My apologies to those few, frequent readers for being absent these last couple months. Construction of the studio has been consuming all of my time and I am happy to say it is nearly finished. Or rather, it is nearly to the point where I can use it for its intended purposes.
Readers of Typocurious may also be [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of perhaps the greatest modern typographer-type designer of the last century, Jan Tschichold (2 April 1902-11 August 1947). This series begins with an article by Paul Standard entitled “Jan Tschichold—Proponent of Asymmetry and Tradition” culled from a Gallery 303 lecture keepsake.
The series will be interrupted [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the American type designer-typographer-printer Frederic W. Goudy (8 March 1865–1 May 1947).
All posts this month are culled from the Spring 1969, Number 27 issue of Typographer’s Digest, edited by Alexander S. Lawson. Lawson’s introduction kicks off ‛Goudy Month’ followed by:

‛Autobiographical Notes [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the British sculptor, type designer, stonecutter & printmaker Eric Gill (22 February 1882–17 November 1940).
Today’s Gill-related post is an report in the 13 October 1982 issue of Lithoweek (pp. 31–32) titled “Reminiscences of Uncle Eric” by Andrew Bluhm.
TypoCurious

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs once again into the Lawson-Provan file of the American printer and historian Daniel Berkeley Updike (14 February 1860–29 December 1941). 
Today’s Updike-related post is a brief letter written by Updike on 16 March 1925 to one H.W. Kent, Esq., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue, New York, [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the British sculptor, type designer, stonecutter & printmaker Eric Gill (22 February 1882–17 November 1940).
Today’s Gill-related post is “Type Designs of Eric Gill” by Roy Brewer, an article in the second issue of Baseline (Typographic Systems International Limited, 1979; pp. 14–15).
TypoCurious

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the American printer and historian Daniel Berkeley Updike (14 February 1860–29 December 1941).
Today’s Updike-related post is an essay titled ‛On Re-reading Updike’ by A.F. Johnson, which was first published in 1946, in Alphabet and Image, then reprinted in Johnson’s Selected Essays [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs again into the Lawson-Provan file of the Dutch type designer Jan van Krimpen (12 January 1892–20 October 1958). Today’s van Krimpen-related post will be a book review by G. Willem Ovink of A letter to Philip Hofer on certain problems connected with the mechanical cutting of punches, which [...]

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs again into the Lawson-Provan file of the scholar-printer Giovanni Mardersteig (8 January 1892–27 December 1977).
Today’s Mardersteig-related post is “Scholar-Printer-Publisher at Verona,” an essay by John Ryder, which first appeared in the October 1971 issue of Scholarly Publishing.
TypoCurious

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the Dutch type designer Jan van Krimpen (12 January 1892–20 October 1958). Today’s van Krimpen-related post is an essay by S.L. Hartz found in a keepsake printed by Joh. Enschedé en Zonen, Haarlem, Holland, and presented at a Heritage of the Graphic Arts [...]

Pardon me while I interrupt this regularly scheduled program. I received a request for some information on Imre Reiner, and in all my elation I just had to create a post in response.
TypoCurious

In honor of his birthday this month, Typocurious digs into the Lawson-Provan file of the scholar-printer Giovanni Mardersteig (8 January 1892–27 December 1977). Today’s Mardersteig-related post culled from the May 1969 issue of the Monotype Newsletter (number 85). 
Here is “Giovanni Mardersteig: A Specimen of Dante and its New Semi-Bold Face.”
TypoCurious

As promised, hot on the heels of “The Origin and Use of Swash Letters” by Everett R. Currier, is a little something on the subject of swash characters & initial letters by the great Mac McGrew.
After the new year begins I’ll switch gears a wee bit and begin an endeavor some might consider ambitious, a bona fide [...]

What better way to finish the year off than with a flourish? So to punctuate this first year of Typocurious in earnest, I’ve prepared two posts. This first post “The Origin and Use of Swash Letters” by Everett R. Currier has been culled from the September 1919 issue of “The Printing Art.” The next post will [...]

In honor of Octavius A. Dearing’s 169th birthday, Typocurious offers this brief supplement hot on the heels of the last post. Here from The Kemble Occasional No. 4, January 1968, is a “Biographical Sketch of Octavius A. Dearing.”
Quite like the its predecessor, the writing is by either George L. Harding, Honorary Curator of the Edward [...]

The Lawson-Provan teaching files are full of interesting bits of history. Typocurious aims to offer up online “reprints” of such material, particularly when an anniversary approaches.
In that spirit, Typocurious offers “Octavius A. Dearing and the ‘California Case’” in honor of the upcoming 169th birthday of the man who (possibly) invented of the California job case.
This article [...]

Looking for something to take the edge off the slow Labor Day weekend, I delved into the archives and came across this pressman hard at work. The design is by Vojtěch Preissig discovered on the cover of the September 1927 issue of The American Printer.
Oo-oo-oo what a lil spot color will do for you! Again I think the [...]

The introductory remarks from my last post kept Greer Allen on my mind all week long. For those not fortunate enough to recognize his name, Greer Allen (1922–2005) was a Senior Critic in the Yale School of Art, former Yale University Printer (1972–1983), and regular instructor at Rare Book School. He designed and supervised the production [...]

The following words are not mine, but those of the distinguished book designer and former Yale University Printer Greer Allen (1922–2005), and one of the most generous human beings I ever met. When I came across the Rollins article in the Lawson-Provan teaching files, I remembered Greer’s offering the same essay to his students at Rare Book School. I thought [...]

Last week’s post on the development of the Weiss Roman put me in the mood for some biographic material. While stumbling through the Lawson files a slim folio caught my eye. It was an offprint from the Gutenberg Yearbook of 1952. [Sonderabdruck aus dem Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1952. pp 214–218.] This understated design was gorgeously printed on a sumptuous [...]

Obviously written before there was much concern for gender sensitivity, this insert for The American Printer still offers a gem of inspiration. The graphic alone is chock full of detail & characterization. Get a load of the haircut on the palooka walking in from the right carrying cans of ink. Or the pressman on the left hunched [...]

My recent relocation down South has found me frequenting the local Chick-fil-A where that company’s abundant use of Weiss throughout their graphic work has kept that typeface not only in front of my eyes, but on my mind as well. CFA’s founder S. Truett Cathy once said “Food is essential to life, therefore, make it [...]