Robin Kinross (born 1949
) is an author and publisher on the topic of visual communication and typography. His most significant work is ''Modern Typography.'' He is a proprietor of
Hyphen Press
Hyphen Press is a London publisher of books on design and typography. Hyphen Press was founded by Robin Kinross in 1980, but has published nearly all of its books beginning in the 1990s.
Hyphen Press has produced about thirty books on a diver ...
, which published books on design and typography from 1980 to 2017.
Kinross did undergraduate and graduate studies at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the
University of Reading
The University of Reading is a public research university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as the University Extension College, Reading, an extension college of Christchurch College, Oxford, and became University College, ...
. His graduate work from 1979 was titled ''Otto Neurath's contribution to visual communication 1925-45: the history, graphic language and theory of Isotype'', but stayed unpublished. He moved to London in 1982. In the 1980s he contributed content to publications such as ''
Blueprint
A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842. The process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...
'', ''
Baseline'' and ''
Eye
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system.
In higher organisms, the ey ...
''.
Kinross started Hyphen Press in 1980. ''Modern Typography'' was published in 1992. Beginning in the 1990s, Hyphen produced about "two to four publications a year".
Important publications by Hyphen include Christopher Burke's ''
Paul Renner
Paul Friedrich August Renner (9 August 1878 – 25 April 1956) was a German typeface designer, author, and founder of the Master School for Germany's Printers in Munich. In 1927, he designed the Futura (typeface), Futura typeface, which beca ...
'' and Fred Smeijers' ''Counterpunch''. Hyphen's last published title was ''Richard Hollis designs for the Whitechapel: a graphic designer and an art gallery at work in twentieth-century London'' by Christopher Wilson, published in 2017.
''Modern Typography''
''Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History'' is a critical history of printing and typography. Kinross asserts that modernism in typography emerged with the self-awareness of printing and the development of the rationality of its processes and tools. Kinross dates these emerging attitudes to around 1700 and then traces the evolution of modernist typography. According to
Matthew Carter
Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is an English type designer.[A Man of Letters](_blank) , "Most histories of typography, particularly British ones, have been histories of traditional typography that treat Modernism as an aberration. Studies of Modernism, for their part, have tended to isolate it from contemporary traditional typography. This book aims to break down that separation by considering issues other than visual appearance, and by avoiding the ‘bibliophilic nostalgia’ so prevalent in typographic culture." The book takes some inspiration in title and treatment from
Kenneth Frampton
Kenneth Brian Frampton (born 20 November 1930) is a British architect, critic and historian. He is regarded as one of the world's leading historians of modernist architecture and contemporary architecture. He is an Emeritus Professor of Archit ...
's ''Modern Architecture: A Critical History''.
An interview with Robin Kinross , Journal , Hyphen Press
/ref>
See also
* Interview with Robin Kinross by Rick Poynor
Rick Poynor is an English writer on design, graphic design, typography, and visual culture.
Career
He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on ''Blueprint'' magazine in London. After founding ''Eye'' magazine, which he edited from 1 ...
for Eye
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system.
In higher organisms, the ey ...
magazin
* Interview with Robin Kinross online at Hyphen Pres
* Review of ''Modern Typography'' and ''Designing Books'' online at Typographic
* Review of ''Modern Typography'' by Matthew Carter
Matthew Carter (born 1 October 1937) is an English type designer.[A Man of Letters](_blank) online at ''Eye
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system.
In higher organisms, the ey ...
'
Bibliography
* Kinross, Robin, ''Modern Typography: An Essay in Critical History'', Hyphen Press
Hyphen Press is a London publisher of books on design and typography. Hyphen Press was founded by Robin Kinross in 1980, but has published nearly all of its books beginning in the 1990s.
Hyphen Press has produced about thirty books on a diver ...
, 1992
* Hochuli, Jost, and Robin Kinross, ''Designing Books: Practice and Theory'', 1996
* Kinross, Robin, ''Unjustified Texts: Perspectives on Typography'', 2002
* Stuart Bailey, Bailey, Stuart and Robin Kinross, ''God’s Amateur: The Writing of E.C. Large'', 2009
* Neurath, Marie, and Robin Kinross, ''The Transformer: Principles of Making Isotype Charts'', 2009
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kinross, Robin
Design writers
People educated at Rugby School
1949 births
Living people
Alumni of the University of Reading