Book Design: Frederic Goudy

GOUDY The history of an American type designer

GOUDY The life history of an American type designer

Written & Designed by Laura Walter

Table of Contents Introduction 1 His Early Ages

5

His Type Career

7

His Older Ages

15

Š Bruckner, D. J. R.

Portrait of Frederic Goudy

Introduction

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Who was Goudy?

Frederic W. Goudy was a printer and typographer who designed more than 100 typefaces, many bearing his name. He was a well-known author on matters of typography and the art of the letterform. But it was only during his last 25 years of his life that he became recognized. He was a popular speaker and would travel across the United States year after year to give talks to students, businessmen, clubs, or anyone who was willing to lend an ear. His writings on letter and the alphabet had a wide influence, he was interviewed and talked about on the radio, a film was made about him and he had a regular presence in magazines and newspapers. Some say he was the only person in the world of printing who had a great reputation on the outside.

Quote from the man himself “It is hardly possible to create a good typeface that will differ radically from the established forms of the past; nevertheless, it is still possible to secure new expressions of life and vigour.�

© Library of Congress

2

Goudy working on designing a new typeface

Quote from Horace Hart, President of the Lanston Monotype Company1 “Goudy was surely the great American type designer and one who has few equals anywhere, ever. I don’t know how many types he made and I am not sure that matters. He designed eight or ten or even a dozen that are classics. Who else in the history of type has done that?”

Introduction

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A Man of Character Many assumed Goudy to be a formidable character, when really, he was quite the opposite. He was a large conversationalist, who would happily tell an array of funny stories, even make jokes about himself. He was aware of his difference in personality, especially among his colleagues, but he used his eccentricity to his advantage.

He started his type design career at an older age, when most professionals have already established themselves, but he understood the audience and wanted them to know that. He gave himself whole-heartily to type designs, engraving the matrices of some of his types himself.2 He loved to converse about craftsmanship and its standards and his teachings were very influential. It is a surprise that Frederic Goudy is not a key figure taught about in graphic design history courses because he dominated American type design for many years.

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

2 Macmillian, Niel. An A-Z of Type Designers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

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Top & Bottom: Goudy through the ages

His Early Ages

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The Early Ages By his own accord, Goudy was 46 years old when he became a type designer by profession.1 In fact, he was 36 when he designed his first typeface that a foundry bought and cast into type. Looking back to his youth, nothing points him in the direction of becoming a type designer.

Childhood & beginning of career Goudy was born in Bloomington, Illinois on March 8th, 1865 and was one of three children, two boys and a girl, of John Fleming Goudy and Amanda Melvina Truesdell Goudy.1 It was in his youth that Goudy began, slowly, to design some typography pieces for local owners. He recalled cutting out three thousand characters of the Ten Commandments for his Presbyterian Church to glue to the walls of a classroom and he remembered “Our local baker had got a new delivery wagon and asked me if I could paint his name on each side of it,” and he did with what was then called block letters (sans-serif).1 During his teenage years Goudy did some work for his father as a book keeper, where he began doing layouts for the different business forms needed, later Goudy said, “Unconsciously, I was developing a flair for typographic arrangement.”1 In 1888 Goudy tried to establish a loan and mortgage company, failing that, he eventually left for the city of Chicago, which in 1890 was an epicenter of excitement about design. At the time, Chicago was the largest printing center in the United States.1 His first job in Chicago had little to do with design. Goudy worked as a private secretary for Richard Coe Alden, a financial broker, whom he had met through his father.1 Alden had Goudy arrange and print prospectuses of his clients, which is how Goudy came to know the printers in Chicago.1 Coincidently, it was also in Alden’s office that he met his future wife, Bertha Matilda Sprinks.1

1

Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

Š Bruckner, D.J.R.

6

The Chap-Book, May 1897

His Type Career

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The Camelot Press Later in 1894, Goudy and a friend decided to set up the Booklet Press, with an office right in the middle of the printing trade. Goudy immediately expanded his reputation among printers, soon getting the chance to print The Chap-Book, a literary magazine founded by students at Harvard College. The Chap-Book was one of the most important publications in the country, writers included H.G. Wells and Anatole France, some of it’s famous illustrators were Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Will Bradley and Aubrey Beardsley.1 These artists had a big influence on Goudy, even after the publication moved to a new printer. Later, Goudy and his partner, Hooper, changed the name of the press to Camelot Press.

In 1896 Goudy sold his share of the press and while waiting for his next job began to draw the alphabet.2 Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston ended up buying these typefaces from Goudy, the first being a typeface called Camelot. Eventually Goudy realized that he could succeed as a freelance lettering artist and went back to Chicago.2 As a freelancer he mostly made advertising lettering for companies such as Marshall Field and the Mandel Brothers department stores.1 In 1900 Frank Holme, the founder of the School of Illustration in Chicago, asked Goudy to become an instructor there.1

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

2 Macmillian, Niel. An A-Z of Type Designers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.

ABCDEFGHIJKL MNOPQRST UVWXYZ abcdefghijklm nopqrstuvwxyz 0123456789 Goudy Old Style typeface.

Interesting Facts about Frederic Goudy Starting from scratch at an age when most men are permanently settled in their careers, Goudy cut more than 100 typefaces, thereby creating more usable faces than almost all of his colleagues.

Š Bruckner, D.J.R.

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His Type Career

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Frederic Goudy: The Village Press It was only three years later that Goudy was introduced to Will Ransom, a young man from Washington who had some money. The two together opened The Village Press at Park Ridge outside of Chicago.2 Within a year Goudy learned about a crafts society at Hingham, a small town outside of Boston. He decided to move to Hingham in 1904, but realizing he couldn’t get the design work he needed, Goudy and his family moved to New York City in 1906 to establish a Village Press office in Manhattan. On January 10th 1908, his workshop and the Village Press’ equipment were destroyed in the first of two disastrous fires he would suffer in his lifetime.2

Goudy’s Career Develops However, perhaps leaving him better-off financially, Goudy rented a desk and went back to designing type.2 He was commissioned to design a roman typeface for the American Lanston Monotype Company, later this typeface got the name Goudy Old Style by the foundry, not by Goudy himself, but it was good advertising.1 It was from this experience that Goudy was given a chance to design his first major typeface.

In 1911 a New York publisher Mitchell Kennerley asked him to design a new typeface for a book. Goudy created Kennerly Old Style, which was sold in founts by Goudy at his Village Type Foundry. Later the typeface was bought by the Lanston Monotype Company for mechanical setting and by the Caslon foundry for sale in Europe.2 It was this typeface that established Goudy’s reputation both abroad and at home.

Goudy calculated that between 1912 and 1920 he designed twenty typefaces.1 Many of them were made for American Type Founders, including the popular Goudy Old Style. Among many of his designs were the oddities, such typefaces as Collier, which he designed by propagating an accident in printing.

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

2 Macmillian, Niel. An A-Z of Type Designers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.

Š Bruckner, D.J.R.

Š Bruckner, D.J.R.

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Typographic, designed by Goudy, March 1916.

Goudy preparing a matrice.

How Frederic Goudy designed his typefaces Goudy would first lay out five guide lines to fix the upper and lower limits of his letters. Then with pencil, he drew the letters. His drawings would be 7.5 inches tall. Pinholes marking the important points in each design as a guide for the next step. Then he would transfer it onto draftsman cardboard.

His Type Career

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The Village Letter Foundery In 1914 the Goudy’s moved their home and press to a house in Forest Hill Gardens in Queens, it was here that Goudy established the Village Letter Foundery.1 Goudy became well-known in Forest Hills, often mentioned on the news, in events and club activities. His home became a kind of disordered salon where all kinds of people involved in design would come to hear Goudy’s stories.

From 1915 to 1924 he was an instructor at the Art Students’ League in Manhattan, and his students spread his ideas of type design outside the world of printing.1 As his thoughts began to reach the streets and not just studios, he started to write publications about the alphabet and typography. Among these publications were; The Alphabet, Ars Typographica and The Elements of Lettering.

In 1920 Lanston Monotype gave Goudy the title of art director and he remained there for 27 years, after 1939 as an art counselor.1 During his time there Lanston owned 29 of his typefaces, including Goudy Thirty, Garamont, Italian Old Style and Goudy Newstyle.1 By the early 1920’s Goudy was given numerous honors and not only from those in the printing and design world. He was given the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1920, soon followed by another Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architecture. Eventually some people began to grow resentment for Goudy and a sort of battle arose between those who were for Goudy and those who were against him.1 Many argued that Goudy was simply making slight variations on typefaces and giving them a new name to sell.1 Those for Goudy simple increased their praise and put more and more good news about Goudy to print.

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

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Goudy’s house in Marlboro-on-Hudson, March 1948.

His Type Career

13

The Village Letter Foundery When these arguments first started Goudy was still young enough at heart to engage in them, but in his later years he became bitterer and sought to move homes once again. In 1923, his good friend Weibking, who had cut all of Goudy’s matrices from the beginning, was dying and Goudy decided he was too old and too much a perfectionist to find another man to cut his type.1 He found a house in Marlboro-on-Hudson, about 75 miles north of the city, and moved there with his family in 1924. He set up a small shop in his new home and was 60 years old when he began to engrave his own matrices. After his move, he cast all his own types and sold them directly. The fifty faces he made after this point in time were some of his most interesting; the Deepdene types, Goudy Text, Goethe, Village No. 2, and the Trajan inscriptional face.1 During these last years of his life, Goudy did more than just design type, He drove long distances with his wife, giving talks.

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

14

Frederic & Bertha Goudy in their Deepdene workshop.

Goudy’s wife, Bertha,working in the studio.

Who was Bertha Goudy? In the words of Frederic Goudy “To me she was “my beloved helpmate.” She encouraged me when my own courage faltered; uncomplaining she endured the privations and vicissitudes of our early companionship; her intelligent and ready counsel I welcomed and valued; her consummate craftsmanship made possible many difficult undertakings.”

His Older Ages

15

The death of a life-long partner Bertha contributed a lot to Goudy’s fame as a type designer, although she was rarely mentioned. She had learned how to set matrices, set type and would often be the one to escort guests away from Frederic Goudy while he would be working.

Therefore it is no surprise that when she died on October 21st,1935, Goudy never quite recovered.1 After her death, Goudy designed a typeface as a memorial to her, he called it Bertham.

In 1939 Goudy was devastated by yet another fire which destroyed his mill, where he had kept all the types, matrices, drawings, patterns and virtually all the records of the transactions of the Village Press.1 He gained a lot of support from society, mainly fundraising money to help him out. Even two years after the fire, Goudy was still receiving letters about the fire.1 The fire made him eventually decide to sell his collection of personal records, and many of his books to the Library of Congress, who put on a large show of his work.1 He died at his home on the Hudson in 1947 due to a heart attack.3

1 Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

3 Carter, Sebastian. 20th Century Type Designers.Aldershot: Lund Humphries Gower House, 2002. Print.

© Bruckner, D.J.R.

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Portrait of Frederic Goudy.

Quote from the man himself “Each face has a spirit of its own. New types express the tempo of the times.

After all, it is very easy. I just think of a letter and draw a line around the thought.”

His Older Ages

17

Conclusion Goudy was a printer for more than 40 years and a typographer longer than that.

He had designed magazines and book covers before he had any real experience. If Goudy had chosen to make his living only as a printer, a letterer or a designer he would not be remembered now. It was because of his skill at all these professions that he was renowned for his career.

Bibliography 1

2

Bruckner, D. J. R. Frederic Goudy. New York: Documents of American Design, 1990. Print.

Carter, Sebastian. 20th Century Type Designers. Aldershot: Lund Humphries Gower House, 2002. Print.

3 Macmillian, Niel. An A-Z of Type Designers. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006. Print.

Colophon Written, designed and bound by: Laura Walter Typefaces: Goudy Old Style & Eureka Sans Š2013