Freda Sack (born 23 September 1951, died 13 February 2019) was a British type designer who began her career at
Letraset
Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry-transfer lettering method. Letraset was acquired by the Colart group and became part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton.
C ...
in 1972, joining as a photographic retoucher.
Colleagues attest to her skill at cutting letters from
rubylith
Rubylith is a brand of Photomask, masking film, invented and trademarked by the Ulano Corporation. Today the brand has become Genericized trademark, genericized to the point that it has become synonymous with all coloured masking films.
Rubylith ...
at
Letraset
Letraset was a company known mainly for manufacturing sheets of typefaces and other artwork elements using the dry-transfer lettering method. Letraset was acquired by the Colart group and became part of its subsidiary Winsor & Newton.
C ...
where she cut several of the in-house designs and some of her own. After a freelance period which including consulting for British Airways, and Vauxhall Motors, in 1989 she joined up with previous collaborator David Quay to co-found what, by their own account, may have been the first UK independent type foundry, called The Foundry, in 1989.
Freda Sack was a member of the
International Society of Typographic Designers, its co-chair from 1995 to 1999, its chair from 2000 to 2004, and its president from 2006 to 2010. Later, she was made an honorary fellow.
Typefaces by Sack
This is a selection of more notable typefaces, not a comprehensive index.
While employed by Letraset:
*Paddington (1977)
*Victorian (1976) (with
Colin Brignall)
After leaving Letraset but still published with Letraset:
*Ignatius (1987)
*Proteus (1983)
*Vermont (1987)
*Waldorf (1986)
Published by her own Foundry Types (now The Foundry Types) many of which are careful revivals of 20th century designs:
*
Architype Renner (1993) (described by
Bringhurst as “artistically the earliest version” of Futura)
*
New Alphabet (1997)
*
Gridnik (1997).
Also at Foundry Types, Sack created corporate (that is, not published) fonts for
British Gas
British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Serving ...
,
NatWest Bank, the Science Museum, the World Wildlife Fund, and Lisbon Metro.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sack, Freda
British typographers and type designers
1951 births
2019 deaths
British women