Research and write a 500 word essay including sources and references.
ASSESSMENT
Written Report
On
Frederic Goudy
By Danni Little
FREDERIC WILLIAM GOUDY
(Bloomington, Illinois, March 8, 1865 –
Marlborough-on-Hudson, May 11, 1947)
Frederic W. Goudy was
born March 8, 1965 in Bloomington, Illinois. Raised in the small prairie town
of Shelbyville. Early in Goudy’s life he worked as a high school janitor and
became an assistant to Shelbyville’s leading paperhanger. Guided by an old worn
copy of a Bruce Foundry specimen book, a roll of flowered wall paper was the
first type face that Goudy cut out. Graduating from Shelbyville High School in
1883, Goudy became a bookkeeper.
When his father was
appointed Federal probate judge in Hyde Country in the frontier territory of
South Dakota, at his father’s real estate office Goudy worked as a clerk and a
bookkeeper, he later moved on to Chicago and worked as a clerk in a bookstore.
While examining the sold books he determined that they weren’t printed as well
as they should be. He began to read every available book on typography and made
visits to veteran printers for a hand-on education. [1]
Frederic became
interested in arts, especially when he purchased a pantograph machine, an
instrument used for copying pictures, figures, or diagrams. He provided his
Sunday school classroom with a stencilled version of the Ten Commandments, the
Beatitudes, and selected Bible verses. His work for his church provided him the
opportunity to provide lettering on work wagons and banners. [2]
Goudy was not always a
type designer. “At 40, this short, plump, pinkish, and puckish gentleman kept
books for a Chicago realtor, and considered himself a failure. During the next
36 years, starting almost from scratch at an age when most men are permanently
set in their chosen vocations, he cut 113 fonts of type, thereby creating more
usable faces than did the seven greatest inventors of type and books, from
Gutenberg to Garamond. [3]
“Any man who would
letterspace blackletter would shag sheep”[4] was one
of Goudy’s well-known statements. (This is often misquoted as: “anyone who
would letterspace lowercase would steal sheep” and “any man who would letterspace
blackletter would steal sheep”. Others doubt this story, as the Briticism
“shag” was unknown in American slang. [5]The word “fuck” was said to be the original verb and that
like “steal,” “shag” was a more recent toning down of the original.
FREDERIC WILLIAM GOUDY
(Bloomington, Illinois, March 8, 1865 – Marlborough-on-Hudson,
May 11, 1947)
He produced his first
typeface design in 1896, a display face called Camelot. He sold the first set
of letters for $10 to the Dickinson Type Foundry. He would go on to create a
total of 124 type faces. In 1897, Goudy married a bookkeeper named Bertha M.
Sprinks [6]
and by the time of her death in 1935 she had become an expert typesetter. [7]
By 1900, Goudy took on a position as an
instructor of lettering, beginning a lifetime of teaching that inspired such
typesetting giants as William A. Dwiggins, Oswald Cooper, and R. Hunter
Middleton. In 1903, he and Will H. Ransom founded the “Village Press” in Park
Ridge, Illinois.
His career as a printer
began to grow with the fortunes of the press. In 1908, he created his first significant
typeface for the Lanston Monotype Machine Company: E-38, sometimes known as
Goudy Light. Unfortunately in the same year the “Village Press” burnt to the
ground, destroying all of his equipment and designs. In 1911 the Kennerly Old
Style was his first “hit”. Goudy Old style became an instant classic and was
his most widely used type and was released by the American Type Founders
Company in 1915. [8]
Goudy Old Style is the text typeface used in Harper’s Magazine and the font
used in the “INFINITY BLADE” title screen. It is the official typeface of Emory
University in Atlanta, Georgia, Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,
and North Western University in Evanston, Illinois. It is also used by the
National university of Colombia. [9]
It is also the standard body text font for Key Club publications. [10]
As he progressed as a
designer Goudy designed mostly display faces for advertising, however, the
traditional Roman type face is where he moved his interests too trying to
perfect it. He drew his letters by hand, and objected to the mechanistic way
that companies such as Monotype produced matrices for his typefaces. To produce
type in a more creative way Goudy set up a foundry in his home, by 1927 he was
engraving the matrices himself. In 1939 Goudy’s work was unfortunately
destroyed by fire, which engulfed his home and foundry and the quest to achieve
the perfect roman. [11]
FREDERIC WILLIAM GOUDY
(Bloomington, Illinois, March 8, 1865 –
Marlborough-on-Hudson, May 11, 1947)
After the “Village Press”
was established the Goudy family including their son, Frederic T. Goudy, worked
in a manner of the artisan families of the sixteenth century.
The increase advertising
during the early twentieth century provided much business for Goudy. The
National Biscuit Company and the Procter and Gamble Manufacturing Company were
just a few of the businesses Goudy sold his typefaces too. In 1940, on his seventy-fifth
birthday, he was appointed a lecturer in type design at the school of
journalism at Syracuse University.
The Goudy’s faced
continual financial difficulties even though he won the bronze medal given at
the St. Louis World’s Fair for book printing.
Goudy won a number of
honours for his fine books, including the gold medal of the American Institute
of Graphic Arts, the Friedsam gold medal of the Architectural League of New
York, and a medal of honour of the Ulster-Irish Society of New York.
Goudy was the author of a
number of books, including: Elements of
Lettering, The Alphabet, Capitals From the Trajan Column, and Typologia. Mr. Goudy was a member of
the Grolier Club, Typophiles, and the Stowaways Club of New York. [12]
[1] Internet, University of Delaware Library,
Special Collections Department. Processed: 1990-1991 by Anita A. Wellner
[2] Internet, McLean County Museum of History.
Frederic Goudy Collection.
[3] Internet, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –
Typed By Goudy (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/01type-by-goudy/)
[4] According to typographer Erik Spiekermann,
co-author of “Stop Stealing Sheep” (Typophile.com 15.Oct.2005 (http://typophile.com/node/13406?page=1#comment-90662)
[5] List of words having different meanings in
American and British English
[6] Goudy – In All His Glory,
http://www.pointlessart.com/education/loyalist/typeTalk/goudy2/goudy.html
[7] Internet, University of Delaware Library,
Special Collections Department. Processed: 1990-1991 by Anita A. Wellner
[8] Goudy – In All His Glory,
http://www.pointlessart.com/education/loyalist/typeTalk/goudy2/goudy.html
[9] Resolucion No: 001008, Agosto 14 de 2003 (http://www.unal.edu.co/paginas/resolucion_001008_de_2003.html)
Universided Nacionalde Colombia, 14 Aug 2003.
[10] Internet, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia –
Typed By Goudy (http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2006/09/01type-by-goudy/)
[11] Goudy – In All His Glory,
http://www.pointlessart.com/education/loyalist/typeTalk/goudy2/goudy.html
[12]
Internet, University of Delaware
Library, Special Collections Department. Processed: 1990-1991 by Anita A.
Wellner
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