Roy Cole (1932–2012) was a

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 ...

. His introduction to

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

began at the age of fourteen with an apprenticeship in the composing room of a printers in Idle, Bradford. This was followed by several years working as a

journeyman A journeyman is a worker, skilled in a given building trade or craft, who has successfully completed an official apprenticeship qualification. Journeymen are considered competent and authorized to work in that field as a fully qualified employee ...

compositor in the UK and in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. In 1960 he attended the

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

course at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel, in Switzerland, under

Emil Ruder Emil Ruder (20 March 1914 – 13 March 1970) was a Swiss typographer and graphic designer, who with Armin Hofmann joined the faculty of the Schule für Gestaltung Basel (Basel School of Design). One of the main masters of Swiss Style (design), Sw ...

's tutelage. In 1961 he married Maria Zenz from Austria, who he had met in Basel. There followed several years working as a salaried

typographer Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

, both at home and overseas, and he also served as an assessor for the Society of Typographic Designers' student assessments in the late 1970s–early 1980s. In 1981 he became a freelance

book design Book design is the graphic art of determining the visual and physical characteristics of a book. The design process begins after an author and editor finalize the manuscript, at which point it is passed to the production stage. During productio ...

er for, amongst others, Philip Wilson Publishers, the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

and the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

. Then, in 1990, he was invited as foreign guest juror for Stiftung Buchkunst's Best German book design competition. In 2003 he formed Roy Cole typography, a

type foundry A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and ...

based in Wells, England, dedicated to exploring and developing type families in the

sans serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif (), gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than ...

style.

Type families designed by Roy Cole

*Lina 2003 (six styles) *Zeta 2006 (six styles) *Colophon 2009 (six styles) *Coleface 2012 (six styles)

References

*Schmid, ''typography today'', ''Idea'' special issue, 1980, p. 93 *Schmid, ''the road to Basel'', typographic reflections, 1997, pp. 24–25, 34–37 *''Typographische Monatsblätter'', no.3, 1998, pp. 6–9 *''Typographische Monatsblätter'', no.3, 2007, pp. 28–29 *''Roy Cole, typographer, photographer, typeface designer'', ''Idea'', 2013, pp. 177–184

External links

List of fonts – Monotype

Samples of Roy Cole fonts
Independent type foundries 1932 births Book designers 2012 deaths {{typ-stub