Type design: Catching up to the past

The typographer’s goal is to provide the best possi-ble reading experience for the reader. Thirty years of disruptive technologies have made this a greater challenge despite the overwhelming number of type designs available to us. Steve Matteson will give several historical and contemporary examples where fonts have been adapted or designed to meet con-stantly changing technological demands. Thanks for the invitation back to speak this year. “Today’s type designer ought to design typefaces for specific needs.” This quote is from Chuck Bigelow, who I met in 1987 when he received the Goudy Award at RIT. It was an epiphany for me as a student. I’d already fallen hopelessly in love with letters — typefaces, typography, lettering. I’d been steeped in letterforms but where did I fit in? After all, as a student, you study 2,000 years of letterforms and think ‘it’s all been done’. There’s no way I can do better or improve on the achievements of the masters. Typefacedesigns have evolved on a parallel course with changes in the way in which technology reproduces them. With each change in technology we, as type designers, have to think about what were the best examples of design using previous technologies.