Edward Johnston by Pat Murtagh

EDWARD JOHNSTON

EDWARD JOHNSTON BY PAT MURTAGH

EDWARD JOHNSTON

WRITTEN AND DESIGNED BY PAT MURTAGH

EDWARD JOHNSTON

CONTENTS

A MODERN CRAFTSMAN

THE MIRACLE OF HIS LIFE

MAKE GOOD LETTERS AND ARRANGE THEM WELL

A BEAUTIFUL AND CHARACTERISTIC ALPHABET

ALWAYS AIMING AT PERFECTION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COLOPHON

EDWARD JOHNSTON

Detail of Johnston's redesign of the London Underground logo.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

A MODERN CRAFTSMAN Edward Johnston revived modern calligraphy for generations of his students and followers starting in the early 20th century. Yet for a craftsman rooted in centuries-old tradition, he created a modern typeface based on those traditions that is still in use, relatively unchanged. His purpose was to create beautiful things made exceptionally well, a timeless attitude that makes his work both revered and relevant today.

Pr Bor ov n in in ce Sa ,U n ru Jos gu e ay

EDWARD JOHNSTON

THE MIRACLE OF HIS LIFE Edward Johnston was born on February 11, 1872 in San Jose province, Uruguay to Fowell Buxton and Alice Johnston, the second of four children. His was a particularly unstable childhood. Edward’s family moved continually, raised by his often absent, unemployed father and ill mother. They “grew up in an atmosphere of real and imagined sickness, with no formal education and little contact with the outside world.” Despite this restless environment, Edward developed interests in “gadgets, electricity,… mathematics, and in writing pages of illuminated 1 2

lettering, which he called ‘parchments.’ ”1 His eventual career in lettering would not start to bloom, however, until he was twenty-six years old. A CHANGE OF SCENE

When Johnston was 19, his mother died, and he and his siblings went into the care of their uncle. He began studying medicine in 1896 at Edinburgh University. However, it became quickly apparent he was not suited to this career. He was also given a remarkable opportunity to make serious study of calligraphy. In 1898, a close friend of Johnston’s sent some of his “parchments” to the lettering artist, architect, and typography instructor William Cowlishaw. Cowlishaw wrote Johnston a letter of praise for his work, and with this encouragement Johnston moved to London in 18982. It was in London that Johnston was to

Crawford, Alan. ‘Johnston, Edward (1872–1944)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34209, accessed 9 March 2014] Holliday, Peter. Edward Johnson: Master Calligrapher. (London: The British Library, 2007), 33.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

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From left: Bust of William Lethaby made in 1911; Sydney Cockerell, 1909; Edward Johnston at his desk while living in Holborn, 1902.

meet his first valuable mentor, and settle on his chosen profession.

Soon after his move to London, Johnston was introduced to William Lethaby, an architect and architectural historian whose ideas helped shape the Arts and Crafts movement. Johnston said of their meeting: “It was the miracle of my

©AG'S ART AND DESIGN BLOG

ARTS AND CRAFTS INFLUENCE

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EDWARD JOHNSTON

©WRITING , ILLUMINA TING AND LETTERING

Excerpts from Johnston's book Writing, Illuminating, and Lettering, showing reed pen construction.

life…nothing but divine providence.” 3 Lethaby impressed upon Johnston the importance of critically examining historical designs, and how the tools and materials used to make them were essential to their creation. It was not only through Lethaby, but also figures such as antiquarian Sydney Cockerell and renown artist and writer William Morris that Johnston was heavily influenced by the principles of the Arts and Crafts movement. While not a staunch adherent of all principles, Johnston was chiefly guided by the concept of the “designer-craftsman.”4 Johnston started taking great care in creating and using his calligraphy tools, choosing to write with a broad-edged nib rather than more popularly inking in outlines and coloring in. That the writing implement and its form were responsible for “bringing life to letters” was an idea _______________________________________________________ 3

Edward Johnston as cited in Priscilla Johnston, “Edward Johnston and W.R. Lethaby” in: Lessons in Formal Writing. (Lund Humphries, 1986), quoted in Holliday, 33. Holliday, 60.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

99 18 Be C gin en s Ar tra tea ts l Sc chi an ho ng d C ol o at ra f fts

ÂŠWRITING, ILLUMINATING AND LETTERING

Excerpt from Johnston's Writing, Illuminating and Lettering, showing effect of the desk slope on writing.

central to Johnstonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s practice and teachings for the rest of his life.5 He became interested in understanding the structure of letterforms through intense examination of historical scripts. Tenth-century English Carolingian script, derived from Roman half-uncials,

became a model for Johnston and became the basis for his Foundational Hand. By 1899, Johnston had absorbed and studied enough to solidify his career path.

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Edward Johnston, Lecture/Demonstration to the Fourth International Congress for Art Education. Dresden 1912, quoted in Holliday, 21.

02 19 W rit l D et es in ov te it es rs ial Pr for es s

R o Be ya gin lC st o l ea leg ch e ing of a Ar t t

EDWARD JOHNSTON

MAKE GOOD LETTERS AND ARRANGE THEM WELL Johnston’s first professional start was teaching a lettering class at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1899–1912, persuaded by his mentor Lethaby. Johnston had a tremendous influence on many of his pupils, Eric Gill being among them. In Gill’s autobiography, he wrote of his first encounter with Johnston: “… his influence was much more than a teacher

of lettering. He profoundly altered the whole course of my life and all my ways of thinking.”6 Gill would go on to be one of Johnston’s closest friends. Johnston also taught larger lecture classes at the Royal College of Art starting in 1901. Through his classes and lectures given throughout his lifetime, Johnston changed lettering practice for generations of lettering artists. He helped revive Roman Humanist lettering not only in Britain, but in the US, Germany, and Holland.7 CITY AND VILLAGE LIFE

In 1903 Johnston married Scottish schoolmistress Greta Grieg, and they had three daughters—Bridget, Barbara, and their youngest Priscilla in 1911. Johnston and his family lived in both the Holborn and Hammersmith neighborhoods in London from 1898 to

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Eric Gill, Autobiography. (New York : The Devin-Adair Company, 1941), quoted in Holliday, 85. Holliday, 269.

EDWARD JOHNSTON ER ON, MAST D JOHNST ©EDWAR

PHER CALLIGRA

One of Johnston's teaching sheets used at the Central School of Arts and Crafts.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

ÂŠ WRITING, ILLUMINATING AND LETTERING

Excerpt from Johnston's Writing, Illuminating and Lettering, showing his modern half-uncial script.

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06 19

Pu b W lish rit es ing h , is an Illum ma n d Le inat ual tte in r in g g

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9 1912, where Johnston lived near and learned from his many colleagues. New advances were being made in the printing trade at that time, which Johnston would later become a part of, branching out from teaching and calligraphy.8 In 1912 Johnston would follow his friend Eric Gill to live in Ditchling Village in Sussex, an artist-craftsmen’s hub where he would remain permanently, enjoying the countryside and a loving, joyful family life.9 WRITING, ILLUMINATING AND LETTERING

In 1906 Johnston published Writing, Illuminating, & Lettering, an informational and technical handbook for lettering artists. It has gone through as many as forty reprints, and taught and inspired many craftsmen and students. In his editor’s preface, Lethaby aptly describes this

extensive book: “There is here no collection of all sorts of lettering, some sensible and many eccentric, for us to choose from, but we are shown the essentials of form and spacing, and the way is opened out to all who will devote practice to it….”10 With numerous illustrations, Johnston lays out the technical aspects of writing and illuminating, from the making and holding of the pen to burnishing gold. His teaching of lettering was guided by a straightforward principle: “The problem before us is fairly simple—To make good letters and arrange them well.”11 Johnston’s Foundational Hand was used as a teaching tool in the book. According to Johnston, “The best training is found in the practice of an upright-round hand,” referring to English half-uncial script. “Having mastered such a writing, the penman can acquire any

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Holliday, 81. Holliday, 126. Johnston, Edward. Writing, Illuminating, & Lettering. (Dover Publications, 1995), xvii. Johnston, xvii.

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EDWARD JOHNSTON

10 other hands…with comparative ease.”12 He also revered Roman capitals as a model of what he called the “essential virtues of good lettering,” that of “readableness, beauty, and character.”13

One of Johnston's initial letters for the Doves Press Bible.

Johnston’s high regard for classical letterforms would later come into play in his typeface design for the London Underground.

©STONELETTERS.WORDRPRES.COM

OTHER PROJECTS

Johnston first became involved with the printing industry in 1902, when he began writing headings and initial letters for some books by Doves Press.14 He also designed three typefaces for Harry Kessler, the founder of Cranach Presse, starting in 1911. Johnston was an editor

and contributor to The Imprint, a short-lived publication for the printing trade, lasting only nine issues in 1913. Gerard Meynell, an ambitious printer, was the driving force behind The Imprint, and had become close with Johnston a year before.15 Meynell would ultimately be responsible for Johnston’s commission for the London Underground. In 1914 Sydney Cockerell, another of Johnston’s longtime mentors and friends, commissioned the manuscript The House of David, his Inheritance: A book of sample scripts A.D. 1914. This was a shining example of Johnston’s mastery of calligraphy, and showed a beautiful expansion of Johnston’s calligraphic repertoire with a compressed Black Italic script.16

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Johnston, 36. Johnston, 201. Holliday, 81. Holliday, 134. Holliday, 142.

EDWARD JOHNSTON ©WRITING, ILLUMINATING AND LETTERING

©WRITIN G, ILLUMIN ATING AN D LETTER ING

Examples of initial letters and decoration from Johnston's Writing, Illuminating, and Lettering.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

Johnston's sans serif alphabet designed for the London Underground.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

13 19 S nd ty tar on pe ts U fac des nd e ign er for in gr th g ou e nd Lo

A BEAUTIFUL AND CHARACTERISTIC ALPHABET © EDWARD JOHNSTON, MASTER CALLIGRAPHER

In the mid 1910s, new thinking on design was taking hold in England—that “good design should also be applied to industry.”17 In 1915, the Design and Industries Association was formed with the aim of helping improve the quality of commercial and industrial design through cooperation between artist-craftsmen and manufacturers. The DIA’s founders were comprised of many of Johnston’s colleagues, such as William Lethaby and Gerard Meynell, but also Meynell’s colleague Frank Pick, the commercial manager of the London Underground.18

Up to 1908, the Underground and the Tube were unofficial nicknames for the Underground Electric Railway Company of London, or UERL. At this time UERL subsidiaries were dealing with the financial trouble of low

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Holliday, 151. Holliday, 151.

©DISTORTEDARTS.COM

BRANDING THE UNDERGROUND

Left: Frank Pick, the commerical manager of the London Underground who approached Johnston for a typeface design. Right: Logo for the Design and Industries Association.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

A London Underground poster from1921, featuring Johnston's typeface and revised logo.

ridership, caused by factors such as confusing fare structures and inconsistent signage from competing lines.19 The renaming of the UERL as the Underground in 1907 sought to unify its three tube lines into a recognizable brand, and was the first step in a comprehensive redesign of company signage. This effort was headed by Frank Pick.20

Pick had been named publicity officer of the Underground in 1908, and later commercial manager in 1912. He was adamant on the comprehensive visual unification and branding of a complex and newly merged company, an approach ahead of its time. He had great success as publicity officer using posters as a promotional tool to increase off-peak ridership. The posters advertised destinations offered by the Underground, combining art by many different artists with the company’s new wordmark. Yet they competed for attention with the numerous and disorganized commercial advertisements, which made it difficult for passengers to find even basic information. Pick created designated spaces for commercial ads and the Underground’s own, but one glaring problem was the inconsistent typefaces used on station signage.21 Both the Under-

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Ovenden, Mark. London Underground by Design. (London: The Penguin Group, 2013), 62. Ovenden, 63. Green, Oliver. Underground Art. (London: Laurence King Publishing, 2001), 9.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

14 19 W Th rit e es Ho m his use anu In of scr he Da ip rit vi t an d, ce

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ground and commercial ads used “Victoria grotesque types, robust sans-serif display faces which varied in quality.”22 To separate Underground information and its brand from the rest, Pick recognized the need for a unique, high-quality typeface. A UNIFYING TYPEFACE

Pick discussed his typographic problem with his friends in the printing business, trying to educate himself on what he felt would work. He was introduced to Johnston in 1913 through Meynell, his fellow DIA founder and Johnston’s friend. This began a professional relationship that would last until the late 1930’s.23 Johnston

was a logical choice for this undertaking, based on Pick’s own conception of what the typeface should convey, as stated by Pick’s biographer: “Pick had aimed at letters that would have the bold simplicity of the authentic lettering of the finest periods and yet belong unmistakably to the times in which we lived”.24 Johnston turned to one of his ideal historical inspirations—the Roman capital—as the basis for a sans-serif block letter alphabet. He had even observed years earlier the possibility of making a “beautiful and characteristic alphabet of equal stroke letters” in Writing, Illuminating, & Lettering.25 Johnston also strongly believed in knowing the essential form of letters, or their

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22 Holliday, 153. 23 Crawford. 24 Christian Barman. “Public Lettering.” Journal of the Royal Society of Arts 103(1954-55): 281-293, quoted in Holliday, 155. 25 Johnston, 348.

Trajan column letter design. Traditional Roman capitals influenced Johnston's design of his typeface for the London Underground.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

16 skeletons, which no doubt informed the design of a simple, yet distinctive typeface.26

One of the first printed sheets of Johnston's typeface, created in 1917.

CHARACTERISTICS

While Johnston’s typeface design is one of simplicity, it is also full of character and even idiosyncrasies that could be criticized if designed today. Type designer Jason Smith of Fontsmith observed that “some of the proportions are a bit strange—the width of the lowercase ‘s’ for example, or the ear of the ‘n’ or the design of the lowercase ‘a’. All these oddities would be thought of as distracting inconsistencies by today’s myriad boring type designers.”27 Referring to the unique diamond shaped tittles, Bruno Maag of Dalton Maag Font Studio suggests that “it’s these hand-drawn, humanist qualities that make Johnston’s face so enduring.”28 Indeed these marks are indicative

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Johnston, 239. “A Most Distinctive Corporate Typeface.” Creative Review 33.3 (2013): 26-30. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson) (accessed March 9, 2014). Creative Review, “A Most Distinctive Corporate Typeface.”

EDWARD JOHNSTON

17 Jo fir hns st to us n's ed ty on pef po ace st is er s

16 19 Fin ish e fo s h r t is U he typ nd L e er on fac gr do e ou n nd

17 of dots produced by the broad-edged nib used by Johnston. The angled terminal of the number one and lower case ‘a’ also show signs of a calligraphic touch. Johnston used squares and circles to shape the capital letters especially, the ‘O’s being perfectly round and the vertex of the uppercase ‘M’ exactly in the middle.29

As a calligrapher, Johnston naturally drew the alphabet by hand, and finished it in March 1916. The letters were initially copied using lithography, and later in June 1917 wooden blocks were made for the letterpress.30 The typeface was first seen on posters in April 1917.31 In 1916, Pick commissioned Johnston to combine his typeface with the Underground roundel logo. The characteristic bar over a ring was being used in a non-standardized way

©WIRED.CO.UK

A LASTING TYPEFACE

until that point.32 Johnston’s redesign replaced the dashes above and below each letter with a stroke separated by ‘“chevrons,” the diamond shapes already featured in his typeface. The new and improved ‘bull’s-eye’ was registered as a

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Green, 10. Ovenden, 122. Ovenden, 124. Ovenden, 126.

Wooden blocks of Johnston's typeface were made in 1917.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

Johnston's 1920 revision of his roundel design, which better balanced the bar and ring.

trademark in 1917 and printed for the first time in 1919. Johnston’s further 1920 revision of the logo, which better balanced the bar and ring, has remained relatively unchanged to this day. In addition to the Underground roundel used for station names and signage, he also designed the logos for trams, buses, and coaches.33

Johnston created a condensed version of the face in 1919 for use on bus blinds. Ten years later he oversaw the design of a Railway Bold version, to distinguish it from the now popular, and very similar, Gill Sans typeface being used in commercial work.34 Johnston’s design has continued to be the typeface for the Under-

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Ovenden, 127 Holliday, 157.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

19 ve Des rs ign io s n fo con rb d us esn bl sed in ds

17 19 Jo hn th sto e n' r s fo oun re r t d de he el sig fir prin n o st te f tim d e

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36 37

“Johnston:“The History of a Face.” Creative Review 33.3 (2013): 27-28. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson) (accessed March 9, 2014). Creative Review, “A Most Distinctive Corporate Typeface.” Creative Review, “Johnston:The History of a Face.”

Logos currently used for Transport for London, featuring the 2002 redesign New Johnston TfL.

ground, updated along with changes in the organization and technology. In 1979, Elichi Kono revised the face for phototypesetting, calling it New Johnston. Kono expanded it to three weights—a new Medium weight, and lowercase bold, italic, and condensed faces—and increased the x-height for legibility.35 Kono also acknowledged the “quirks” of Johnston’s original face, drawing commas, periods, and apostrophes with the diamond dot instead of a square.36 In 2002 the face was further revised by Agfa Monotype. This version, New Johnston TfL, is currently used by Transport for London. Two other type foundries have also revised Johnston’s original face: Foundry ITC created ITC Johnston in 1990, and P22 released an extensive Underground Pro family in 2002.37

Pr ep br are an s of din art tr g a wo U ansi ll m rk f nd t o er for ode r gr th s ou e nd

EDWARD JOHNSTON

ALWAYS AIMING AT PERFECTION

Signage for the 2012 London Olympics featuring Johnston's typeface.

Alfred Fairbank, a follower and friend of Johnston, said this of him in a tribute in 1932: “His practice is founded on tradition adapted to modern conditions, and on sweetreasonableness that allows action on the impulse of the moment. Always he aims at perfection….”38 Johnston took all his commissions with the utmost seriousness, taking slow pains to finish each according to his high standards.39 Johnston began a second book on lettering in the 1920s, Formal Penmanship, but unfortunately it was left unfinished at his death. He took on fewer projects starting in the 1930s, and after his wife Greta died in 1936, he became more reclusive.40 He calligraphed beautiful letters to friends in the last years of his life, using large, narrow, expressive letters unlike his original Foundational Hand.41 Johnston, 72, died at his home in Ditchling in 1944. _______________________________________________________ 38

Alfred Fairbank, “Edward Johnston and English Calligraphy,” quoted in Holliday, 24. 39 Holliday, 21. 40 Crawford. 41 Holliday, 4.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

44 J ho ohn m sto e in n d D ies itc a hl t h i ag ng a is e 72 t

36 19 es di aJ oh ns to n re t G

21 JOHNSTON’S LEGACY

The revival of formal penmanship through Johnston went beyond England to America and Europe, and inspired many important figures in calligraphy, printing, and typography. The translation of Writing, Illuminating, & Lettering into German by one of his pupils, for example, greatly influenced printing styles in Germany.42 The success of Johnston’s Underground typeface design is evident in its current use today for London Transport, and illustrates the fundamental beauty of Johnston’s letter-making. Jan Tschichold, author of the famed 1928 manifesto Die neue Typographie had even admired Johnston’s typographic forms as early as 1917, stating in a 1946 article “. . .their well-thought out and convincingly simple disposition far surpasses anything that is used for similar purposes on the continent.”43

Rooted in values shared with the Arts and Crafts movement, Johnston was continually concerned with the interconnectedness of making and designing. In his preface for Writing, Lettering, & Illuminating, Johnston makes this view clear: “our work should be effective rather than have “a fine effect”—or be, rather than appear, good—and following our craft rather than making it follow us.”44 Amidst the forces of modernism and industrialization, Johnston created quality work of substance based on forgotten traditions, standing the test of time. In Johnston’s words, his purpose was this: “The making of useful things legibly beautiful.”45

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Edward Johnston Foundation, “The Legacy of Edward Johnston.” available from http://www.ejf.org.uk/index.html (accessed March 9, 2014). Jan Tschichold, “Alfred Fairbank, ein englischer Kalligraph und Schreiblehrer.” Graphis 2(1946), quoted in Holliday, 352. Johnston, xvii. Edward Johnston, Formal Penmanship and other papers, edited by Heather Child. (London:Lund Humphries, 1971),144, quoted in Holliday, 2.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

BIBLIOGRAPHY “A most distinctive corporate typeface.” Creative Review 33, no. 3 (March 2013): 26-30. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2014). “A logo for London.” Creative Review 33, no. 3 (March 2013): 32-34. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost(accessed February 24, 2014). Crawford, Alan. Johnston, Edward. n.p.: Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2014). Edward Johnston Foundation. “The Legacy of Edward Johnston.” Last modified March 9, 2014. Accessed March 9, 2014. http://www.ejf.org.uk/index.html. Green, Oliver. Underground Art. London: Laurence King Publishing, 2001. Holliday, Peter. Edward Johnson: Master Calligrapher. London: The British Library, 2007.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

Johnston, Edward. Writing, Illuminating & Lettering. Dover Publications, 1995. “Johnston: the history of a face.” Creative Review 33, no. 3 (March 2013): 27-28. Art Abstracts (H.W. Wilson), EBSCOhost (accessed February 24, 2014). Ovenden, Mark. London Underground by Design. London: The Penguin Group, 2013.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

COLOPHON This book was written, designed, and stitch-bound by Pat Murtagh. Hammermill 80lb bright white paper was used for the cover and pages of this book, and printed at PostNet in Towson, Maryland. Adobe Caslon Pro was used for this book's main text and footnotes. Gill Sans was used for the contents, captions, photo credits and timeline text. Greg Fleming's 2012 open source version of Johnston's typeface, Railway Sans, was used for the chapter headings, page numbers and running head.

A variety of sources were used for the images in this book. Edward Johnston's own Writing Illuminating and Lettering, Mark Ovenden's London Underground by Design and Peter Holliday's Edward Johnston: Master Calligrapher were especially invaluable sources for typeface and calligraphy examples.

EDWARD JOHNSTON

EDWARD JOHNSTON 2014