editorial
DESCRIPTION
gill sans editorialTRANSCRIPT
Gill Sans
20th Centur y Type D
es igner s
Sebasti
on Carter. N
ew York 1
995. WW Norto
n
Gill SansSeb
astion Carte
r. New
York 1995. W
W Norton
02
“Gill Sans is the H
elvetica of England.”
Eric Gill d
escribed himself
on his own gr
avesto
ne as a
stone c
arver,
which em
braced
the two ac
tivities
for which
he was m
ost fam
ous, sculpture
and the c
utting o
f inscr
iptional
letterin
g. He m
ight have
added: w
ood engra
ver, fo
r he w
as a v
ersatil
e and origi
nal artis
t in
that medium, an
d his engra
vings f
or the C
ranach
Press C
anticum Cantico
rum and the Golden
Cockerel
Press Fo
ur Gospels
(both 1931) are m
agnificen
t achieve
ments of book il
lustration.
He might al
so have ad
ded: essay
ist, since
he was a
n indefatigab
le write
r on a g
reat va
riety o
f
subjects fr
om sex, politic
s, religio
n and the n
ature o
f workm
anship to art, clo
ths and typ
ogra-
phy. And he m
ight also have
added: ty
pe desig
ner, since
in Gill Sans an
d Perpetu
a he d
esigned
two of the m
ost popular
faces o
f the c
entury.
Eric Gill w
as born on 22 Fe
bruary 1882 in Brigh
ton, the s
econd ch
ild of a larg
e family.
He showed an
early
talent fo
r draw
ing, and was s
ent to art
school at
Chichester,
where the
family
had moved. At th
e age
of seven
teen his o
bvious in
terest
in letter
ing and arc
hitecture
led to
his bein
g appren
ticed to
W. H. Caroë, a
rchitec
t to the E
cclesias
tical C
ommissioners
in
Westminste
r. At th
e same ti
me he b
egan to
carve
letterin
g, encourag
ed by W. R. Leth
aby, the
principal o
f the C
entral Sch
ool of Arts and Craft
s, and ver
y rapidly b
egan to get
commissi
ons.
At the C
entral Sc
hool he atten
ded letter
ing class
es give
n by Edward
Johnston, te
n years
his
senior, a
nd was profoundly i
nfluenced by Jo
hnston’s in
tegrity
and ap
proach to
his work.
In
1902 the t
wo men share
d rooms in
Lincoln’s Inn, until
Johnston’s m
arriage
the n
ext year,
closely
followed by Gill’s
the year
after.
— Ben Archer
“Gill Sans is the H
elvetica of England.”
In 1903 he left C
aroe’s
office, where
he had neve
r been
conten
t, and bega
n his life-l
ong
career
as a se
lf-employed
craftsm
an. He was i
mmediately s
uccessfu
l, and so
on, besides
carved
work, he w
as commissi
oned by W. H
. Smith to
paint the s
ign on their
bookshop in Paris
, and
severa
l other bran
ches there
after, a
nd by Count H
arry K
essler
to draw an
d engra
ve lett
ering
for the t
itle page
s of books
published by t
he Insel
Verlag in
Leipzig.
The early
letter
ing was
drawn an
d reproduced
by the li
ne blocks
, but Gill w
as so dissa
tisfied w
ith the resu
lt that f
or
Die Odyss
ee (1910 –11) he h
ad the draw
n letter
ing by h
and.
Gill’s works
hop in Hammers
mith was proving to
o small,
and with a young fa
mily to think
of he moved
in 1907 to the S
ussex vil
lage of D
itchling. H
ere he b
egan to
carve
sculpture, th
e
medium in which some o
f his best
work was d
one. His la
rge public
commissions, s
uch as the
work for th
e BBC on broadcas
ting House
in Portland Place
, London, made h
im nationally
fa-
mous. Quite
early o
n plans were
made for him to work w
ith Maillol an
d; both came to
nothing,
for Gill w
as very
much his own man, but th
ey indicat
e the e
steem
in which he was h
eld ea
rly in
his care
er. At th
e same ti
me, his spirit
ual progre
ss led him toward
s the R
oman Catholic c
hurch,
and he and his w
ife were
receiv
ed in 1913. Shortly
after
this he w
as given
the task
of carvin
g
the Stati
ons of th
e cross i
n Westminste
r Cath
edral, co
mpleted in 1918, his fi
rst majo
r sculptural
commission, beca
use of w
hich he was e
xcused arm
y servic
e during W
orld War I.
Meanwhile
the community
at Ditch
ling bega
n to gr
ow. Edward Jo
hnston went to
live
there in
1912, and in
1916 an ac
quaintance
of Gill’s
from H
ammers
mith, Hilar
y (Douglas
)
Pebler moved
in and se
t up the St D
ominic’s Pres
s, a sm
all hand – pres
s works
hop for which
much of Gill’s
early
engraving w
as done. But af
ter a f
ew yea
rs Gill q
uarrele
d with Pepler, mostly
over money:
Pepler was a
compara
tively w
ealthy
man and ca
sual about business
, whereas G
ill
had to su
pport himself
and his f
amily,
and was alm
ost fanatic
ally m
ethodical
about k
eeping
time –
sheets an
d accounts. I
n 1924, Gill moved
his growing e
ntourage to
a rem
ote abandoned
monastery
in the Welsh
mountains at
Capel-y-ffin. Sh
ortly befo
re he w
ent, he h
ad been ask
ed
by Stan
ley Moriso
n to write
about ty
pography
for The F
leuron, but h
ad declined, sa
ying that
typogra
phy was ‘
not his country
’. Moriso
n and he h
ad
03
— Ben Archer
met about te
n years
before
when Morison was w
orking w
ith Francis
Meynell
at the M
eynell
family
publishing fi
rm of Burns an
d Oates, a
nd he had co
mmissioned Gill t
o engra
ve some in
i-
tials fo
r them
. By Novem
ber 1925, Gill h
ad given in to
Morison, an
d was draw
ing alphabets
for
him, alphabets
which were
, in the coars
e of tim
e, to beco
me Perp
etua.
Early in 1924, M
orison had an
nounced his h
ope that
Monotype u
sers w
ould soon be
able to ad
d to th
eir rep
ertoire
of class
ic reviv
als ‘at
least o
ne origi
nal desig
n’. Much lat
er he
described in A tal
ly of ty
pes (1953) th
e way h
e cam
e to ask
Gill to make
that desig
n. He h
ad
found that the p
rivate p
ress ty
pes were
mostly too quaint. ‘W
hat was w
anted was a
design that,
while bein
g new, was o
f genera
l utility an
d in no respect
unusual.’ The c
alligrap
hers like
Edward
Johnston were
trained to
write let
ters th
at were
formed fre
shly by th
e pen, with not en
ough
of the m
odifications m
ade by c
enturies of ex
pertise
in cuttin
g punches.
‘The fine se
rif is n
ot in
origin ca
lligraphic b
ut epigra
phic; not w
ritten but sc
ulptured. It
follows that a
set o
f drawings
of a finely
serifed
face b
y a contem
porary p
ractitio
ner of le
ttering co
uld best be m
ade by o
ne
who was either
an engra
ver on meta
l or wood; or, p
referab
ly, a scu
lptor on sto
ne or sl
ate. O
n
this analys
is the p
roblem beca
me soluble, an
d Gill the o
bvious m
an to so
lve it.’
04
gill san
s
x-height
base lin
e
ascender l
ine
descender l
ine
In 1925 Morison, so
mewhat d
isenchanted
with Monotype b
ecause
of the m
istake
over
Fournier, and als
o with a growing in
terest
in the technique o
f hand punchcutting, w
as beco
m-
ing inter
ested in the c
utting o
f Frederic
Warde’s
Arrighi ita
lic by G
eorges P
lumet. He h
ad also
been intro
duced by F
rancois T
hibaudeau of D
eberny &
Piegnot to
Charles M
alin (1883-1955),
a younger
man than Plumet’s
retire
ment. It was t
o Malin th
at Moriso
n turned for h
is plan of
turning Gill’s
drawings i
nto type in
the traditio
nal way. T
his was p
artly a
lso as a c
oncession to
Gill’s initia
l relucta
nce to have
anyth
ing to do with mach
ine productio
n, and his c
ondemnatio
n
of industri
al desig
n, in th
e genera
lly acc
epted se
nse of th
e proces
s where
by an ‘ar
tist’ m
akes
drawings f
or ‘workm
en’ to car
ry out. W
ithin a few
years
, as we sh
all see, Gill c
hanged his m
ind
completely, n
ot without a
good deal of se
lf-justif
ying sophistr
y, and desig
ned Gill Sans.
Years l
ater, M
orison wrote i
n A tally: L
ong before t
he cuttin
g of Perp
etua, th
e Corporati
on
had cut punches f
rom new draw
ings made fo
r the p
urpose by d
raughtsm
an capable o
f makin
g
clear o
utlines.
But as to
a book-ty
pe of th
e highest
ambitio
n, no reproductio
n direct fr
om the
drawing-b
oard had been
as sati
sfactory a
s those m
ade from typ
e alrea
dy existin
g, e.g. B
ell’s ro
-
man and ita
lic. The d
ifferen
ce betw
een the d
rawn patte
rn and the e
ngraved
letter
was crucial
.
Virtue w
ent out with the h
and-cutter
when the mech
anic cam
e in with his p
antograph an
d the
rest o
f the g
ear. The n
ew en
gineers w
ere not w
hat the o
ld engra
vers w
ere. They
could mass-
produce, or reproduce, punches;
they could not cr
eate, or re
create
, the e
ngraved
quality th
at
had belonged
to typ
ography
in the roman let
ter sin
ce 1465.’
05
In 1925 Morison, so
mewhat d
isenchanted
with Monotype b
ecause
of the m
istake
over
Fournier, and als
o with a growing in
terest
in the technique o
f hand punchcutting, w
as beco
m-
ing inter
ested in the c
utting o
f Frederic
Warde’s
Arrighi ita
lic by G
eorges P
lumet. He h
ad also
been intro
duced by F
rancois T
hibaudeau of D
eberny &
Piegnot to
Charles M
alin (1883-1955),
a younger
man than Plumet’s
retire
ment. It was t
o Malin th
at Moriso
n turned for h
is plan of
turning Gill’s
drawings i
nto type in
the traditio
nal way. T
his was p
artly a
lso as a c
oncession to
Gill’s initia
l relucta
nce to have
anyth
ing to do with mach
ine productio
n, and his c
ondemnatio
n
of industri
al desig
n, in th
e genera
lly acc
epted se
nse of th
e proces
s where
by an ‘ar
tist’ m
akes
drawings f
or ‘workm
en’ to car
ry out. W
ithin a few
years
, as we sh
all see, Gill c
hanged his m
ind
completely, n
ot without a
good deal of se
lf-justif
ying sophistr
y, and desig
ned Gill Sans.
Years l
ater, M
orison wrote i
n A tally: L
ong before t
he cuttin
g of Perp
etua, th
e Corporati
on
had cut punches f
rom new draw
ings made fo
r the p
urpose by d
raughtsm
an capable o
f makin
g
clear o
utlines.
But as to
a book-ty
pe of th
e highest
ambitio
n, no reproductio
n direct fr
om the
drawing-b
oard had been
as sati
sfactory a
s those m
ade from typ
e alrea
dy existin
g, e.g. B
ell’s ro
-
man and ita
lic. The d
ifferen
ce betw
een the d
rawn patte
rn and the e
ngraved
letter
was crucial
.
Virtue w
ent out with the h
and-cutter
when the mech
anic cam
e in with his p
antograph an
d the
rest o
f the g
ear. The n
ew en
gineers w
ere not w
hat the o
ld engra
vers w
ere. They
could mass-
produce, or reproduce, punches;
they could not cr
eate, or re
create
, the e
ngraved
quality th
at
had belonged
to typ
ography
in the roman let
ter sin
ce 1465.’
This is a c
urious pass
age in the c
ontext of Perp
etua, s
ince Bell
was cut se
veral y
ears af
ter
it was b
egun. It
is even
more curio
us in the co
ntext of M
orison’s re
lations w
ith Monotype, sin
ce
some of th
e most s
uccessfu
l faces
he superv
ised there
were rec
reations o
f types
which ce
rtainly h
ad existe
d but did so
no longer
. Moreo
ver in th
e sam
e book h
e had co
n-
demned M
onotype C
aslon, of w
hich the foundry t
ypes had been
availab
le as m
odels, as
‘a com-
plete fai
lure as a
facsimile.’ M
orison’s w
hole work
at Monotyp
e was d
edicated to
proving th
at
the engineer
s could produce
good letter
s, given
the right m
odels in gra
phic form
, an en
deavour
which culminate
d in his own Times
New Roman, which was d
rawn by a
non-specia
list draft
s-
man and had neve
r seen a h
and punchcutter. The la
st part
of the p
assage
is the m
ost curio
us
because
in 1953 he did not belie
ve it: c
ertainly w
hen Van Krimpen made a
similar
point a few
years l
ater, M
orison rep
lied, ‘I d
o not really
believe
that you mean
that Monotyp
e and foundry
type a
re twoess
entially d
ifferen
t things.
I do not believe t
hese diffe
rences
are ess
ential. I b
elieve
they are
differen
t but I quest
ion whether t
he diffe
rence
is so gre
at.’
Yet th
ere is
no doubt that i
n 1926 Morison th
ought that M
alin’s w
ork was a
necessa
ry
preliminary
to an
y cuttin
g by M
onotype. He d
id not doubt Monotyp
e’s ability
to cu
t the ty
pe,
but he did quest
ion their skil
l in tra
nsform
ing the d
rawings o
f a self
confess
ed amate
ur type d
e-
signer
into a cohere
nt fount. H
e was c
onfirmed in this o
pinion by Van Krimpen, whose L
utetia
had been cu
t as a fo
undry type sh
ortly befo
re, and was r
ecut by M
onotype so
me years
later. Y
et
whereas V
an Krimpen an
d his punchcutter
Radisch were
expert
partners
in close d
aily co
ntact
at Ensch
ede, Gill, who had a li
ttle kn
owledge o
f type d
esign, was d
ealing w
ith Malin at
a dista
nce
and with Morison as
an intermediary
.
06
“Letters a
re things, n
ot pictures o
f things.”
In the even
t, Malin
’s contrib
ution to Perp
etua w
as almost f
orgotten
. Beatrice
Ward
e did
not mention him by n
ame in
her artic
le intro
ducing the ty
pe in The F
leuron 7, an
d Gill ignored
him complete
ly in his n
ote on the ty
pe, giving al
l the c
redit to
Monotype: ‘T
hese draw
ings were
not made w
ith specia
l refere
nce to typ
ography
– they
were sim
ply lette
rs, draw
n with brush
and ink. For th
e typogra
phical qualit
y of th
e fount, a
s also for th
e rem
arkably fi
ne and prec
ise
cutting o
f the p
unches, the M
onotype C
orporation is t
o be prais
ed. In my opinion “Perp
etua” i
s
commendable in that,
in spite
of many
distinctiv
e chara
cters,
it reta
ins that c
ommonplaceness
and normalit
y which is
essential
to go
od book-type.’
The Paris
foundry
of Ribadeau
Dumas
cast a
fount fr
om Malin
’s punches,
which was
passed to
Monotype in
January
1927 for what b
ecame a
long series
of trails
, since
the sight o
f
the cast
and printed let
ters b
egan to
disturb Gill, w
ho had up to then see
n only smoke
proofs.
He object
ed to the b
lob on the tail o
f the y
which Malin had intro
duced, fo
und the g an
d the r
too heavy, a
nd agreed
with Morison that t
he capital
s were
too sh
ort; and the c
omments were
passed on to
the M
onotype w
orks to
make th
e changes
required
. In sp
ite of th
is, Perp
etua
exhibits in an
extre
me form
the tendency
of the M
onotype w
orks to
draw let
ters w
ith ruler
and compass
es. In a l
etter to
Morison in Novem
ber 1926 Gill d
rew tw
o diagram
s which illu
s-
trated his c
ontention that t
he uprigh
ts of ro
man letter
s should be im
perceptibly ‘w
aisted’, an
d
that the s
erifs sh
ould grow fro
m them as
though organical
ly. Under
his paro
dy of th
e draw
ing
office ver
sion with his para
llel-sided uprigh
ts and math
ematic
ally cir
cular brac
kets to
the serif,
Gill wrote, ‘Se
e how bloody th
e above
looks, and is.’
If Moriso
n passed th
is on to
the w
orks,
they took n
o notice, as
they hard
ly ever
did, and as
a resultin
the large
r sizes
of the P
erpetu
a
titlings,
as in many
Monotype fa
ces, th
e point w
here th
e compass
es tak
e over
from th
e ruler
is quite
perceptible.
07
This is a c
urious pass
age in the c
ontext of Perp
etua, s
ince Bell
was cut se
veral y
ears af
ter
it was b
egun. It
is even
more curio
us in the co
ntext of M
orison’s re
lations w
ith Monotype, sin
ce
some of th
e most s
uccessfu
l faces
he superv
ised there
were rec
reations o
f types
which ce
rtainly h
ad existe
d but did so
no longer
. Moreo
ver in th
e sam
e book h
e had co
n-
demned M
onotype C
aslon, of w
hich the foundry t
ypes had been
availab
le as m
odels, as
‘a com-
plete fai
lure as a
facsimile.’ M
orison’s w
hole work
at Monotyp
e was d
edicated to
proving th
at
the engineer
s could produce
good letter
s, given
the right m
odels in gra
phic form
, an en
deavour
which culminate
d in his own Times
New Roman, which was d
rawn by a
non-specia
list draft
s-
man and had neve
r seen a h
and punchcutter. The la
st part
of the p
assage
is the m
ost curio
us
because
in 1953 he did not belie
ve it: c
ertainly w
hen Van Krimpen made a
similar
point a few
years l
ater, M
orison rep
lied, ‘I d
o not really
believe
that you mean
that Monotyp
e and foundry
type a
re twoess
entially d
ifferen
t things.
I do not believe t
hese diffe
rences
are ess
ential. I b
elieve
they are
differen
t but I quest
ion whether t
he diffe
rence
is so gre
at.’
Yet th
ere is
no doubt that i
n 1926 Morison th
ought that M
alin’s w
ork was a
necessa
ry
preliminary
to an
y cuttin
g by M
onotype. He d
id not doubt Monotyp
e’s ability
to cu
t the ty
pe,
but he did quest
ion their skil
l in tra
nsform
ing the d
rawings o
f a self
confess
ed amate
ur type d
e-
signer
into a cohere
nt fount. H
e was c
onfirmed in this o
pinion by Van Krimpen, whose L
utetia
had been cu
t as a fo
undry type sh
ortly befo
re, and was r
ecut by M
onotype so
me years
later. Y
et
whereas V
an Krimpen an
d his punchcutter
Radisch were
expert
partners
in close d
aily co
ntact
at Ensch
ede, Gill, who had a li
ttle kn
owledge o
f type d
esign, was d
ealing w
ith Malin at
a dista
nce
and with Morison as
an intermediary
.
“Letters a
re things, n
ot pictures o
f things.”
— Eric Gill
08
The type w
as delay
ed both by atten
tion to the d
etails o
f the ro
man, and by th
e italic
. Gill
was pers
uaded by Moriso
n, as Van Krim
pen was with Romulus a
few ye
ars lat
er, to su
bstitute
a sloped ro
man for the m
ore usual c
ursive it
alic. (S
loped romans ke
ep the roman let
ter form
s
and incline t
hem, m
ore or le
ss mech
anically, w
hile ital
ics have
a few
differen
t chara
cters a
nd
terminal fl
icks rat
her than se
rifs.) M
orison’s b
elief w
as that a
s italic
s were
originally
intended
for independent u
se, they
should not be u
sed for a
rticulati
on in prose set
in roman, a
belief
which was set o
ut in his e
ssay ‘To
wards an
ideal ital
ic’ (The F
leuron 5, 1926). Fe
licity it
alic finally
made its ap
pearance
in Beatrice
Warde’s
article
in The Fleu
ron 7 in 1930, which introduced
the
type; i
t looked
rather
like th
e later
Joanna italic
and was
hardly e
ver se
en again, A ye
ar late
r
Gill made d
rawings o
f what b
ecame st
andard Perp
etua it
alic, with a g
reater
angle
of slope a
nd
a few more c
ursive c
haracte
rs. As M
orison co
nfesses
to Van Krimpen, ‘The s
loped roman idea
does not go
down so well
in this o
ffice [Monotyp
e] as it
does outsid
e. The reas
on for this is
that when the d
octrine w
as applied
to Perp
etua, w
e did not gi
ve enough slo
pe to it.W
hen we
added more slope, it
seemed the fo
nt required
a little
more cursiv
e in it. T
he result w
as rath
er
a compromise.’
Perpetu
a, Serie
s 239, was fi
nally iss
ued to the tr
ade in 1932. Fo
r the s
pecimen which ap
-
peared in the 1
930 Fleuron, Gill a
lso drew a d
elightful deco
rated cap
ital N. M
orison ask
ed him
to design the c
omplete alp
habet for M
onotype, but he d
eclined: Robert
Harling su
ggeste
d he
thought the d
esign to fre
ehand for the m
echanical
process o
f Monotyp
e reproductio
n. In 1936
he changed
his mind, an
d these Flo
riated Initia
ls were
cut as
Series
431. For w
hile Perp
etua w
as
making sl
ow progress t
hrough the works
, Gill was b
eginning to
make typ
ography v
ery much his
country. As e
arly as
1925, he had desig
ned some b
lock lett
ers for th
e Army a
nd Navy Sto
res,
and used sim
ilar form
s for si
gns at Capel-y
-ffin to warn
off uninvite
d visitors.
“…C
omm
ercially successful and classic typeface.”
09
Then in Octo
ber 1926 he w
as ask
ed by a yo
ung bookse
ller in Brist
ol called
Douglas
Cleverdon (w
ho later
published se
veral b
ooks of his)
to paint his b
ookshop nam
e in th
ese
same c
apitals. W
hile in Brist
ol he deve
loped flu, and to
pass the ti
me in bed he d
rew alp
habets
for Cleve
rdon to use a
s models
for letter
ing in his s
hop, including th
e sans-se
rif capital
s. A few
weeks la
ter. Morsio
n was stayi
ng with Cleve
rdon, and was i
nterest
ed in the a
lphabets. Earli
er
in the y
ear he h
ad tried to
interest
the S
tephensto
n Blake foundry
incutting a
versio
n of the
Army and Navy
capital
s without su
ccess, a
nd the Cleve
rdon alphabet b
ook convinced
him that
Gill could produce
for Monotyp
e the k
ind on sans-se
rif fam
ily that o
versea
s foundries
were
beginning to
produce with su
ch succe
ss.
Both Gill and he w
ere aw
are that w
hile san
s-serif c
apitals ar
e not difficult to
draw, it
is the
detailing o
f the lo
wer-case
which presents t
he problem
s. Gill a
dmitted that h
is desig
n was mod-
eled on Edward
Johnston’s L
ondon Transport a
lphabet, though he im
proved upon it
in detail.
He kept, a
nd strength
ened, the c
lassical
proportions, a
nd the e
ye-glas
s g, an
d introduced
his
own favorite
curve
d-tailed
R. The early
drawings d
iffer co
nsiderably f
rom the type a
s cut, a
nd
Monotype w
ere res
ponsible for m
any of th
e improvem
ents. Indeed
, when the draw
ings of th
e
capital
s were
first sen
t to the w
orks in July 1
927, Pierpont w
rote to Burch
, ‘I can se
e nothing
in this desig
n to rec
ommend it and much that i
s object
ionable.’ He a
lso complain
ed about th
e
descending ta
ils on the J
and Q of a titli
ng fount, b
ut was t
old to fit th
em in. M
orison lef
t most
of the w
ork on the ty
pe to be d
one betw
een Gill a
nd the works
, and Gill b
ecame in
creasin
gly
fascinate
d by the p
rocess in
volved. Fr
om 1928 he was p
aid a reta
iner by M
onotype to
act as
an
adviser. H
e even
made draw
ings and an
notated tra
il proofs o
f some o
f the m
ore outlan
dishvari-
ants of th
e Sans fa
mily, including th
e Kayo
, or Extra Bold, which he n
icknam
ed Gill Sans D
ouble-
Elefans. H
e was a
professional; a
nd he also had a w
ay of co
nstructin
g elaborate
arguments i
n
favour o
f an ex
pedient so
lution. Thus he convin
ced himself
that if th
e trade d
emanded typ
es for
such ugly purposes
as adver
tising, it
ought to have
ugly typ
es.
— Jacci H
oward Bear
“…C
omm
ercially successful and classic typeface.”
The titlin
g, Serie
s 231, was r
eady fo
r the B
ritish Fe
deration of M
aster P
rinters co
nfer-
ence in May 1
928, which Moriso
n addres
sed; an
d the asse
mbled dignitar
ies were
duly horri-
fied by the n
ew typ
e. The upper
and lower cas
e, Series
262, appear
ed in 1930, and the ty
pe
became a
phenomenal succe
ss.
In view of th
e warm
relatio
nship which Gill had deve
loped with Monotype, an
d always
had with Morsion, it
is surprisi
ng that t
he only o
ther typ
e he d
esigned for th
em was S
olus.
It was b
ased on a s
keletal
Egyptian
alphabet i
n the Cleve
rdon alphabet b
ook which Moriso
n,
by a quirk
of typefac
e nomenclat
ure desc
ribed as ‘blonde’ i
n colour, b
y contras
t with dark
er
Egyptian
s. Gill im
mediately d
ubbed it ‘Gents’
preferen
ce’ afte
r Anita
Loos’s Gentlem
en prefer
blondes. Solus w
as desig
ned and cu
t in 1929, an
d was inten
ded for the p
ublications o
f theEm-
pire Mark
eting B
oard, but neve
r used
.
It is als
o surprising th
at in 1928 he e
ntered into an
agreem
ent with Robert
Gibbings by
which he was t
o design typ
es exclusive
ly forth
e Golden Cocke
rel Pres
s, although the a
gree-
ment was a
friendly o
ne and not ri
gorously enforce
d. Caslon was t
he stan
dard typ
e face
of
those priva
te pres
ses that d
id not design there
own, and Gibbings h
ad inherited it
when he
bought Golden Cocke
rel in 1924. He so
on became u
nhappy with the it
alic, an
d asked Gill t
o
design one th
at would rep
lace it. V
ery quickl
y, howeve
r, the p
lan grew to
design a c
ompletely
new fac
e, strong e
nough in weight to
accompany
the wood en
gravin
gs, by G
ibbings, Gill h
im-
self, Eric
Ravilious an
d others, which
were Golden Cocke
rel’s prim
ary inter
est in the G
ibbings
years. A
lthough Gill first
suggest t
hat Monotyp
e might have
Golden Cockerel
exclusive
rights
to Perpetu
a for five y
ears; a
nd the consulted
Morison on the d
etails o
f the n
ew typ
e, Golden
Cockerel
Roman was cut by th
e Caslo
n foundry under t
he superv
ision of J.
Collinge.
10
The draw
ings were
complete
in April 1929 an
d the t
ype finally
delivere
d in January
1930, in
two sizes,
14pt with an
italic,
and 18pt without. T
here were
also tw
o titlings,
a 24pt w
hich was
enlarged fro
m the 18pt ca
pitals, a
nd a 36pt fo
r which gill
made new
drawings:
these lat
ter were
the most b
eautifu
l capital
s he p
roduced.
The Golden Cocke
rel Roman is
clearly
related
to perp
etua, b
ut is in many
ways a m
ore
conventional o
ld face: t
he angle
of stres
s isgre
ater, an
d some d
etails,
such as the lo
wer cas
e d,
less idiosyn
cratic.
In its 18pt si
ze it w
as used
for The Four G
ospels (1931), th
e Golden Cocke
rel
masterpiece
and one o
f the m
ost magn
ificent books o
f the c
entury.
In 1928, the r
emoten
ess an
d difficulty of lif
e at C
apel-y-ffin, ad
ded to th
e incre
asing
amount o
f time g
ill had to
spend in London, led
to his la
st move, to
Pigotts,
a farm
-house near
High Wyco
mbe. In 1930 his y
oungest daughter
Joan married
Rene Hagu
e, who wanted to
set
up as a p
rinter, an
d as a re
sult the fi
rm of H
ague &
Gill was e
stablish
ed at Pigo
tts. Fo
r it Gill d
e-
signed Joanna, b
egun in Marc
h 1930 and first
used in his o
wn essay E
ssay on typ
ography,
which
came o
ut the fo
llowing June. Although he h
ad talked
of his planned desig
n to Monotype in
1929,
and although he w
rote of it
as a typ
e without fr
ills, inten
ded to ec
ho the natu
re of productio
n,
it was c
ut and ca
st by th
e Caslo
n foundry, and alw
ays hand se
t at Hagu
e & Gill. H
owever, th
e
business was b
adly hit b
y the D
epression; th
e publish
ers J. M
. Dent bought the ri
ghts to Joanna
in 1938 and co
mmissioned Monotyp
e to cu
t it for m
achine c
omposition for th
eir exclusive
use
for a perio
d of thirty
years.
Gill made so
me changes
to the italic
capital
s which
had not existe
d
in the foundry v
ersion. Jo
anna was fi
nally iss
ued to the tr
ade in 1958. In form
Joanna has m
ost
of the e
xpected Gill f
eatures
, given a c
risp, sla
b-serife
d finish. The italic
, extre
mely condensed
and upright, is
to all
intents a
nd purposes th
e sloped ro
man Moriso
n originally
wanted fo
r
Perpetu
a. But in
genera
l Gill s
eems in
Joanna to have
left behind the q
uirks of Perp
etua, a
nd the
result is
his best
type.
11
In 1923 Gill desig
ned Aries, a
privately
commissi
oned type fo
r Fairf
ax Hall’s St
ourton
Press. C
ast at t
he Caslo
n foundry,
Aries is
a condensed
roman, beca
use of it
s priva
te pres
s
usage h
as been
little s
een. Then in 1934, fo
r Stephenson Blake
, Gill desig
ned his only t
ype con-
sciously
intended to
fill a perc
eived gap
in the mark
et for ad
vertisin
g types:
first call
ed Cunard,
but when iss
ued in 1935, twenty fi
ve year
s after
the acces
sion of George
V, rech
ristened Jubilee
,
it is a r
otunda in the tr
adition of M
orris’s Tr
oy, with more o
f the fi
ll of penmanship, b
ut without
the verv
e of th
e feel o
f penmanship, but w
ithout the v
erve o
f Koch’s W
allau. G
ill’s las
t roman
type, Bunya
n, dates fr
om 1934. It was d
esigned for an
editio
n of Stern
e’s A sen
timental
journey
which Hauge &
Gill printed
for George
Macy’s L
imited Editio
ns Club of N
ew York,
and is a cro
ss
between
Joanna and Golden Cocke
rel Roman. It
was cut o
nce aga
in by Caslo
n, and re
mained
a priva
te type u
ntil 1953, w
hen Linotype in
troduced
an ad
aptation ca
lled Pilgr
im, firstused
in
a posth
umous editio
n of Gill’s
Jerusale
m diary, with an
italic
based on one w
hich Gill h
ad pre-
pared Bunya
n but never cu
t. Pilgr
im was an ex
tremely
successfu
l text fa
ce, more
comfortable
than Perpetu
a, and delib
erately
promoted by L
inotype a
s a riva
l.
To accompany
Pilgrim, Linotyp
e commissi
oned a display
face fro
m the distin
guished wood en-
graver
Reynolds St
one (1909-79), w
hich was calle
d Minerva (1
954). As a
young man, St
one had
spent a fortn
ight workin
g at Pigo
tts under G
ill’s instru
ction, but G
ill had sai
d there was n
othing
he could tea
ch him, and se
nt him aw
ay; cer
tainly, S
tone’s lett
ering in
wood is unsurpass
ed, by
Gill or an
yone else. N
everth
eless,
Minerva la
cks the v
igour o
f Gill’s
types.
This complete
s the c
atalogue o
n Gill’s typ
es, desig
ned by a man whose p
rinciple activ
ities
lay else
where. He w
as extrao
rdinarily a
ctive, an
d any o
ne of his o
ccupatio
ns could ea
sily have
filled an
ordinary life
. In his w
riting, a
nd possibly i
n his engra
ving, h
e may
have sp
read himself
too thin, though his b
est works
excuse
the more
routine ones;
but his type d
esigns ar
e clear
,
distinct, a
nd necessa
ry, and am
ong the fe
w which have been
apprec
iated by n
ot just t
he specia
l-
ists, but al
so the genera
l public.
Eric Gill d
ied on 17 Novem
ber 1940 at
Harefield
Hospital in Middlese
x.
12
This book w
as set i
n Gill Sans, d
esigned by E
ric Gill o
f the M
onotype C
orporation. This b
ook
was desig
ned by Mart
in Willia
m Mascio in the c
ourse Typ
ographic S
ystems in
the Grap
hic Desig
n
Department o
f the U
niversity
of the A
rts, Philad
elphia P
A, Spring 2
010.
Co l o p h o n
This book w
as set i
n Gill Sans, d
esigned by E
ric Gill o
f the M
onotype C
orporation. This b
ook
was desig
ned by Mart
in Willia
m Mascio in the c
ourse Typ
ographic S
ystems in
the Grap
hic Desig
n
Department o
f the U
niversity
of the A
rts, Philad
elphia P
A, Spring 2
010.