Famous Quotes from Type Designers
Alright fellow Typophiles, what are your favorite quotes from famous type designers. Can’t tell you why, it is a surprise. However, we could also put these in the wiki. I’ll start:
“Anyone that would letterspace blackletter would steal sheep.” Frederic W. Goudy




























2.Jul.2005 8.31am
“There are now about as many different varieties of letters as there are different kinds of fools.” Eric Gill
2.Jul.2005 10.58am
“Berthold is still a good typeface, but even Berthold has some less than attractive features, and then I just cut them off because I didn’t like them.” -Wolfgang Weingart
2.Jul.2005 11.11am
“Bodoni would be an admirable letter for a death notice!”
- G. W. Ovink
http://www.designingwithtype.com/essays/1_2.html
There’s a lot more there too.
hhp
2.Jul.2005 11.14am
I’ve tried to find the english translation for this quote by Giambattista Bodoni, but without luck I try to do it myself (from the Swedsih book I have)...
“The letters don’t get their true delight, when done in haste & discomfort, nor merely done with diligence & pain, but first when they are created with love and passion.”
2.Jul.2005 2.08pm
Tiffany, are you sure you have that Goudy quote correct? It is normally cited as ’lowercase’, not ’blackletter’. Letterspacing blackletter is actually a well established convention to indicate emphasis, in the absence of italics, which has been practiced in Germany and other countries with long blackletter traditions, for at least two centuries.
2.Jul.2005 2.09pm
’Continued experiment with dog today’ - Eric Gill
2.Jul.2005 3.00pm
John,
I believe Tiffany got the quote all right.
When Goudy in 1936 recieved a handlettered certificate of excellence set in a heavily letterspaced uppercase blackletter, those were the words he uttered.
The reason why it has changed over the years is not as much a mis-quotation as sometimes is suggested but rather a sort of evolution. I mean, it has a good punch to it, and lower case are easier to relate to.
My guess, for what it’s worth.
ƒ
2.Jul.2005 3.19pm
“Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty.” —Emil Ruder
ChrisL
2.Jul.2005 3.35pm
“After I came up with the idea to write a book that would, I hoped, become the standard, a sensation and win me the Nobel Prize for Literature, I started to feel uneasy.” —Alessio Leonardi
ChrisL
2.Jul.2005 3.39pm
A type of revolutionary novelty may be extremely beautiful in itself; but, for the creatures of habit that we are, its very novelty tends to make it illegible, at any rate to begin with.
Typography for the Twentieth-Century Reader
Aldous Huxley
Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new fount to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.
First Principles of Typography
Stanley Morison
Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas.
Printing Should Be Invisible
Beatrice Warde
If you remember the shape of your spoon at lunch, it has to be the wrong shape. The spoon and the letter are tools; one to take food from the bowl, the other to take information off the page... When it is a good design, the reader has to feel comfortable because the letter is both banal and beautiful.
Keynote Speech/Type90
Adrian Frutiger
When we experience disappointment with the relationship with letters let’s not be afraid to do what come naturally to us: Let’s draw.
Graphis Typography 1 (1994)
Gerard Huerta
As we say in Berlin, there are many ways to bake a parrot.
Rhyme & Reason
Erik Spiekermann
Yes, I’m old, but I’m back in style!
Typophile Forum (2005)
Norbert Florendo
2.Jul.2005 3.52pm
Tiffany, John and Fredrik
“Men who would letterspace lower case would shag sheep” - Frederick Goudy
I noticed the discrepancy in the quote a while ago, so i had looked into it. Thats what I came up with. I wonder if there is a definitive source for this.
I saw some letterspaced lowercase the other day. Blarg. I’m sure letterspaced blackletter is equally hideous, never tried it, thats a good thing right?
Tiff, I’ve actually never heard that version before. I’ve heard the ’ lowercase would steel sheep.’ I prefer the ’sheep shag’ version myself, but it’d be nice to find out for sure. It makes more sense if you think about it. Other than being theft of personal property, what is so disgusting about ’stealing’ sheep anyway? So, if stealing sheep isn’t exactly looked upon as repulsive, the shagging makes a little more sense. But I’m no goudy expert.
2.Jul.2005 4.06pm
I’m sure letterspaced blackletter is equally hideous, never tried it, thats a good thing right?
The keynote speaker at the ATypI conference in Copenhagen referred to a lovely typographic metaphor in one of Søren Kierkegaard’s books. In the original, blackletter edition approved by the author, who took a keen interest in the typography of his books, the metaphor relates a feeling of existential alienation and disconnection to being l e t t e r s p a c e d. In a later edition, typeset in antiqua (roman) type, the typesetters interpreted the letterspaced blackletter as italics, as was normal in resetting in antiqua from blackletter originals, and then, since the metaphor was now lost, actually changed the text. So in this later edition the existential alienation was bizarrely likened to being italicised.
2.Jul.2005 4.14pm
It could be this _
“Men who would letterspace blackletter would shag sheep” - Frederick Goudy
2.Jul.2005 5.57pm
Of all the achievements of the human mind, the birth of the alphabet is the most momentous.
— Frederic Goudy
2.Jul.2005 6.35pm
Yes. Hmm. I think we need to provide bibliographic information as Norbert has done. This will keep me from using quotes that are actually mis-quotes. So, if you can supply bibliography please do, if not still share your quote, maybe someone else will know.
—-
I’ve heard that particular quote so many different ways that I’m not sure which is correct.
2.Jul.2005 7.16pm
The restrictions of two-dimensional communication appealed to my need for structure and my desire to have my work speak for me. The challenge of communicating an idea or feeling within the further confines of the Latin alphabet lad me from graphic design into type design.
Carol Twombly
2.Jul.2005 7.23pm
This one was used on the TypeCon2001 materials:
“We are type designers, punch cutters, type founders, compositors, printers and bookbinders from conviction and with passion. Not because we are insufficiently talented for other, higher, things, but because to us the highest things stand in the closest kinship to our own crafts.” - Rudolf Koch
I can’t remember the bibliographic information on this one.
____
About the Goudy quote - I thought it was “leterspace lowercase” and “bugger a sheep”. But I don’t have any bibliographic information to back it up.
2.Jul.2005 8.28pm
“Typography has one plain duty before it and that is to convey information in writing. No argument or consideration can absolve typography from this duty.”
—Emil Ruder. page 6, “Typographie”, 1967.
“After I came up with the idea to write a book that would, I hoped, become the standard, a sensation and win me the Nobel Prize for Literature, I started to feel uneasy.”
“From the Cow to the Typewriter”, page 8—Alessio Leonardi
ChrisL
2.Jul.2005 9.02pm
“Watching me work is like watching a refrigerator make ice.”
- M Carter
hhp
2.Jul.2005 9.15pm
There is an archived thread on here where Erik Spiekermann talked about the sheep shagging/stealing quote but I can’t find it. If I remember correctly, he said Adobe was behind changing ‘shag’ to ‘steal.’ There is this though.. http://www.spiekermann.com/iblog/C1109747452/ (search for the word shag)
3.Jul.2005 1.48am
“Type production has gone mad, with its senseless outpouring of new types… only in degenerate times can personality (opposed to the nameless masses) become the aim of human development” – Jan Tschicold; The New Typography; 1928
“All the old fellows stole our best ideas.” – Frederic Goudy; date unrecorded
“The shapes of letter do not derive their beauty from any sensual or sentimental reminiscences. No one can say the O’s roundness appeals to us only because it is like that of an apple or of a girl’s breast or of the full moon. Letters are things, not pictures of things.” – Eric Gill; Autobiography; 1940
“I fought linotype and montype for some time because it would not justify as well as handset could be made to do; but at last, as always happens, the machine outdid the hand, and got all the best types on it.” – George Bernard Shaw; Letter to Ruari McLean, 28/3/1949
Tim
3.Jul.2005 9.21am
Losing Sleep
by Ephram Edward Benguiat
The following passages are taken from an undated typewritten manuscript. It’s very likely these were used as notes for one of Ed’s speaking engagements. There is no known date of publication.
“To me designing has never been a job or profession. It’s a way of life, like a priest or rabbi.”
“Doing something a long time does not mean you’re good. It only means you’ve done it a long time.”
“Doing something and getting paid for it doesn’t mean you’re doing it well. It only means you’re doing it.”
“I don’t think that success is the premise to what is good or bad.”
“The contributions that one makes in typography, design, and art in general cannot be, and must not be measured on how much money is involved. That would lead to total chaos. The word itself (contribution) is to give to a common purpose.”
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Yes, I’m old, but I’m back in style!
3.Jul.2005 11.07am
Hey Folks: No k in Frederic Goudy. Sheep stealers!
Jim
3.Jul.2005 11.46am
Some of my faves:
“People who love ideas must have a love of words. They will take a vivid interest in the clothes that words wear.” - Beatrice Warde
“Perfect typography is certainly the most elusive of all arts. Sculpture in stone alone comes near it in obstinacy.” Jan Tschichold, Homage to the Book, 1968
“Each letter should have a flirtation with the one next to it.” Mac Baumwell
“Writing is not a series of strokes, but space, divided into characteristic shapes by strokes.” Gerrit Noordzij
“The most popular typefaces are the easiest to read; their popularity has made them disappear from conscious cognition. It becomes impossible to tell if they are easy to read because they are commonly used, or if they are commonly used because they are easy to read.” - Zuzana Licko
3.Jul.2005 11.57am
I found another version of Beatrice Warde’s quote and think this one is better:
“People who love ideas must have a love of words, and that means, given a chance, they take a vivid interest in the clothes which words wear.”
And two more:
“Typography, a perfect fusion of form and meaning in which beauty is born, is raised from mere craft and can claim the title of a philosophy; for it also includes ethics, that enobling factor of man’s destiny. Thus the printed word is in touch with the spirit.” - Raul Mario Rosarivo, 1951.
“Any work of art that makes us feel the artist tried too hard lacks clarity.”
Clayton Whitehill, The Moods of Type, 1947
3.Jul.2005 7.03pm
Some additional info on Erik Spiekermann’s paraphrase of Goudy’s quote —
Source:
Stop Stealing Sheep
& find out how type works
Erik Spiekermann & E.M. Ginger
First printing: December 1992
Copyright © 1993 Adobe Systems
On the first page of text, Erik added a sidebar to explain his use of Goudy’s quote:
In 1936, Frederic Goudy was in New York City to receive an award for excellence in type design. Upon accepting a certificate, he took one look at it and declared that “Anyone who would letterspace black letter would steal sheep.”
Eric goes on to mention:
You might have noticed that our book cover reads “lower case,” while here it reads “black letter” — two very different things.
He then added a small sample of CAPITALS, lower case and black letter (printed in black letter) to illustrate the difference to the uninformed reader.
Eric continues:
We’re not sure how “black letter” got changed to “lower case,” but we’ve always known it to be the latter; whichever way, it makes infinite sense.
——————————————————-
Yes, I’m old, but I don’t shag sheep!
4.Jul.2005 12.31am
’If you don’t get your type warm it will be just a smooth, commonplace, third-rate piece of good machine technique - no use at all for setting down warm human ideas - just a box full of rivets... By jickity, I’d like to make a type that fitted 1935 all right enough, but I’d like to make it warm - so full of blood and personality that it would jump at you.
From Dwiggins fictional argument over the modern age of steel and speed.
William Addison Dwiggins
4.Jul.2005 2.59am
Googled with “letterspace sheep Goudy”:
http://www.eyewire.com/magazine/columns/robin/blackletter/
Blackletter it appears to be. Confirmed by Wikipedia (?):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Goudy
4.Jul.2005 3.16am
Helvetica is the jeans, and Univers the dinner jacket. Helvetica is here to stay . Adrian Frutiger
In a way, The Beatles are the Helvetica of pop; just like Helvetica is The Beatles of typefaces . Experimental Jetset
If you have no intuitive sense of design, then call yourself an “information architect” and only use Helvetica . David Carson
Anyone who uses Helvetica knows nothing about typefaces . Wolfgang Weingart
I discovered that I never really used Helvetica but I like to look at it. I like the VW beetle, too, although I’ve never driven one . Stefan Sagmeister
I have never designed a logotype without first trying it in Helvetica. It is still the most versatile, classic and readable of all typefaces. Steff Geissbuhler
Any good typeface can be completely destroyed when misused or extensively overused. Helvetica seemed to sustain a beating like no other. Still fresh, still popular Helvetica is king . Alexander Gelman
There was once a typeface that had the reputation of being more legible and functional than all the others. It was used everywhere and for everything, from signs to logos. Then one day readers couldn’t stand seeing it anymore and decided to stop reading it – despite its superior legibilty. Bit by bit designers forgot about it and it was only used by lay people. Then it was rediscovered for a while and in fashion again. Even books were published about it . Ruedi Baur
Helvetica is the typeface for a deserted island . Friedrich Friedl
We hate to like Helvetica . Hamish Muir
I remember a time at Yale when my work was being critiqued by Paul Rand. Mr. Rand told me only to use Helvetica as a display face never in text, then he squinted, leaned in, and whispered in my ear, “because Helvetica looks like dogshit in text” . Kyle Cooper
(all from the flyer to the book «Helvetica - Homage to a Typeface», edited by lars müller)
12 x 16 cm, 256 pages, 800 illustrations, hardcover.
—- more infos on www.lars-mueller-publishers —
4.Jul.2005 6.52am
Hey, what’s going on!? Why hasn’t anyone quoted me yet?
4.Jul.2005 6.59am
“I’m also interested in calligraphy and occasional book-burning.” - Sergej Malinovski
(careful what you wish for... : ) )
4.Jul.2005 7.09am
“In former times producing a typeface was an effort architectural in scale. A typeface was exquisitely expensive to cut. The choice to make one had a you-bet-your-company gravity to it.” - Mike Parker, Bitstream
“Set a page in Fournier against another in Caslon and another in Plantin and it is as if you heard three different people delivering the same discourse — each with impeccable pronunciation and clarity, yet each through the medium of a different personality.”
- Beatrice Warde, 1933
“Discipline in typography is a prime virtue. Individuality must be secured by means that are rational. Distinction needs to be won by simplicity and restraint. It is equally true that these qualities need to be infused wiht a certain spirit and vitality, or they degenerate into dullness and mediocrity.” - Stanley Morison
4.Jul.2005 12.36pm
“If you like what you do, and you’re lucky enough to be good at it, do it for that reason.”
Phil Grimshaw
4.Jul.2005 12.38pm
“Bring back the old Typophile”
— Sergej
ChrisL
4.Jul.2005 3.32pm
I found this in David Jury’s About Face: Reviving the rules of Typography, 2004. It’s an anonymous quote and not really about typefaces per se, but I thought you’d enjoy it nonetheless:
Eye halve a spelling chequer
It came with my pea sea
It plainly marques four my revue
Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
Eye strike a quay and type a word
And weight four it too say
Weather eye yam wrong or write
It shows me strait a weigh.
As soo as a mist ache is maid
It nose bee fore two long
And eye can put the era rite
Its rare lee ever wrong.
Eye have rune this poem threw it
I am shore yore pleased two no
its letter perfect awl the weigh
My chequer tolled me so.
5.Jul.2005 8.47am
“…a work of art, i.e. a thing made by a man who, however laughable it may seem to men of business, loves God and does what he likes, who serves his fellow men because he is wrapped up in serving God — to whom the service of God is so commonplace that it is as much bad form to mention it as among men of business it is bad form to mention profits.”
“I think it is generally agreed that picture writing was the beginning of our lettering. You might wish to communicate something to someone at a distance. If you have no letters or none common both to you & your correspondent, what else can you do but draw a picture? — the language of pictures is common to all. After a time your pictures are used to signify words and not simply things, and as the system develops and communications become more precise, the pictures become simpler and simpler, more & more conventional, and they come to signify single sounds rather than whole words. And the pictures, by now, have ceased to be pictures. They are, by now, hardly recognizable as representations of things: they are conventional signs, & their pictorial origin is forgotten.”
–Eric Gill, An Essay on Typography, 1936
5.Jul.2005 10.42am
“A typeface is an alpahbet in a straightjacket”
- Alan Fletcher
5.Jul.2005 10.49am
I think this is from “Letters of Credit” by Walter Tracy, but I can’t put my hand on it at the moment:
“A great typeface is not a collection of beautiful letters, but a beautiful collection of letters.”
5.Jul.2005 10.53am
I think Matthew Carter said that (Logo, Font & Lettering Bible)
5.Jul.2005 10.55am
William, do you have a copy of Walter Tracy’s “Letters of Credit”?
If not, I can check the quote this evening at home.
—————————————————————————
Yes, I’m old, but I’m back in style!
5.Jul.2005 10.58am
Norbert, I have it, but I seem to have misplaced it (arrrrghh! as Charlie Brown used to say).
5.Jul.2005 11.07am
My copy of Leslie Cabarga’s ’Bible’ is to hand. On p. 200 the quote from Matthew Carter is
“As the saying goes, type is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters.”
So Carter felt he was quoting someone else. Maybe Tracy?
5.Jul.2005 1.56pm
“You can do a good ad without good typography, but you can’t do a great ad without good typography.”
Herb Lubalin
Source:
Herb Lubalin obituary, Baseline issue four, TSI Typographic Systems International Limited, 1981
5.Jul.2005 3.31pm
You have pre-#10 issues of Baseline?!
hhp
5.Jul.2005 3.53pm
This one was £2 at the Bristol Book Barn. It has only 20 pages but every article is very readable today. Excellent short pieces on New Johnston, Renault, Usherwood’s Caxton, Baskerville and Adrian Frutiger. (I give out that Book Barn link reluctantly. On the road to Bath, it is a kind of purgatory for books: a cold, depressing place with free instant coffee. But you have to check it every now and then.)
5.Jul.2005 4.12pm
type is a beautiful group of letters, not a group of beautiful letters = Tracy
5.Jul.2005 4.19pm
“From an early age he loved letters in the literal rather than literary sense.”
Timothy Rogers, writing of Will Carter
“It is a rarer gift to lay words out properly than to write them”
Nicholas Barker, writing of Will Carter
“The seventies were my fattest decade. Overall I think the seventies were distinctly bulbous. People looked chunky, typefaces were rounded, writing implements penile.”
Will Self
5.Jul.2005 6.02pm
There is a distinct advantage in being a practising typographer when it comes to deciding on a new typeface design. There seems little sense in designing faces that will not be profitable for the typesetter and it happens too often that designers tend to go down just one path as opposed to designing the variety of faces needed to ensure a good mix. As a result, their designs tend to look too much like each other.
Les Usherwood
Article on release of TSI Caxton (pages 6 — 9)
Baseline, International Typographics Magazine, Issue four
Oddly enough, I also have a copy of Baseline issue four. Somehow it managed to survive in my old files.
——————————————————————
Yes, I’m old, but I found my Baseline!
6.Jul.2005 3.09am
Hello
My name is German Bold Italic
I am a type face
Which you have never heard before
Which you have never seen before
I can compliment you well
Especially in red
Extremely in green
Maybe in blue blue blue
You will like my sense of style
You will like my sense of style
I fit like a glove - ooh!
Gut ja!
Gut ja!
-Kylie Minogue (said it sung it)
6.Jul.2005 4.15am
Kylie? I thought it was Towa Tei.
6.Jul.2005 4.21am
>As a result, their designs tend to look too much like each other.
That’s a bit bizarre, coming from Les. He would go on to reuse the same skeleton a lot, doing different serif treatments, etc. After all, that’s a productive, profitable way to work.
But he was right in a sense, in that if his AD clients liked the way Flange set, they would also like a version of it with more substantial serifs, or more contrast.
6.Jul.2005 6.11am
Kylie sang it. towa tei wrote it.
6.Jul.2005 6.12am
Kylie sang it so she said it. Towa Tei wrote it
6.Jul.2005 8.21am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4654077.stm
a quote from a polititian but worth a look it’s got ligatures and long s’s ....
7.Jul.2005 3.50am
Will Burtin, in the Foreword to Ben Rosen’s 1963 Type and Typography: The Designer’s Type Book, says “Each typeface is a piece of history, like a chip in a mosaic that depicts the development of human communication. Each typeface is also a visual record of the person who created it — his skill as a designer, his philosophy as an artist, his feeling for... the details of each letter and the resulting impressions of an alphabet or a text line.”
7.Jul.2005 10.35am
“La gracia en tipografía surge espontáneamente cuando el tipógrafo pone un poco de amor en su trabajo. Quien no ame su trabajo no puede esperar que le guste a los demás.”
— Jan Tschichold
“¿Piensas en letras o las letras te hacen pensar?”
— odafonts
17.Jul.2005 9.16pm
Ok, I’m sure this issue is tired, i just remembered where i found the ’shagging sheep’ comment.
http://www.spiekermann.com/iblog/C1109747452/index.html
This is where I got my info. Go fig.
Bonus Question.
Were you really told to “stop stealing sheep,” or is that a watered down version of what was said for letter-spacing all caps?
frederick goudy said that “men who would letterspace lower case would shag sheep’, as that was (and is) considered a cardinal sin by typographers. Letterspacing caps, however, is done and should be done generously.
18.Jul.2005 1.05am
Strange that this should appear beneath a suggestion to track out copy set in less than 12pt.
Tim
18.Jul.2005 8.16am
In Erik’s book Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works,
he admits to not knowing Goudy’s exact wording, but that “it makes infinite sense” regardless of wording.
So let’s not take Erik’s versions as historically accurate, just rhetorical.
When Mr. Goudy made his statement, he obvioulsy knew it was a faux pas since apologized profusely by saying he says that about everything!
IMHO, the “blackletter” and “steal sheep” version seemed more likely since he was being presented an award (certificate with blackletter?) at a public forum.
Also, IMHO, “shag sheep” seems to be more of Welsh origin, and Goudy was American born and bred, so if he did ever used the term “shag,” he more than likely got it from his father who probably told young Frederic to stop shagging sheep ;)
30.Jul.2005 3.00am
In 1998 our class was visiting Jonathan Hoefler's studio. I can’t say this is a quote, more of a paraphrase, but it made the right impact at the time! (I’ll try not to mess it up...)
Student’s Question: “What do you think of experimental typography?”
Jonathan’s answer: “People think they can open Helvetica and just f*** with the points and call it experimental. That’s not experimental.”
30.Jul.2005 8.10am
At Typecon, Mario Feliciano said to me this lovely variation on Walter Tracy’s quote:
“You want beautiful words, not beautiful letters.”
4.Oct.2005 10.01pm
Aha! I knew I had one somewhere... only snag is that it’s not actually from a type designer.
“Typography fostered the modern idea of individuality, but it destroyed the medieval sense of community and integration.”
Neil Postman, in ’Amusing Ourselves To Death’ 1985, as quoted in the introduction to Lewis Blackwell’s ’20th century type (remix)’
5.Oct.2005 7.31am
Tiffany, where is this going? is it still relevant to add things here? do the quotes have to be from practicing type designers? is the ’why’ out yet? are you getting what you’re looking for?
7.Oct.2005 7.05am
A bit away from this topic (I‘m not font designer), but I found my own quote in my designmagazin published online for about 6 years funny.
I must have been drunk as I that wrote:
http://www.kahlkopf.com/files/typographie.gif
Translated from german:
Typografie is the true kickass, believe me. It makes you crazy and compliant again and again. It plays “cat and mouse” game with you.
It, the science for itself, inspires you with its ability to transplantation and transfusion the thoughts. It never leaves you in the pass...
7.Oct.2005 10.12am
Since there are several traditional ways to create emphasis with blackletter, including letterspacing, second color, substitution of a roman font, and, given the date of the award, 1936, my understanding is that Goudy’s comment had to do with the growing anti-German sentiments of the time period.
Gerald
7.Oct.2005 10.24am
A further note regarding the possibility that Goudy’s now infamous quote was at the time a slur on Germany made as a point for engaging his audience; this culled from The Book Collector’s Packet of 1939. A boycott on “Nazi-made types” was undertaken in the U.S. by the Graphic Arts Forum, “a group of democratically minded graphic arts and advertising people.” The banned typefaces included Bauer Bodoni, Bernhard Modern, Eve, Futura, Kabel, Neuland, Trafton, and Weiss.
Gerald
9.Oct.2005 6.47pm
All typefaces are historical.
Jonathan Hoefler
15.Oct.2005 8.37am
Quoting Leslie Cabarga from his Logo Font and Lettering Bible
”...Matthew Carter’s Big Caslon is so scrumptious, I want to lick it. ”
pg. 201
15.Oct.2005 4.10pm
and from another Cabarga book, i think this one by Sumner Stone should become a classic:
“My ways are many. All mysterious. I have said too much already.”
(Learn FontLab Fast, p. 9)
15.Oct.2005 4.47pm
“Men who would letterspace blackletter would shag sheep” - Frederick Goudy
That is the correct quote. E. Ginger did the research for “Stop Stealing Sheep”, and she actually spoke to an old lady who had been to the event and heard Goudy say the “s” word. Patrick Ames, then publisher for Adobe Press, loved the quote, suggested it as the title for the book and changed it, for obvious reasons. The book was intended for typographic novices, and those were obviously not deemed grown-up enough for real four letter words. I always thought the titel way too obscure, but I do have a collection of model and toy sheep (too small to shag), because lots of friends think it very funny to give me sheep as presents.
15.Oct.2005 4.54pm
My favourite quote (for obvious reasons) is by Robin Kinross, in Baseline (I have it somewhere, but cannot be bothered to look for it – too many book shelves):
“Meta is the Helvetica of the 90s.”
15.Oct.2005 4.56pm
Robin Kinross, in Baseline
Oops, I meant Blueprint. Perhaps I shouldn’t quote from memory at 2am.
15.Oct.2005 5.03pm
I updated the wiki to attribute the quote... http://typophile.com/wiki/FF%20Meta
You can click the ’edit’ text if you want to fix errors in your posts - a useful feature.
15.Oct.2005 6.48pm
From all these experiences the most important thing I have learned is that legibility and beauty stand close together and that type design, in its restraint, should be only felt but not perceived by the reader.
—Adrian Frutiger
17.Oct.2005 1.23am
as much as i love type, i’ve got to disagree with this guy:
“It is a rarer gift to lay words out properly than to write them”
Nicholas Barker, writing of Will Carter
22.Oct.2005 8.20pm
I needed this for TypeCon this past July. However, keep them coming as I think others might find this a fun resource in the future.
Glad to see people are still posting.
23.Oct.2005 5.14am
Of all the achievements of the human mind, the birth of an elephant is the most momentous.
— Frederic Goudy
{what I read when I first saw the quote.}
23.Oct.2005 5.32am
That’s an eary quote David, you must have truncated one of the words :-)
ChrisL
23.Oct.2005 8.06am
Down with Univers! Long live Gill Sans!
— Leo Maggs
in Types Best Remembered/Best Forgotten , ISBN 1884606008
23.Oct.2005 8.21am
“By the year 2000 every secretary will have a favorite typeface.”
(or was it font?)”
— Roger Black (possibly at Type90 in Oxford, England)
23.Oct.2005 8.25am
“Typography? Aaah, lots of fun—no money!”
— unknown passanger on a train from Gatwick Airport to London, England, after asking me what I do for a living. I was on my way to Type90 A.Typ.I conference in Oxford.
23.Oct.2005 9.36am
David, spooky: although I think I’d never seen that exact quote before, I actually read alphabet for elephant! Only your qualification made me go back and see elephant. I guess being very familiar with Goudy’s strong* affection for the Latin alphabet, the power of suggestion skewed the bouma to an extent I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. Wow.
* To me, overly so.
hhp
31.Oct.2005 7.05pm
Somewhere around now my brain explodes, leaving a real mess on the dining room table where I do most of the work on my laptop.
Thomas Phinney
31.Oct.2005 7.10pm
I mean, ωhat the fυck?
John Hudson
1.Nov.2005 10.32am
“The flood of print has turned reading into a process of gulping rather than savoring.” — Warren Chappell
1.Nov.2005 11.57pm
This one has always stuck with me:
“To be married to a wife who can set type is happiness indeed.”
~ Walter Tracy, Letters of Credit
I think this would be a great quote for the typographer matchmaking service I plan on starting :)
15.Mar.2006 7.32pm
And I’m grateful that Will Burtin imported Helvetica to North America in 1958, just a year after Max Miedinger developed it in Zurich. What a super font. Where would we be without it?
15.Mar.2006 7.35pm
And I’m grateful that Will Burtin imported Helvetica to North America in 1958, just a year after Max Miedinger developed it in Zurich. What a super font. Where would we be without it?
15.Mar.2006 9.58pm
“When a type design is good it is not because each individual letter of the alphabet is perfect in form, but because there is a feeling of harmony and unbroken rhythm that runs through the whole design, each letter kin to every other and to all.” - F. Goudy
9.Apr.2006 7.26pm
Originally I thought this was quotes from famous Type Designers, and I’m not sure this is a famous quote, but I kind of like it. I couldn’t bring myself to actually insert one for effect though.
Font is Cheapskate by Pat Broderick. Quote is by Susanna Sturgis