Men of Letters – Fonts and their creators

They write our stories, but what is theirs? The quiet world of fonts and their creators.

To read the description on JY&A’s website of their newly released font, JY Alia, “a robust, honest…typeface” you would be forgiven for thinking it is a critique of a South Island pinot noir. But no, welcome to the quiet world of font foundries, those cultivators of characters that make a living by pushing pixels into new and exciting shaped alphabets. The robust typeface in question is New Zealand’s leading font foundry since 1987 comeback into retail fonts after an extended foray in private commissions.

There was a time when few but the initiated experts knew much, if anything, about fonts but today everyone is a desktop publisher and most people know their Arial from their Windings. It has become yet another way of self expression in a fiercely independent world (find out what font you are here )

The hero of the industry is pioneer, Matthew Carter, who at 71 continues to dot i’s and cross t’s. The Design Museum in London hails him as “the most important typography designer of our time” and with good reason. His specialty is creating “workhorse” fonts that can be read for long periods of time without being necessarily flashy. For this reason he thinks of himself more as an industrial designer, working to improve the functionality of an already existing product (i.e. the alphabet.) For example, it was to Carter that Microsoft turned in 1994 when they required a typeface that was workable on low resolution screens. The goal was to produce a new family of sans serif types as TrueType outline fonts which had exceptional readability and the happy result was his famed, Verdana. This was followed by Georgia, Galliard, Tahoma and lucrative commissions to develop custom typeface from Sports Illustrated, Wired, the New York Times and The Washington Post.

After 53 years in the game, Carter is the father of fonts – over 70 typeface families in fact – and he always starts with a lower case “h” when designing a new typeface. He says it reveals the truths of the whole style, hinting already at “l” and “n”.

Jack Yan, CEO of JY&A, New Zealand’s first digital typographer and creator of the new JY Alia, describes it as a classically inspired serif workhorse. It follows the JY Ætna release in 1994-5 which was a successful family for the company, establishing its reputation for delivering workable, classic designs. “JY&A Fonts became known for elegance and restraint,” he explains. Yan believes the JY Alia to be a serious rival design for other workhorse typeface families such as Adobe Garamond or Monotype Bembo.

Who gives a font? Well, there’s a school of thought that says it matters very much. In the very literate modern society gone media mad, words are omnipresent. Graphic designers fork out good money every year to buy these newly crafted characters to offer a specific flair to their work representing the client’s identity. Everyone is familiar with curly Coca-Cola “C” and all of America seems aware that the “Yes We Can” slogan for Obama’s campaign was scripted in the broad and bold Gotham typeface. Does reading Gotham inspire hope or change? Is there some hidden meaning in the strokes and tails of typography?

Director of independent feature film “Helvetica”, Gary Hustwit, thinks there may be. His 2007 successful indie film celebrates the popular Helvetica which has been put to work for over fifty years. Hustwit compellingly (even for lay viewers with little design knowledge) explores the pervasive nature of this typeface which appears everywhere. In the early minutes of the film the viewer watches dense public spaces brimming with the ubiquitous font. But it is the interviews with typographers that pack the punch of the documentary. Hearing the articulate passion they have for this unsung art form convinces both of the subtle beauty of a well-made typeface but the meaning loaded within (the critics of Helvetica argue it is the boring, cookie-cutter corporate sell-out of the industry.)

While talents like Carter and Yan can still earn a pretty penny, the democratic internet as always, empowers the amateur as well. Programs like FontStruct allow any user to create their own typeface free or use WhatTheFont to solve typographical riddles. This iPhone application decodes any clear text and tells you what the font in use is. It can even find a close matching font to your own handwriting… you know, if you have a lot of free time today.

Article by Estelle Pigott

Tags: desktop publisher, font foundry, matthew carter, sans serif, serif types, typeface families, typography