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GIf there were an individual, readily recognized quality or characteristic which the type designer could incorporate in drawings that would make any one type more beautiful, legible, or distinguished than another, it is obvious that the only type of that kind would be designed.‘

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Scenes from The Creation of a Printing Type. A silent film from the 1930s of Goudy creating his typeface Goudy Saks. This is a document of his type-making process.

This statement was made by Frederic W. Goudy, a man who spent more than fifty years of his life in pursuit of that ‘recognized quality’ in a printing type. Nobody seems to know exactly how many types Goudy produced (even he couldn’t recall every design), but a reasonable estimate would be upwards of 125. Many of them are now nearly forgotten, a factor due probably to his persistence in ‘going his own way’ and designing letters primarily from hand-composition, rather than to the quality of the types themselves.Another circumstance was the loss by fire in 1939 of the accumulated drawings and matrices of many years of his type production. In addition, those types that he produced for the composing machine were limited to the Monotype single-type system, which in the United States never attained the popularity of the linecasting machines.

Frederic Goudy died in 1947, and since then the appreciation of his types have been on the decline. There has also been a tendency to disregard his influence as one of the great type designers of this century, although few disputed this reputation during his most active years of type production, 1915 to 1940.

Indeed, the name Goudy was, during the last quarter century of his life, a household word in printing offices in every part of the United States and in a number of other countries as well. A primary reason for this fame was not

just his numerous types but also the fact that Fred Goudy was a very accessible man, who willingly appeared on countless lecture platforms from coast to coast to discuss the great love that he had for letter forms. His warmheartedness to-ward his fellow printers caused him rarely to refuse a request to talk about type.

Born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1865, Goudy was over thirty before his designed his first typeface, Camelot, in 1896. By 1900 he was an instructor of lettering in Chicago and beginning to make a reputation as an advertising designer. With

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Goudy Old Style Typeface.

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the establishment in Chicago of his Village Press, in 1903, he also became active as a printer and gradually began to build his reputation as a type designer.

Goudy’s earliest types were display faces, reflecting his commercial-lettering experience. Even the type he called Village, first used for his own Village Press, was originally created in 1903 for Kuppenheimer & Company, a Chicago clothing manufacturer. In 1908 he ventured to design a book type for the old Life magazine. Cut for Monotype composition by the Monotype Machine Company, it was officially named 38-E, although it is often called Goudy Light or Goudy Old Style (not to be confused with the subject of this chapter).

Possibly Goudy enjoyed this excursion into the design of a

commercial type for a periodical and the challenges it brought (such as the need to study Renaissance forms), but there is no doubt that he was also excited by the private-press movement—then at its height—in which he took active part. In any event, in 1911 for the New York publisher Mitchell Kennerley he produced Kennerley, his first important book type and first popular success. This effort was immediately followed by the titling letter Forum, which was enthusiastically received and fully established his reputation as a type designer. Both of these types were cut for private use.

The American Type Founders Company thereupon became interested in Goudy, commissioning him to do a type. He agreed, on the condition that his original drawings would not be subject to ‘interference by the foundry’s drawing room.’ Goudy then began to work on the face, which eventually became the most widely used type he ever designed. Called Goudy Old Style by ATF, it first appeared in 1915 and was an instant best seller for the foundry.

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UThere have been numerous accounts of the origin of the type. One of the reasons for its success was the renewed interest in the classic typefaces, which Goudy had already begun to satisfy with Kennerley and Forum, and which ATF had fed with the Bodoni revival in 1910, followed by Cloister Old Style two years later. Goudy at one time stated that his inspiration derived from the lettering on a Hans Holbein painting, but he later admitted that he couldn’t trace the exact source. Most type designers would sympathize with Goudy in this, as it is easy to grow enthusias-tic about a letterform and when a type idea germinates to be confused about its specific sources.

One of Goudy’s biographers, Peter Beilenson, said of Goudy Old Style that it was a ‘happy blend of French suavity and Italian fullness, marred by the supposed commercial practicality of shortened descenders.’ Goudy apparently agreed with this criticism, for just before his death he wrote that he had—albeit under protest—‘allowed ATF to inveigle’ him into using such abbreviated descenders.

It was, however, these short descenders that helped endear the type to the commercial printers, allowing as they did an economical use of vertical space, particularlyfor the composition of advertising.Goudy Old Style was thus an immediate success in the ‘ad alley,’ as newspapers refer to their

advertising section. In the 1917 supplement to the famous “Big Red” ATF specimen book of 1912, an addition to the Goudy “family” was announced—Goudy Title. The 1920 supplement introduced Goudy Bold. In 1921, Goudy Catalogue was ready, followed by Goudy Handtooled in 1922. Goudy Extrabold was added in 1927, and that year ATF issued a separate 124-specimen book containing nothing but Goudy Old Style and its derivatives.

Although this promotion of the Goudy types was most remunerative for the foundry, it didn’t enrich the designer, for Goudy had sold the original design for just fifteen hun-dred dollars instead of entering into a royalty agreement based on sales. His relationship with the American Type Founders Company naturally deteriorated, particularly after 1920, when Goudy was named art director of the Lanston Monotype Machine Company and he began to produce a notable group of types for that firm. For ATF he designed but one old face, Goudytype, plus a series of initial letters named Cloister Initials.

All of the variants of Goudy Old

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Style were cut for ATF by its resident type designer, the talented Morris Benton. Wadsworth A. Parker, another house designer, aided Benton in the cutting of Goudy Handtooled.

In its original form, Goudy Old Style was widely used for advertising and job printing. Its beautifully drawn classic capitals became a favorite of book designers for title pages and chapter headings, but it has not generally been used for book-text composition, although it later became available for Mono-type commission. In the fifty years between 1923 and 1973 only once has it appeared for an entire book in the annual Fifty Books of the Year Exhibition, in 1933. It has, however, been selected for innumerable title pages during the same period.

Happy blend of French suavity and Italian fullness, marred by the supposed commercial practicality of shortened descenders.‘

’It is the boldface version that keeps Goudy Old Style alive and healthy, despite the chagrin of the designer at ‘not being allowed to draw the boldface.’ The American typographer Lester Douglas showed the writer a drawing Goudy had given to him, captioned: ‘ How I would have drawn Goudy Bold’. In actuality there was not a great difference between this sketch and that of the bold’s designer, Morris Benton. Goudy was justifiably piqued, of course, by ATF’s refusal to give him further compensation for the huge success of the Goudy family.

In his autobiography, A Half-Century of Type Design and Typography, 1895-1945, Goudy mentions a visit to ATF by members of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. While leading a tour, Henry Lewis Bullen, the typographic historian and librarian of ATF’s Typographic Library, stopped at a casting machine. Bullen informed the group that the types being cast there had been

SIGNS A CONTRACT WITH THE AMERICAN TYPE FOUNDERS COMPANY 1914designed by one of the Institute’s own members and further stated, ‘Here is where Goudy goes down to posterity while the American Type Founders Company goes down to prosperity.’

There appears over the past decades to have been a noticeable reliance on Goudy Bold in the advertising of distiller: this writer has listed some fifteen different alcoholic beverages promoted by Goudy Bold. But the type also remains a prime favorite for all advertising appearing daily in consumer periodicals at every level. In fact, it seems that whenever the requirements are for a solid, legible roman letter, the layout is marked for Goudy.

All of the photographic devices cur-rently available for the setting of display composition offer fonts of Goudy Old Style, assuring its wide use for a long time to come.

Frederic W. Goudy and his types may seem dated to the younger typographers of today, but there is not much question about his influence during a good part of this century. He was never an ivory-tower designer, always remaining the common touch, even though in his later years he designed fewer display types and became more and more involved in personal investigations into the purity of the Italian Renaissance letter forms.

All of Goudy’s types were drawn freehand—without the use of compass, straightedge, or French curve. Early in his career of designing types for the composing machine, Goudy object to the methods employed by the Monotype firm to transfer his

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drawings to matrices; he believed that this compromised his artistic principles. He therefore in the midtwenties withdrew to his workshop in Marlborough, New York, to produce his own matrices for what he called the Village Letter Foundery.

Here for some fifteen years he turned out many of his best designs, but offered them only in fonts for hand-composition. In 1939 the workshop was destroyed by fire, with the result that the types produced during this prolific period were lost. Fortunately, however, the types Goudy had continued to draw for Monotype, such as Deepdene and Goudy Text—two of his most success-ful designs—were not among these.Thus, during the last quarter century of his life, although Goudy maintained his connection with the Lanston Monotype company, he spent more time on his own production of types. These were of less commercial dAll of Goudy’s types were drawn freehand—without the use of compass, straightedge, or French curve.

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ddAll of Goudy’s types were drawn freehand—without the use of compass, straightedge, or French curve.

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Yapplication than his earlier designs, but they satisfied his instincts as an independent type designer.

The many romans Goudy designed in his home workshop during the period up to 1939 have been rejected by his critics as look-alikes. His numerous friends and admirerers, however, could distinguish them as the products of his continuing quest for perfection of the roman letter forms. The fruits of that quest were destroyed in the fire.

The idealistic Goudy’s essential practicality is evident in a lecture he gave before the annual convention of the International Club of Printing House Craftsmen in New York in 1939. He stated:

“My craft is a simple one. For nearly forty years I have endeavored constantly to create a greater and more general esteem for good printing and typography, to give printers and readers of print more legible and more beautiful types than were hitherto available. Printing es sentially is a utilitarian art, yet even utilitarianism may include distinction and beauty in its type forms. To meet the demands of utility and preserve an aesthetic standard is the problem I set myself many years ago, and eight different type designs to my credit, I am proud to say that I have never consciously permitted myself to use the print presenting a worthy message to serve as a mere framework or scaffolding upon which to exploit my own skill, or even to allow my craft to become a now, at 74, with over one hundred and eight different typedesigns to my credit, I am proud to say that I have never consciously permitted myself to use the print presenting a worthy message to serve as a mere framework or scaffolding upon which to exploit my own skill, or even to allow my craft to become ameans in itself, instead of a means only to a desirable and useful end.”

During his lifetime Frederic W. Goudy made a lasting contribution to American typography, and though never adequately rewarded financially, he received broad personal recognition, resulting in three honorary degrees from American colleges and numerous medals, including that of the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

More importantly, Goudy acquired countless friends, who never ceased to respond to his humanity. Attesting to this are the three biographies published during his lifetime and four others that remain unpublished. There is also a Goudy Society, which meets annually to celebrate his birthday, March 8. No other designer of printing types in our timeshas been so warmly remembered.

YFREDERIC WILLIAM GOUDY DIES IN MALBOROUGH-ON-HUDSON, USA. 1947

Printing essentially is a utilitarian art, yet even utilitarianism may include distinction and beauty in its type forms.‘

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Goudy Old Style 300pt

Designed by Tina Mukherjee Typographic Systems Fall 2010