Carol Twombly

Last updated
Carol Twombly
TwomblyFaces.png
Specimens of typefaces by Carol Twombly
Born (1959-06-13) June 13, 1959 (age 64)
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Rhode Island School of Design
Stanford University
Known forTypography, digital fonts
Notable work

Carol Twombly (born June 13, 1959) is an American designer, best known for her type design. [1] [2] She worked as a type designer at Adobe Systems from 1988 through 1999, during which time she designed, or contributed to the design of, many typefaces, including Trajan, Myriad and Adobe Caslon.

Contents

Twombly retired from Adobe and from type design in early 1999, to focus on her other design interests, involving textiles and jewelry. [3] [4]

A biography of Twombly and her type design career by Nancy Stock-Allen was published in 2016. [5] [6]

Education

Carol Twombly was born June 13, 1959, in Concord, Massachusetts. [7] She attended and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where she first studied sculpture, and later changed her major to graphic design. She credits her professors Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes, whose studio she worked in, [8] for her inspiration and stimulating her interest in typography. Gerard Unger, a visiting instructor at RISD during Twombly's time as a student, also influenced her work. [7] At Stanford University Twombly was one of only five people to graduate from the short-lived digital typography program with Masters of Science degrees in computer science and typographic design. [3]

Career

Twombly joined Adobe in 1988. One of her first projects at Adobe was Trajan. [9] [10] [11] As a designer, Twombly closely studied historical scripts for inspiration in creating digital fonts. She successfully translated Roman inscriptions – stone carvings on Trajan's Column – into a modern digital design: the typeface Trajan, in 1989. [12] She next drew upon her background as a calligrapher and interest in paleography to translate Carolingian versals, or decorative capital letters, into a digital typeface called Charlemagne (also in 1989). The specific source was a page of the Anglo-Saxon Benedictional of Saint Æthelwold in the British Library. [13] Similarly, Twombly based Lithos on historical precedents, although more generally to ancient Greek inscriptions, rather to any specific models. [13] Adobe marketed Trajan, Charlemagne, and Lithos as "Modern Ancients." [14] In designing Adobe Caslon, she also examined closely the well-known eighteenth-century typeface designed by William Caslon to create a modern digital equivalent. [15] She collaborated with Robert Slimbach to create the sans-serif Myriad, her first completely original typeface design. [16]

Awards

In her first international type design competition, Twombly was awarded the Morisawa gold prize for her typeface design in 1984. [17] Subsequently, Morisawa Ltd., a Japanese typesetting manufacturer and the sponsor of the competition, licensed and marketed her entry as the Mirarae typeface. Twombly was also the 1994 winner of the Prix Charles Peignot, given by the Association Typographique Internationale (ATypI) - the first woman, and second American, to receive this award given to a promising typeface designer under the age of 35. [3]

Typefaces by Twombly

Under Twombly's art direction, fonts such as Ponderosa, Pepperwood, Zebrawood, and Rosewood, were part of an Adobe project to revive American display typefaces in wood type from the 1880s. [18] [19] [20] After this series, she went on to design two more typefaces for Adobe: Nueva, an original design, and Chaparral, which references nineteenth-century slab serif forms and sixteenth-century roman book hand, a calligraphic form. She designed Chaparral in collaboration with calligrapher Linnea Lundquist. [21]

Retirement

Twombly left Adobe in 1999. Speaking in 2014, she cited a variety of reasons for the decision, including a lack of interest in designing fonts for onscreen display and the market failure of Adobe's multiple master font technology. [4] She is currently an independent artist, specializing in drawing, painting on textiles, beading shekeres, and basket-making. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monospaced font</span> Font whose characters occupy the same amount of horizontal space

A monospaced font, also called a fixed-pitch, fixed-width, or non-proportional font, is a font whose letters and characters each occupy the same amount of horizontal space. This contrasts with variable-width fonts, where the letters and spacings have different widths.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman square capitals</span> Ancient Roman style of inscription

Roman square capitals, also called capitalis monumentalis, inscriptional capitals, elegant capitals and capitalis quadrata, are an ancient Roman form of writing, and the basis for modern capital letters. Square capitals are characterized by sharp, straight lines, supple curves, thick and thin strokes, angled stressing and incised serifs. When written in documents this style is known as Latin book hand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Myriad (typeface)</span> Sans-serif typeface family

Myriad is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and Carol Twombly for Adobe Systems. Myriad was intended as a neutral, general-purpose typeface that could fulfill a range of uses and have a form easily expandable by computer-aided design to a large range of weights and widths.

William S. Gillies was an American artist, letterer and type designer working in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caslon</span> Typeface with serifs

Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work.

Robert Joseph Slimbach is Principal Type Designer at Adobe, Inc., where he has worked since 1987. He has won many awards for his digital typeface designs, including the rarely awarded Prix Charles Peignot from the Association Typographique Internationale, the SoTA Typography Award, and repeated TDC2 awards from the Type Directors Club. His typefaces are among those most commonly used in books.

Warren Chappell was an American illustrator, book and type designer, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trajan (typeface)</span> Typeface

Trajan is a serif typeface designed in 1989 by Carol Twombly for Adobe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiple master fonts</span> Extension to Adobe Systems Type 1 PostScript fonts

Multiple master fonts are an extension to Adobe Systems' Type 1 PostScript fonts, now superseded by the advent of OpenType and, in particular, the introduction of OpenType Font Variations in OpenType 1.8, also called variable fonts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swash (typography)</span> Typographical flourish found on some letterforms, particularly in italics

A swash is a typographical flourish, such as an exaggerated serif, terminal, tail, entry stroke, etc., on a glyph. The use of swash characters dates back to at least the 16th century, as they can be seen in Ludovico Vicentino degli Arrighi's La Operina, which is dated 1522. As with italic type in general, they were inspired by the conventions of period handwriting. Arrighi's designs influenced designers in Italy and particularly in France.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Minion (typeface)</span> Serif typeface

Minion is a serif typeface released in 1990 by Adobe Systems. Designed by Robert Slimbach, it is inspired by late Renaissance-era type and intended for body text and extended reading. Minion's name comes from the traditional naming system for type sizes, in which minion is between nonpareil and brevier, with the type body 7pt in height. As the historically rooted name indicates, Minion was designed for body text in a classic style, although slightly condensed and with large apertures to increase legibility. Slimbach described the design as having "a simplified structure and moderate proportions." The design is slightly condensed, although Slimbach has said that this was intended not for commercial reasons so much as to achieve a good balance of the size of letters relative to the ascenders and descenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithos</span> Typeface

Lithos is a glyphic sans-serif typeface designed by Carol Twombly in 1989 for Adobe Systems. Lithos is inspired by the unadorned, geometric letterforms of the engravings found on Ancient Greek public buildings. The typeface consists of only capital letters, no lowercase, and comes in five weights, without italics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arno (typeface)</span> Typeface

Arno, or Arno Pro, is a serif type family created by Robert Slimbach at Adobe intended for professional use. The name refers to the river that runs through Florence, a centre of the Italian Renaissance. Arno is an old-style serif font, drawing inspiration from a variety of 15th and 16th century typefaces. Slimbach has described the design as a combination of the period's Aldine and Venetian styles, with italics inspired by the calligraphy and printing of Ludovico degli Arrighi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Originals</span>

The Adobe Originals program is a series of digital typefaces created by Adobe Systems from 1989 for professional use, intended to be of extremely high design quality while offering a large feature set across many languages. Many are strongly influenced by research into classic designs from the past and calligraphy. Adobe Originals fonts are sold separately or with Adobe products such as InDesign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clearface</span> Typeface

Clearface is a serif typeface designed by Morris Fuller Benton with the collaboration of his father Linn Boyd Benton, produced at American Type Founders in 1907.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Utopia (typeface)</span> Typeface

Utopia is the name of a transitional serif typeface designed by Robert Slimbach and released by Adobe Systems in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Maitland Cleland</span> American painter (1880–1964)

Thomas Maitland Cleland was an American book designer, painter, illustrator, and type designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Granjon</span> French type designer and printer

Robert Granjon was a French punchcutter, a designer and creator of metal type, and printer. He worked in Paris, Lyon, Antwerp, and Rome. He is best known for having introduced the typeface style Civilité, for his many italic types and his fleuron designs, although he worked across all genres of typeface and alphabet across his long career.

Joseph Warren Phinney was an American printer, type designer, and business executive. Phinney began his career at the Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston where he designed type and worked in management, eventually becoming owner. He was a key player in arranging the merger of twenty-six large foundries to form the American Type Founders Company in 1892, becoming both manager of the Boston branch and head of the design department, where he oversaw the consolidation of type faces following the merger. Though his own designs were largely derivative, Phinney took a great interest in type and its history and throughout his tenure at A.T.F. he sought to preserve and protect that company's legacy, as for instance, when he oversaw the re-introduction of Binny & Ronaldson's 1796 type design, Roman No. 1, as Oxford in 1892, or when he purchased Frederick W. Goudy's first type design, Camelot, in 1896. He stayed with A.T.F. for the rest of his career, passing the role of design head to Morris Fuller Benton and becoming senior vice-president. Phinney retired shortly before the company fell upon hard times during the Great Depression and died in 1934.

References

  1. Webber, Laura. "Women typeface designers". RIT Scholar Works. Rochester Institute of Technology (thesis). Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  2. Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: A community perspective on the Originals program". Typekit. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  3. 1 2 3 "Carol Twombly". Adobe. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story". Typekit blog. Adobe. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  5. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016). Carol Twombly: Her Brief But Brilliant Career in Type Design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. ISBN   9781584563464 . Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  6. Carey-Smith, Elizabeth (9 November 2012). "Review: 'Carol Twombly: Her brief but brilliant career in type design'". Alphabettes. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  7. 1 2 Carter, Sebastian (2002-01-01). Twentieth century type designers. Aldershot, Hampshire: Lund Humphries. p. 184. ISBN   0853318514. OCLC   959166624.
  8. "Typeface Designer Carol Twombly's Short but Brilliant Career". The Book Designer. 2010-03-19. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  9. Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: Stone, Slimbach, and Twombly launch the first Originals". Typekit blog. Adobe Systems . Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  10. Riggs, Tamye. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: The Originals team kicks into high gear". Typekit blog. Adobe Systems . Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  11. Zhukov, Maxim. "The Trajan Letter in Russia and America". Typejournal.ru. Retrieved 4 March 2017.
  12. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. pp. 75–77. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  13. 1 2 Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. p. 79. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  14. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. p. 84. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  15. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. pp. 88–96. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  16. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. pp. 101–105. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  17. "Twombly, Carol" in Friedl, Friedrich, Nicolaus Ott, and Bernard Stein. Typography : an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 1998, pp. 517-518.
  18. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. p. 113. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  19. "The Adobe Originals Silver Anniversary Story: Expanding the Originals". Typekit. Adobe Systems. Retrieved 8 January 2016.
  20. "Families by Carol Twombly". Fontshop. Retrieved March 7, 2015.
  21. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. pp. 117–120. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.
  22. Stock-Allen, Nancy (2016-01-01). Carol Twombly her brief but brilliant career in type design. New Castle, Delaware: Oak Knoll Press. p. 135. ISBN   9781584563464. OCLC   962730154.

Sources