Lida Lopes Cardozo Kindersley (born 1954), also known as Lida Lopes Cardozo and Lida Cardozo Kindersley, is a

letter-cutter Letter cutting is a form of inscriptional architectural lettering closely related to monumental masonry and stone carving, often practised by artists, sculpture, sculptors, and typeface designers. Rather than traditional stone carving, where ima ...

, typeface designer, author and publisher and runs the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

. She is considered the foremost letter-cutter currently working in the United Kingdom and is "dedicated to the increase of good lettering in the world". Her work in slate, stone and other media includes carved memorials, plaques, inscriptions and sundials which can be seen at many public locations in the United Kingdom and beyond. Her works include the

ledger stone A ledger stone or ledgerstone is an inscribed stone slab usually laid into the floor of a church to commemorate or mark the place of the burial of an important deceased person. The term "ledger" derives from the Middle English words ''lygger'', '' ...

for the grave of

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

Bunhill Fields Bunhill Fields is a former burial ground in central London, in the London Borough of Islington, just north of the City of London. What remains is about in extent and the bulk of the site is a public garden maintained by the City of London Cor ...

. With her first husband

David Kindersley David Guy Barnabas Kindersley Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (11 June 1915 – 2 February 1995) was a British stone Letter cutting, letter-carver and typeface designer, and the founder of the Kindersley Workshop (l ...

she also designed the main gates for the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Early life and education

Lida Lopes Cardozo was born in 1954 in

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. She graduated from the

Royal Academy of Art, The Hague The Royal Academy of Art (, KABK) is an art and design academy in The Hague, offering programs at both the Education in the Netherlands, HBO bachelor's and master's levels, as well as PhD programs. Succeeding the ''Haagsche Teeken-Academie'' (pa ...

, in 1976 where she studied lettering with typographer and designer

Gerrit Noordzij Gerrit Noordzij (2 April 1931 – 17 March 2022) was a Dutch typographer, Type design, typeface designer, and author. He started teaching letters and calligraphy at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague in 1960. Motivated to make type accessible ...

. It was in his classes that she realised that she wanted to create letters and work in carving stone.

Career

In 1976 she met British stone-carver and type designer David Kindersley at a conference about type design, and soon afterwards relocated to the UK to become his apprentice at his workshop in

. This association developed into a close creative partnership which lasted until David's death in 1995. Lida and David collaborated on many creative works including the British Library gates, a 1980 memorial stone to

Richard III Richard III (2 October 1452 – 22 August 1485) was King of England from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the Plantagenet dynasty and its cadet branch the House of York. His defeat and death at the Battle of Boswor ...

Leicester Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Martin, Leicester, commonly known as Leicester Cathedral, is a Church of England cathedral in Leicester, England, and the seat of the Bishop of Leicester. One of the city centre's five surviving medieval ch ...

and Stations of the Cross for the

London Oratory School The London Oratory School, also known as "The Oratory" or "The London Oratory" to distinguish it from other schools, is a Selective Catholic Voluntary Aided secondary school for boys aged 7–18 and girls aged 16–18 in West Brompton. Foun ...

and in establishing the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge. In her subsequent career Lopes Cardozo has created works across the UK and beyond as public and private commissions with a particular focus on gravestones and memorials. Many of her works can be seen in Cambridge and

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, including a memorial for

Stephen Hawking Stephen William Hawking (8January 194214March 2018) was an English theoretical physics, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author who was director of research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge. Between ...

Gonville and Caius College Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges an ...

. In 2015 she was awarded an MBE for services to lettercutting. Lopes Cardozo is an Honorary Fellow of

Magdalene College, Cambridge Magdalene College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary ...

, and in 2023 was conferred with an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Letters) by Cambridge University.

Sundials

Lida has cut a number of

sundial A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...

s on public buildings including Selwyn College and Pembroke College,

. In her work on sundials Lida has collaborated with Dr Frank King, Chairman of the British Sundial Society and Keeper of the Clock at Cambridge University, realising more than 20 of his sundial designs.

Type design

As well as hand-cut letterforms, Lida has designed several digital typefaces including 'Emilida', commissioned by music company

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

and 'Pulle' which is based on letterforms Lida has been cutting for over 20 years and offers a very large range of letter heights rather than variations in

weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...

. 'Pulle' was first used in public on a glass panel in the newly reopened Cambridge Central Library and also in Lida's design for the new entrance to

Wesley House Wesley House was founded as a Methodist theological college in Jesus Lane, Cambridge, England. It opened in 1921 as a place for the education of Methodist ministers and today serves as a gateway to theological scholarship for students and sch ...

, Cambridge.

The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop

The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge was established by Lida and David Kindersley and since 1977 has occupied its current location in a converted Victorian school. Lida trains apprentices in lettercutting by hand, each usually staying at the workshop for three years. Lida and David co-authored a number of publications on the art of lettering, their workshop, and the importance of apprenticeship. Lida has continued to write on these and other subjects and also publishes works through the Cardozo Kindersley imprint.

The Shingle Street Shell Line

In 2005 Lida and her childhood friend Els Bottema started to arrange a line of shells on the beach at

Shingle Street Shingle Street is a coastal settlement on the North Sea coast of the English county of Suffolk. It is north-east of Felixstowe and east of Ipswich at the mouth of the River Ore and opposite the tip of Orford Ness. It is within the parish of ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

. They began the line as a way of coping with their shared experience of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

treatment and have returned regularly to maintain and add to the line since then.

Personal life

Lida Lopes Cardozo married David Kindersley in 1986 and they had three sons together. Two of their sons—Hallam and Vincent—have joined her in working as letter cutters in the workshop, while the other—Paul—is an artist and filmmaker. Her second husband Graham Beck now runs the workshop with her, along with her daughter-in-law Roxanne Kindersley and her youngest son Vincent Kindersley.

Selected publications

* * * * *

References

External links

The Cardozo Kindersley Workshop official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kindersley, Lida Lopes Cardozo 1954 births Stone carvers English graphic designers British women graphic designers People from Leiden British letter cutters Living people Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni Members of the Order of the British Empire Dutch emigrants to England Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom