The Book Design Renaissance Part 2

In America, the influence of the Arts and Crafts movement on the revitalization of typography and book design moved forward in the hands of two young men from the Midwest who fell under the spell of the Kelmscott Press during the 1890s. Book designer Bruce Rogers and typeface designer Frederic W. Goudy had long careers filled with a love of books and diligent work. They carried their exceptional sense of book design and production well into the 20^thcentury.

Frederic W. Goudy had a passion for letterforms since a young age. As a child he once cut out thousands of colored letters and decorated the community church’s wall with scripts from the bible. Growing up, he became inspired by the books from the Private Press Movement. He also became interested in typography, art and literature on “a higher plain that mere commercialism.”

Throughout his life he established a few presses in attempt to find his feet in the industry, but he never stayed on for too long. In 1894 he established the Camelot Press with a friend but left the following year due to disagreements. In 1908 Goudy established the Village Press where he then designed his first typeface called Camelot. The Dickinson Type Foundry in Boston paid Goudy $10 for this typeface. In 1899 he went off to be a freelancer in Chicago. Nine years later, in the year of 1908, the Village Press burned down and was completely destroyed.

Goudy ceased his efforts as a printer in that same year. Instead, he turned his attention to the cutting, casting and designing of typefaces. He initiated a long association with Langston Monotype Company, which ended up commissioning his finest fonts. Throughout the following years he produces 122 typefaces based on Venetian and French Renaissance type design. Some of his finest books that he designed include The Alphabet (1908), Elements of Lettering (1921) and Typologia (1940).

 He reestablished the Village Type Foundry in 1923 where he became a successful anachronist – an independent type designer who cut matrixes, then cast and sold type. Unfortunately in 1939 another devastating fire destroyed the Village Press. Goudy passed away in 1947.

Frederic W. Goudy, booklet cover, 1911.

The ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement were
actualized in printing for commerce.    

William Addison Dwiggins was a student of Goudy’s. During this period he became a highly literate book designer who established the house style for Alfred A. Knopf publishing company. In the early 1920s he was the first person to use the term “graphic designer” to describe his line of work. In 1938 he designed of the most widely used book faces in America called Caledonia.

Albert Bruce Rogers was the most important American book designer of early 20^th century. He was an allusive designer because his work recalls earlier designs. At first he was lost regarding his designing style until his friend showed him a Kelmscott book. It was only then when he truly became interested in total book design. For inspiration, he shifted from the studying of types and strong woodblock ornaments of Jenson and Ratdolt to the lighter, graceful lettering of the French Renaissance.

Rogers’s best friend J.M. Bowles ran an art supply store and edited a small magazine called Modern Art. Louis Prang showed interest and invited Bowles to assist in editing L. Prang & Company.  Prang needed a typographic designer, and after Bowles recommended his best friend, Rogers was hired.

In 1896 Rogers joined the Riverside Press. He became the designer of this Press’s new department for high-quality limited editions in 1900. During this period he applied the ideal of beautifully designed books to commercial production and so set the standard of 20^th century book design. He left the Riverside Press in 1912 to become a freelancer. The typeface he designed in 1915, called Centaur, is one of the finest of the numerous fonts he designed that was inspired by Jenson and was used for the first time in The Centaur, by Maurice de Guerin.  This was one of his most elegant book designs.

Rogers was a very intuitive designer with an outstanding sense of visual proportion and “rightness.” One of his life philosophies is that “design is a decision –making process; the culmination of subtle choices about paper, type, margins, leading ect can combine to create unity or disaster.” According to him, the ultimate test in considering the employment or the rejection of an element of design or decoration would be to contemplate whether the page design would survive without the element or not.

Bruce Rogers, page from The Centaur, by Maurice de Guerin, 1915.

The headpiece, initial, and page layout echo the wonderful
graphic designs of the French Renaissance.    

Morris F. Benton was the head of typeface development of the ATF. He designed important revivals of Bodoni and Garamond in collaboration with Thomas Maitland Cleland, whose borders, types and images were inspired by the Italian and French Renaissance.

Benton’s revival of Jenson’s types was issued as the Cloister family. Between the years of 1901 – 1935, Benton designed over 225 typefaces including 9 additional members of the Goudy family and over 24 members of the Cheltenham family. 

Morris F.Benton, typeface designs: Alternate Gothic, 1906;
Century Schoolbook, 1920; Clearface, 1907; Cloister Bold, 1913;
 Franklin Gothic, 1905; News Gothic, 1908; Souvenir, 1914; Stymie Medium, 1931.