Bo Yngve Berndal (1924 in

Stockholm, Sweden Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

– 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden) was a Swedish compositor,

type designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

, book designer, and educator. In 1991, he was the first to receive the Berling prize in design, instituted by Karl-Erik Forsberg. Berndal was also co-owner of BIGG (a Swedish

advertising agency An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generall ...

) and Hålet (a gallery dedicated to the typographic arts).

Career

Berndal began working as a

typesetter Typesetting is the composition of Written language, text for publication, display, or distribution by means of arranging metal type, physical ''type'' (or ''sort'') in mechanical systems or ''glyphs'' in digital systems representing ''char ...

in 1939. He studied

calligraphy Calligraphy () is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instruments. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an e ...

under Akke Kumlien. Starting in 1949, he was employed at Nordisk Rotogravyr, a Swedish press primarily devoted to printing high-quality illustrations using

rotogravure Rotogravure (or gravure for short) is a type of intaglio printing process, which involves engraving the image onto an image carrier. In gravure printing, the image is engraved onto a cylinder because, like offset printing and flexography, it u ...

. As a compositor there, he designed books including ''Naturen som formgivare'', ''Byn med det blå huset'' and ''Kust''. He illustrated ''Familje med de fem barnen'' for the Swedish publisher Norstedts. As it was common practice in midcentury Sweden to furnish books with purely calligraphic covers, Berndal hand-lettered various of these. For a time Berndal was also a linotype operator. In the early 1950s, he began drawing original typefaces at TYMA, a matrix factory. Type design would afterward become central to his career. He taught at Skolan för bokhantverk (Stockholm school for book design and printing), Grafiska Institutet (Swedish national college for

marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...

and advertising), and

Konstfackskolan Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design, is a university college for higher education in the area of art, crafts and design in Stockholm, Sweden. History Konstfack has had several different names since it was founded in 1844 by the eth ...

. The agency BIGG resulted from a collaboration with three of his former students. The initials in BIGG stand for Berndal, Ingemarsson, Günther, and Günther. By the start of the 1990s, Berndal had already adopted the

Macintosh Mac is a brand of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 1984. The name is short for Macintosh (its official name until 1999), a reference to the McIntosh (apple), McIntosh apple. The current product lineup inclu ...

as his tool of choice for type design. After his retirement Berndal went on designing type as a hobby. In total he produced over 300 typefaces. Notable among these are Boberia, Grafilone, Euclides, Exlibris, Esseltub (for

wayfinding Wayfinding (or way-finding) encompasses all of the ways in which people (and animals) Orientation (mental), orient themselves in physical space and navigation, navigate from place to place. Wayfinding software is a self-service computer program th ...

in Stockholm’s subway system), and Sispos/Sisneg (for general use in standard signage, later digitized as Bosis). Many of his fonts are nods to Swedish history, including Olaus Magnus, Johabu, Läckö, and Vadstenakursiv. He made logotypes for numerous businesses over the years, including Riksarkivet (Sweden's National Archives) and the National Museum of Fine Arts in Stockholm. Berndal was also an author. He co-wrote ''Typiskt typografiskt'' (1991) together with author/journalist Paul Frigyes. It provides a general introduction to typography with some emphasis on its role in Sweden. He also wrote a book about Charles Kastenbein’s mechanical typesetter, which preceded the Linotype machine, and another book about Peter Schoeffer the Younger.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berndal, Bo 1924 births Swedish businesspeople Swedish typographers and type designers 2013 deaths Swedish calligraphers Typesetters Businesspeople from Stockholm