![]() ![]() However, many of Goudy’s designs were used in hand-setting also. 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. ![]() 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. ĭuring the early years of Goudy's career, hand typesetting was being superseded, especially for body text composition, by hot metal typesetting, and his client Monotype was one of the most popular manufacturers of these systems, in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. 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. 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. Goudy's career took place at a time of progress in printing technology. As a result, many of his designs may look somewhat similar to modern readers. This led to him producing a large range of designs on commission, and promoting his career through talks and teaching. 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. 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. 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. The book was typeset by his wife Bertha Goudy in his font Kennerley Old Style and printed by his friend Mitchell Kennerley. He listed his typefaces with numbers in a similar way to the opus numbers used by composers.Ĭareer The first page of Goudy's book Elements of Lettering (1922), exemplifying his interest in the history of printing. He worked extensively with his wife Bertha, who particularly collaborated with him on printing projects. Indeed, in his autobiography Goudy sometimes said he had little memory of some of his earlier designs. 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. 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. Goudy in 1924Īgain 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. 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. This means that several of his most famous designs such as Copperplate Gothic and Goudy Stout are unusual deviations from his normal style. He also developed a number of typefaces influenced by blackletter medieval manuscripts, illuminated manuscript capitals and Roman square capitals carved into stone. Eric Sloane, who was his neighbour as a boy, recalled that he also took inspiration from hand-painted signs. 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. Goudy was one of America's most prolific designers of metal type. The following is a list of typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy.
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