3/6/2023 0 Comments Goudy old style historyGoudy was one of America's most prolific designers of metal type. As for myself, I have made designs that reverted for their inspiration to the lapidary character of the early Romans others that were based on the classic types of Jenson, Ratdolt, Aldus etc.The following is a list of typefaces designed by Frederic Goudy. Few great artists have ever become great by deliberately disregarding tradition. While a designer of strong artistic personality may modify the laws of tradition more or less according to his strength and ability, he is nevertheless seldom free from its influence. Genius cultivates old fields in new ways. “Genius is the expression of strong individuality and extends the limits of tradition instead of attempting to invent a new one. She unselfishly aided me in my work in the fields of type design and typography and enabled me to attain a measure of success which I could not have achieved alone.” On Genius Her consummate craftsmanship made possible many difficult undertakings great attainments, that the claim which rightfully was hers should come, instead, to me. He dedicated his hundredth typeface to his wife, “this conscientious and talented craftswoman who was my beloved companion for many years.” It was she who encouraged him - he wrote in the dedication, “when my courage faulted uncomplaining, she enjoyed the privations and vicissitudes of our early companionship. I wanted that more than anything else because I believe there was an opportunity to improve typography - to secure more beauty, dignity and readability.”įrederick Goudy was somewhat of a sentimentalist at heart, as are many artisans. “You think of a letter, and then you mark around.” He said when interviewed, “there did not seem any reason why I should turn out to be a type designer, except that I wanted to. When lecturing on lettering at university, he was asked by a young student, “how do you design type?” The working methods of skilled and highly intuitive artists are difficult to describe - even from the man himself. The final steps are technical problems requiring long study and intimate knowledge. He then traces them in turn onto four-ply hard drawing paper will, cutting out each character carefully by hand and mounting it on another sheet of the drawing board to form patterns. To design type requires making some 80 separate drawings to scale. He was called the modern “glorifier of type,” and authorities agree that the beauty and clarity he had brought to the printed word revolutionised typography in Europe and the United States. He called it Camelot, thinking, perhaps, of the old Arthurian legends. He asked five dollars for it, and they sent him twice that. After finishing, he mailed it to the Dickenson Type Foundry in Boston. In 1898 Frederic Goudy sat beside the window of his boarding house, idly sketching the capital letters of the alphabet.
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