Typography Research

Edward Johnston

Edward Johnston (1872-1944) is probably most famous for making the sans-serif type that is 
seen in the London underground, Johnston Sans-Serif which he produced in 1915, based on 
classical Roman designs. But before that he was the man that single-handedly made 
calligraphy, which had lain dead for almost four centuries, popular again. In 1906 Johnston 
wrote a book, Writing, Illuminating and Lettering and in 1910, one of his pupils, Anna Simons 
translated his book into German where there was a huge interest sparked in that country for 
calligraphy and hand-drawn type. Interest in the United States came about in the 1970’s and 
ever since has been quite a popular subject to study. In 1912, Johnston followed his pupil Eric Gill to Ditchling after already being very influential as a calligrapher it was time to try his hand in typography. In his begining years in Ditchling Eric Gill and Johnston worked closely together working on printing techniques and letter forms where eventually along with their mutual friend Dominic Pepler they set up a printing workshop. The press gave Johnston an insight and taught him the production of books. After this, he produced his own typeface which was used for the London Underground Railway.

Johnston's Bullseye's 1916-1919

Eric Gill

Eric Gill (1882-1940), started his artistic career as a sculptor. Johnston had always been an 

infleunce to Gill and in 1903 he gave up his architectural training to become a calligrapher, 

monumental stone cutter and letter cutter to train with Johnston in lettering at the center

school of arts and crafts in London. In 1927-30 he produced Gill Sans after working as part of the adminisration part in the London Underground, which has come to be a popular typeface of today. After that he produced;Golden Cockerell Roman (1929), Perpetua (1929–30), Solus (1929), Joanna (1930–31), Aries (1932), Floriated Capitals (1932), Bunyan, Pilgrim (1934) and Jubilee (1934).

Gill Sans Alphabet which has been digitalised

Rudolf Koch

Rudolf Koch (1876-1934) was born in Nuremberg was a type designer, calligrapher and an artist. He designed both Blackletter and Roman Alphabets. He was strongly christian and parts of this influenced what he put into his work. His other influence was baroque forms and romanticism and his work has been described as having a balance between being extremely elegant and having a powerful raw energy. Koch's most well-known typefaces include; Deutsche Schrift, Maximillian, Jessen, Prisma and Zepelin. His typefaces were released by Klingspor foundry, a company where he worked for, after the time of his death. Koch had an affinity with the arts and crafts movement which was lead by William Morris and later in life took an interest in the Bauhaus where he produced his final pieces of calligraphy. It was also known that Koch had been concerned with the development of industrial type.

An Example of his Blackletter Calligraphy.