'violated every canon of type design'.

Considering digital revivals of Goudy's non-character typefaces, P22 has also published an anthology of Goudy's ornament designs, released along with their collection of Goudy's ampersands; Parachute Fonts has also released adaptations of Goudy's initials for Greek and Cyrillic.[119] [120]

External links

Writings by Goudy

Additional sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Shaw. Paul. An appreciation of Frederic W. Goudy as a type designer. 12 July 2015.
  2. Book: Sloane. Eric. Return to Taos : Eric Sloane's sketchbook of roadside Americana. 2006. Dover Publications. Mineola, NY. 9780486447735. 8.
  3. Web site: Cameron. Alex. Type Tuesday: Scholarly and beautiful, a 1918 book by typographer Frederic W. Goudy. Eye Magazine. 5 February 2016.
  4. Web site: Rimmer. Jim. Poster Paint. Fontspring. Canada Type.
  5. Lawson, A. (1990). Anatomy of a typeface. Boston: Godine, p.200.
  6. Ovink. G.W.. Nineteenth-century reactions against the didone type model - I. Quaerendo. 1971. 1. 2. 18–31. 10.1163/157006971x00301.
  7. Ovink. G.W.. Nineteenth-century reactions against the didone type model - II. Quaerendo. 1971. 1. 4. 282–301. 10.1163/157006971x00239.
  8. Book: Mosley. James. James Mosley. Reviving the Classics: Matthew Carter and the Interpretation of Historical Models. Mosley. James. Re. Margaret. Drucker. Johanna. Carter. Matthew. Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter. 2003. Princeton Architectural Press. 9781568984278. 31–34. https://books.google.com/books?id=WqXd_w4S4SsC&pg=PA31. 30 January 2016.
  9. Book: Goudy. Frederic. A Half-Century of Type Design and Typography: 1895-1945, Volume 1. 1946. The Typophiles. New York. 26 February 2016.
  10. Book: Goudy. Frederic. A Half-Century of Type Design and Typography: 1895-1945, Volume 1. 1946. The Typophiles. New York. 26 February 2016.
  11. Web site: Carter. Matthew. Goudy, the good ol' boy (Bruckner biography review). Eye Magazine. 5 February 2016.
  12. News: Updike. John. John Updike. A Bull in the Typography Shop: a review of Frederic Goudy by D. J. R. Bruckner. New York Times. 16 December 1990. 5 February 2016.
  13. Monotype matrices and moulds in the making. Monotype Recorder. 1956. 40. 3.
  14. Web site: Morison. Stanley. Stanley Morison. Printing the Times. Eye. 28 July 2015.
  15. Web site: LTC Goudy Modern. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  16. Web site: LTC Goudy Old Style Cursive. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  17. Web site: Majoor. Martin. My Type Design Philosophy.
  18. Web site: LTC Goudy Sans. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  19. Web site: Goudy Sans FS. Fontsite. 27 August 2015.
  20. Web site: ITC Goudy Sans. ITC. MyFonts. 27 August 2015.
  21. Web site: Adobe ITC Goudy Sans. MyFonts. Adobe. 27 August 2015.
  22. Web site: TYPE BY GOUDY - Modern Mechanix. Modern Mechanix. 2016-02-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20061105145335/http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/01/type-by-goudy/. 2006-11-05. dead.
  23. Book: Carter. Sebastian. Sebastian Carter. Twentieth century type designers. 2002. Lund Humphries. Aldershot. 9780853318514. 45. New.
  24. Book: Updike. Daniel Berkeley. Printing types : their history, forms, and use; a study in survivals vol 2. 1922. Harvard University Press. Cambridge, MA. 243. 1st. 17 August 2015.
  25. Book: Frazier. J.L.. Type Lore. 1925. Chicago. 103. 24 August 2015.
  26. Book: Leslie Cabarga. Logo, Font & Lettering Bible. 15 February 2004. Adams Media. 1-58180-436-9. 108–9.
  27. Book: Megan Benton. Beauty and the Book: Fine Editions and Cultural Distinction in America. January 2000. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-08213-5. 99–.
  28. Book: Simon Loxley. Type: The Secret History of Letters. 12 June 2006. I.B.Tauris. 978-1-84511-028-4. 134–.
  29. Book: Loxley, Simon. Type: The Secret History of Letters. 31 March 2006. I.B.Tauris. 978-0-85773-017-6. 93–102.
  30. Book: Goudy, Frederic W. Bertha M. Goudy. Recollections by one who knew her best (Frederic W. Goudy).. 1939-01-01. Village Press. Marlboro, N.Y.. 6. 504760211. en.
  31. Web site: LTC Camelot. MyFonts. LTC. 26 August 2015.
  32. Web site: LTC Pabst Oldstyle. MyFonts. LTC. 26 August 2015.
  33. Web site: LTC Powell. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  34. [Alexander Lawson|Lawson, Alexander]
  35. Web site: LTC Village No 2. MyFonts. 26 August 2015.
  36. Web site: Village - Font Bureau. MyFonts. 26 August 2015.
  37. Book: Frazier. J.L.. Type Lore. 1925. Chicago. 20. 24 August 2015.
  38. Web site: Globe Gothic. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  39. Web site: Usherwood & Jackaman. Goudy 38. MyFonts. Red Rooster Fonts. 27 August 2015.
  40. News: Gross. John. The Fortunes of Mitchell Kennerley, Bookman (book review). New York Times. 21 October 1986. 5 February 2016.
  41. Book: Frederic William Goudy. Typologia: Studies in Type Design & Type Making, with Comments on the Invention of Typography, the First Types, Legibility, and Fine Printing. 1940. University of California Press. 978-0-520-03308-5. 48–9.
  42. Book: Lewis Blackwell. 20th-century Type. 2004. Laurence King Publishing. 978-1-85669-351-6. 191.
  43. Web site: LTC Kennerley. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  44. Web site: Schwartz. Barry. Goudy Bookletter 1911 (open-source revival, no italic). League of Movable Type. 27 August 2015.
  45. Web site: Nolan. John. Steffmann. Dieter. Goudy Twenty. 1001 Fonts. Typographer Mediengestaltung. 27 August 2015.
  46. Web site: LTC Forum Title. MyFonts. LTC. 25 February 2016.
  47. Web site: Rickner. Tom. Goudy Forum Pro. MyFonts. Ascender. 25 February 2016.
  48. Web site: Typography Brand Guidelines. brand.syracuse.edu. en-US. 2017-02-10.
  49. News: Hidden Treasure in Special Collections Embodies Syracuse University Spirit. SU News. en-US. 2017-01-31.
  50. Web site: Coyte . Madeline . Sherman Type Specimen Book . 20 December 2019 . 3 April 2021 . en.
  51. Book: Alexander S. Lawson. Anatomy of a Typeface. January 1990. David R. Godine Publisher. 978-0-87923-333-4. 110–119.
  52. Web site: Shaw. Paul. Flawed Typefaces. Print magazine. 12 May 2011. 30 June 2015.
  53. Web site: Schwartz. Barry. Sorts Mill Goudy. League of Movable Type. 2 July 2015.
  54. Web site: LTC Goudy Oldstyle. MyFonts. Monotype. 2 July 2015.
  55. Web site: Curtis. Nick. National Old Style NF. MyFonts. Nick's Fonts. 25 February 2016.
  56. Web site: Steffmann. Dieter. Goudy Initialen. 1001 Fonts. Typographer Mediengestaltung. 27 August 2015.
  57. Web site: LTC Goudy Initials (more complex Cloister Initials digitisation with negative/positive elements). MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  58. Web site: LTC Goudy Open. LTC. Myfonts. 26 August 2015.
  59. Web site: Goudy Modern (with review of digitisations). Fonts In Use. 6 January 2012. 27 August 2015.
  60. Web site: Goudy Modern MT. Adobe/Monotype. MyFonts. 25 February 2016.
  61. Web site: Sherman. Nick. Moby Dick, the Arion Press edition. Fonts In Use. 6 January 2012. 28 February 2016.
  62. Grossman, C: "Andrew Hoyem of Arion Press: Champion of Literary Artistry", Biblio, September 1997.
  63. Web site: Presidio's future -- less cash, more culture / Market-driven development needs a dose of soul-searching. 18 June 2006.
  64. Warde. Beatrice. Beatrice Warde. The 'Garamond' Types. The Fleuron. 1926. 131–179.
  65. Book: Allen Kent. Harold Lancour. Jay E. Daily. Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science: Volume 9 - Fore-Edge Painting to Germany: Libraries and Information Centers in: Training of Documentalists and Information Officers at the Nonuniversity Level in the Federal Republic of Germany. 1 July 1973. CRC Press. 978-0-8247-2109-1. 196–199.
  66. Rogers. Bruce. Bruce Rogers (typographer). Printer's Note. Monotype: A Journal of Composing Room Efficiency. January 1923. 23. This issue of Monotype is set in a trial font of a new version of Garamond's design ... the type ornaments, modelled on 16th century ones, will also be available..
  67. Web site: Mosley . James . James Mosley . Comments on Typophile thread . Typophile . 11 December 2015 . unfit . https://web.archive.org/web/20150202154618/http://typophile.com/node/37259 . February 2, 2015 .
  68. Web site: LTC Garamont. MyFonts. LTC. 3 December 2015.
  69. Book: Megan Benton. Beauty and the Book: Fine Editions and Cultural Distinction in America. January 2000. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-08213-5. 131–133.
  70. Web site: Hunt & Grieshaber. LTC Italian Old Style. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  71. Web site: Beatty. Richard. Italian Old Style (Beatty). Fontshop. 4 November 2015.
  72. Web site: Goudy Heavy Face. Fonts In Use. 27 August 2015.
  73. Rollins, Carl Purlington American Type Designers and Their Work. in Print, V. 4, #1.
  74. Specimen Book of Continental Types, Continental Type Founders Association, N.Y.C., 1929, p. 123.
  75. Web site: Kegler & Kahn. Goudy Aries. P22. 27 August 2015.
  76. Web site: A "Lost" Goudy Type Becomes Our New Companion. 14 December 2014. Tampa Book Arts Studio. 27 August 2015.
  77. Web site: Heller. Steven. Happiness is Times New Roman. Print magazine. 10 August 2015. 15 December 2016.
  78. Web site: New Additions: August 2021 . . 12 September 2021.
  79. Web site: Companion Old Style . FontSpring . Matteson Typographics . 12 September 2021.
  80. Book: Walter Tracy. Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design. January 2003. D.R. Godine. 978-1-56792-240-0. 121.
  81. Web site: LTC Deepdene. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  82. Web site: Schwartz. Barry. Linden Hill. League of Movable Type. 27 August 2015.
  83. Web site: LTC Remington. MyFonts. LTC. 26 August 2015.
  84. Web site: LTC Record Title. MyFonts. LTC. 26 August 2015.
  85. Web site: LTC Goudy Text. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  86. Web site: Goudy Text CT. Fontspring. Castle Type. 27 August 2015.
  87. Web site: Goudy Lombardy (digitisation with alternates). Fontspring. CastleType. 11 September 2015.
  88. Web site: Goudy Lombardic Caps. Fontspring. Fontsite. 11 September 2015.
  89. Web site: LTC Kaatskill. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  90. Web site: Goudy Trajan Pro (medium weight free, otherwise commercial release). CastleType. 27 August 2015.
  91. Web site: Beatty. Richard. Goudy Mediaeval. FontShop. Richard Beatty. 27 August 2015.
  92. Web site: Steffmann. Dieter. Goudy Mediaeval TM. 1001fonts. Typographer Mediengestaltung. 27 August 2015.
  93. Web site: Hardwig. Florian. Django's Spirit – A Tribute To Django Reinhardt. Fonts in Use. 9 February 2017. 11 February 2017.
  94. Web site: Goudy Stout. Microsoft. 11 February 2017.
  95. Web site: Matteson. Steve. Truesdell. Fontshop. Monotype. 27 August 2015.
  96. Web site: LTC Goudy Ornate. MyFonts. LTC. 26 August 2015.
  97. Web site: Goudy Ornate MT. MyFonts. Monotype. 25 February 2016.
  98. Web site: Curtis. Nick. Franciscan Caps NF. MyFonts. Nick's Fonts. 25 February 2016.
  99. Web site: Beatty. Richard. Goudy Saks (Richard Beatty). FontShop. 27 August 2015.
  100. Web site: Beatty. Richard. Saks Goudy. Will Harris. 27 August 2015.
  101. Web site: Pesala. Bhikku. Fonts. Softer Views. 4 September 2015.
  102. Web site: Matteson. Steve. Bertham (with added italic). MyFonts. Ascender. 27 August 2015.
  103. Web site: Friar. MyFonts. Ascender. 27 August 2015.
  104. Web site: Californian FB. Font Bureau. 19 June 2015.
  105. Web site: LTC Californian. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  106. Web site: University Old Style (an alternative Berkeley Old Style digitisation by Fontsite). Fontsite. 27 August 2015.
  107. Web site: Beatty. Richard. University Old Style. Fontshop. 4 November 2015.
  108. Web site: Beatty. Richard. Claremont (Scripps digitisation). Will Harris. 27 August 2015.
  109. Web site: Scripps College Old Style. MyFonts. Monotype. 27 August 2015.
  110. Web site: LTC Goudy Thirty. P22. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  111. Web site: Goudy Thirty TM. 1001 Fonts. Typographer Mediengestaltung. 27 August 2015.
  112. Book: Alexander S. Lawson. Anatomy of a Typeface. January 1990. David R. Godine Publisher. 978-0-87923-333-4. 13–34.
  113. Web site: Goudy Catalog MT. MyFonts. Monotype. 31 August 2015.
  114. Web site: LTC Goudy Handtooled. MyFonts. LTC. 27 August 2015.
  115. Web site: Goudy Two Shoes. MyFonts. Canada Type. 27 August 2015.
  116. Web site: Daylilies and Dayleaves. Will Harris. Judith Sutcliff. 25 February 2016.
  117. Web site: Goudy Swash. MyFonts. URW++. 25 February 2016.
  118. Web site: Bomparte. John. Abstrak (Abstract Revival). MyFonts. Bomparte Fonts.
  119. Web site: Goudy Aries Ornaments. MyFonts. 17 September 2015.
  120. Web site: PF Goudy Initials. Behance. February 2010 . Parachute Fonts. 17 September 2015.