Living and Dead Typographers.

Well now that I actually did the right assignment, here are the bios on my selected living and dead typographers.

Living Typographers

Ed Benguiat (1927-)

After working for Esquire magazine and running his own Sudio, Benguiat joined Photo-Lettering Inc. in 1962 becoming head of its publishing department and designing literally hundreds of display typefaces.  He was part of the rise of the International Typeface Corporation in 1970 and helped Herb Lubalin launch its marketing publication.  He is credited with more than 600 typefaces, among them ITC Souvenir, ITC Tiffany, and ITC Bauhaus.

Christian Schwartz (1977-)

Schwartz’s first typeface was released by FontHaus when he was only 14 years old.  After receiving his degree from Carnegie Mellon University, he worked at MetaDesign and Font Bureau and then left to start freelancing.  He loved to collaborate with other designers and he also liked to work on his own fonts.  In 2006, he established Schwartzco, Inc. that focuses on speed and the detail that he puts into his typefaces.

Zuzana Licko (1961-)

Without any real training in typeface design, Licko used her knowledge from her Graphic Design degree to create multiple successful typefaces.  Most of her fonts emerged with the introduction to the Macintosh.  Licko tried to create modern typefaces of what previous designers have done.  Overall, Licko has about 30 different typefaces that include a wide variety.

Matthew Carter (1937-)

Carter had a yearlong internship punch-cutting at the printing house Ensechede in Haarlem, Netherlands and after that he freelanced for six years in London as a typemaker and then a type designer.  After making several typefaces, Carter and three of his friends established Bitstream.  After Bitstream’s time was gone, he co-founded Carter & Cone Type Inc, where he created multiple typefaces including Verdana for Microsoft. 

Hermann Zapf (1918-)

Zapf designed his first typeface, a Fraktur black letter called Gilgengart, for D. Stempel AG type foundry and Linotype GmbH in 1938.  He served in the Cartographic Unit of the German army during the World War II.  Zapf designed Palatino and Optima for D. Stempel AG.  Zapf has been one of the few type designers to produce designs in metal, phototypesetting, and computer.

Dead Typographers

Claude Garamond (1480-1561)

Claude Garamond was one of the first punch cutters to work independently and sell his fonts to printers.  His first Roman appeared in 1530 in Paraphrasis in Elegantiarum Libros Laurentii Vallae by Erasmus.

Erhard Ratdolt (1447-1528

Erhard Ratdolt moved from Germany to Venice in 1475, where he established a printing business.  He designed and printed perhaps the first recorded type specimen sheet in 1486, showcasing his black letter, Roman and Green typeface designs.

John Baskerville (1706-1775)

John Baskerville established a printing business and type foundry in 1750.  With John Handy as his punch cutter, Baskerville designed various original Romans.  As a printer, he experimented with custom inks, producing rich blacks, and with paper, achieving highly glossy surfaces. 

Firmin Didot (1764-1836)

Firmin Didot is a representative of the third generation of the Didot family, with roots in printing and publishing as far back as the mid eighteenth century.  He designed the first Modern Roman in 1784, with thin serifs and high contrast in its strokes – all contemporary Didot typefaces are based on his work.

Giambattista Bodini (1740-1813)

Giambattista Bodini was director of the Stamperia Reale, the official press of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma for 45 years.  Taking cues from the Baskerville’s Romans with high contrast and Didot’s flat serifs, Bodoni designed his own Modern typeface in the late 1790s.  After his death in 1813, his widow Paola Margherita finished Bodoni’s Manuale Tipographico, an exemplary, exhaustive type specimen of Bodoni’s collection and own designs.



Gomez-Palacio, Bryony, and Armin Vit. Graphic Design, Referenced: a Visual Guide to the Language, Applications, and History of Graphic Design. Beverly, MA: Rockport, 2009. Print.