Like Atlas Obscura and get our latest and greatest stories in your Facebook feed. One was Charter, a completely upright script face. By the end of 1929, he had come up with Metroblack, a robust sans serif that combined Gothic’s simplicity with a sense of warmth and hints of flair: curly loops for the g’s, jaunty tails for the Q’s. He made typefaces for books, magazines, newspaper articles, newspaper headlines, and typewriters, including an early IBM creation. Pic (1955). Offer subject to change without notice. “He sees a typeface from the early 1600s in Spain and he says ‘Oh, I want to do something with that.’”, Thus was born Eldorado, which Dwiggins described as “something brisk and colorful to set a tale like Treasure Island in.” (While Eldorado was eventually set in metal and used in book production, it perished at another dangerous crossroads—it was not popular enough to make the transition to film typesetting.). To commemorate and renew Dwiggins’s contribution to 20th-century typography a revival of Electra, one his most important typefaces. William Addison Dwiggins. Electra, Caledonia, and the Caravan Ornaments have consistently been available to any printer who wants to use them. 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Mac McGrew: Charter was an experimental, special-purpose typeface designed by William A. Dwiggins for Mergenthaler between 1937 and 1942. All but a few have since lapsed into obscurity, left behind by bad luck or circumstance. Could Dwiggins make a typeface for Linotype—one like Gothic, but better? Martinsville, Ohio-born illustrator, calligrapher, typographer, book designer, author, type designer and puppeteer, 1880-1956 (Hingham, MA). “It is not overly legible. Neither of these made it past the pilot stage. And the paintings of Frans Hals, a 17th century Dutch portrait painter, inspired Stuyvesant, to which Dwiggins gave “a certain well-fed robustness”—and which was also never made. Google search He could. Dwiggins is probably most noted for coining the term 'Graphic Designer' in 1922 which he used in reference to himself. Noteworthy also is Stefan Hattenbach's Dwiggins Script (2018), developed together with Glenn Sjökvist. Morris Fuller Benton ⦿ He’d read Dwiggins’ Gothic takedown, and found himself agreeing. Bio by Nicholas Fabian. Morris proved that there was a … (“Letter forms just naturally came to flow from his fingers,” his peer, Rudolph Ruzicka, once wrote.) A sculptor hitched the cackling bird to a trailer and is taking it on the road. As a puppeteer, he often used the pseudonym Dr. Hermann Puterschein. He left a number of intriguing drawings which are now kept at the Boston Public Library. Electra is a serif typeface designed by American type designer William Addison Dwiggins.It was released through Linotype in 1935. Gothic capitals are indispensable, but there are no good Gothic capitals.”. During that same period, Dwiggins wrote to his boss at Linotype detailing some ideas for remaking a Scotch Roman face. © 2020 Atlas Obscura. When William Addison Dwiggins drew the Electra® typeface for Mergenthaler Linotype in the early 1930s, he looked back to the 15th and 16th centuries for inspiration. In the mid-1920s, though, he went through a period when he … When Goudy moved to Hingham, Dwiggins followed and was to work there for the rest of his life. “I think he was champing at the bit to start earlier.”. He then he realized his mistake, crossed out “war,” and wrote “depression.”. This sense of loss is borne out by the fact that in the decades since his death, Dwiggins’ influence has regularly reappeared, sometimes in disguise. He may have been the first person to use the word “graphic designer,” in 1922, and the way he worked within and across disciplines is now a defining aspect of that field. Offer available only in the U.S. (including Puerto Rico). [...] quality is in the curves---the way they get away from the straight stems with a calligraphic flick, and in the nervous angle on the under side of the arches as they descend to the right." Linotype made some spin-offs in other weights—Metrolite, Metrothin, and Metromedium—and began to sell it. Cheltenham ⦿ Dwiggins . 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