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©University of Reading 2007 Monday 10 December 2007

Staff research This document provides in-depth information about the research conducted by members of

staff in the Department of Typography and Graphic Communication. To find out more

about an individual member of staffs research please select from the list below.

HMartin Andrews

HDr Rob Banham

HRuth Blacksell

HDr Petra Cerne Oven

HDr Paul Dobraszczyk

HDr Mary Dyson

HDr Mike Esbester

HKatherine Gillieson

HEric Kindel

HGerry Leonidas

HPaul Luna

HJames Mosley

HDr Linda Reynolds

HDr Fiona Ross

HPaul Stiff

HMichael Twyman

HGerard Unger

HSue Walker

HRob Waller

Department of Typography & Graphic Communication

©University of Reading 2007 Monday, 10 December 2007

Martin Andrews Senior Lecturer

Email: [email protected]

Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 7213

From 1976, when I graduated with a degree in typography & graphic communication, I

began a career as a museum and exhibition designer at Reading Museum and Art Gallery. As

well as designing all the printed material for the museum’s service (posters, catalogues,

books, educational and marketing material), I ran the photographic service and the

construction workshop and moved into the area of 3D design. The programme involved an

average of eight temporary exhibitions a year and the design of permanent displays and

eventually, in 1985, the design and construction of a new waterways, trades and industry

museum at Blake’s Lock in Reading. I became involved with the museum management

development and gained experience and a hands-on knowledge of a range of material from

archaeology and social history to fine art.

In 1989, I took up a post as a senior lecturer at Portsmouth Polytechnic (now the University

of Portsmouth) and helped establish a new degree course in design, setting up a specialism

in typography and graphic design. The following year I returned to Reading Museum as part

of a team working on the restoration of the Victorian Town Hall. For this I designed

identities for several facilities, the signing system and elements of the interior. After the

opening of phase one of the redevelopment, I joined the department of Typography and

Graphic Design at The University of Reading.

While active as a practical studio teacher, I maintained an interest in exhibition design and

in 1995, working with students, designed a museum for Oxford University Press. In recent

years I have become increasingly responsible, together with Margaret Smith, for the

printing history elements of course work - particularly relating to the nineteenth century. I

am on the committee of the Printing Historical Society, a Trustee of the National Printing

Heritage Trust, organiser of the University’s Imprint Society, Deputy Director of the Centre

for Ephemera Studies, and curator of the Department’s Collections. In 2001 I presented

television series entitled ‘Brand Leaders’ for the Taste Channel, which looked at the history,

design and development of food packaging and advertising.

19BResearch My research interests are mainly in the area of printing history and in particular printed

ephemera. My specialist research has been into two aspects of wood-engraving - nineteenth

century commercial wood-engraving and a case study of the firm of Hare & Co., and the

revival of wood-engraving in the twentieth century and the work of the artist, author and

wood-engraver, Robert Gibbings. I have written an extensive and profusely illustrated

biography of Robert Gibbings entitled The life and work of Robert Gibbings (Primrose Hill Press,

2003) and have given many public lectures on the subject in this country and in the United

States.

HReturn to list of staff

mailto:[email protected]


0BDr Rob Banham Lecturer


Telephone +44 (0)118 378 6399

Rob Banham teaches undergraduate design practice (specialising in typographic detailing),

lectures on the history of graphic communication, and is involved with the professional

assignments scheme. He has a particular interest in using archives and collections for

learning and teaching. Rob graduated in typography & graphic communication in 2000

before completing a PhD on the work of Frederick Gye and Giles Balne, nineteenth-century

letterpress printers. His research focuses on the design of printed ephemera, the influence

of technology on design, and the history of colour printing. He has also writes and speaks

about contemporary design. In addition to his teaching and research, Rob works as a

freelance designer, specialising in promotional materials, books, journals.

Rob edits and designs The Ephemerist (journal of the HEphemera Society H) and is Chairman of

the Friends of HSt Bride Library H who organise a highly successful programme of lectures and

conferences on a wide variety of subjects related to design and printing. He is also a HPrinting

Historical Society H committee member, is on the editorial board of HThe Private Library H, and is a

freeman of the HWorshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers H.



http://www.ephemera-society.org.uk/

http://www.stbride.org/

http://www.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk/

http://www.printinghistoricalsociety.org.uk/

http://www.plabooks.org/journal.html

http://www.stationers.org/


1BRuth Blacksell Lecturer (part-time)


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6207

Ruth Blacksell currently teaches undergraduate design practice and lectures on the theory

of typography and graphic language. She has also coordinated student professional

assignments and has been a year tutor for second and fourth year undergraduates. Ruth

took her BA degree in the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at

Reading, and an MA in Aesthetics and Art Theory at Middlesex University.

20BDesign practice Ruth has worked as a graphic designer since 1994, mainly on print and exhibition materials

for museums and art galleries. From 1996 to 2002 she worked as Art Director of

International Projects for Sotheby’s (London) before teaming up with Anne Odling-Smee at

HO-SBH, a London-based design practice where she now works occasionally as a design

consultant. Her clients at O-SB have included the Ikon Gallery, the South London Gallery,

the Stephen Lawrence Gallery, Article Press and Contemporary Projects at the Henry Moore

Foundation.

21BResearch Since 1999 she has worked on a number of practice-led research projects, part-funded by the

Arts Council England and the Arts & Humanities Research Board. These critically explore

the methods and processes of collaboration between artists and designers and have included

work with the London-based arts magazine everything between 1999 and 2002, and the

production of the Frozen Tears a book/artwork with artist John Russell in 2003 and 2004.

Ruth is currently researching the use of the document and publication format in

contemporary art practices. In 2004 she was awarded a Concordat Scholarship from the

British Library and Sheffield University for her ongoing research project ‘The use of

Typography and the Document in British and American Conceptual Art during the 1960s

and 70s’.



http://www.o-sb.co.uk/


2BDr Petra Cerne Oven Post-doctoral Research Fellow, ‘The Optimism of modernity: recovering modern reasoning

in typography’


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 5031

Petra Cerne Oven is a researcher for the project ‘ HThe optimism of modernity H: recovering

modern reasoning in typography’ headed by Paul Stiff and funded by the Arts and

Humanities Research Board.

Petra graduated with a degree in visual communications from the Department of Design at

the Academy of Fine Arts Ljubljana, Slovenia. She worked as a freelance designer

(concentrating on editorial and information design) until 1998 when she moved to Reading

to take an MA in History and Theory of Typography. Following a brief period of work in

Slovenia, she returned to Reading in 2000 to pursue a doctorate degree. Titled ‘The

development of special characters in Slavonic languages’, the PhD was completed in June 2004.

Petra writes and speaks regularly about design, and is a member of the HBritish Association of

Slavonic and East European studies H, the Designers’ Society of Slovenia (DOS), the HTypographic

Circle H the HType Directors Club of New York H. She is a member of and Slovenian Country

Delegate for the Association Typographique Internationale ( HATypI H), and is a founding

member of the HBrumen Foundation H for visual communications based in Ljubljana.



http://www.optimism-modernity.org.uk/

http://www.basees.org.uk/

http://www.basees.org.uk/

http://www.typocircle.co.uk/

http://www.typocircle.co.uk/

http://www.tdc.org/index.html

http://www.atypi.org/

http://www.brumen.org/


3BDr Paul Dobraszczyk Postdoctoral Research Fellow,‘Designing information for everyday life, 1815-1914’(full-

time)


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6214

Paul Dobraszczyk is a researcher for the project ‘Designing Information for Everyday Life,

1815-1914’ headed by Paul Stiff and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Board.

Paul graduated with a degree in the history of art and architecture from the University of

Reading in 1998. Following a brief period of work for Thames Water plc in Reading, Paul

completed his MA in Visual and Verbal Representation in British Culture, 1840-1940 in 2001

and undertook doctoral research in the Department of History of Art and Architecture from

2003, which was funded by the Society of Architectural Historian of Great Britain and the

University of Reading. Titled ‘Into the Belly of the Beast; Exploring London’s Sanitary Spaces,

c. 1848-68’, the PhD was completed in March 2006.

22BResearch My research interests are focused on visual and verbal culture in nineteenth-century Britain,

particularly in London. My current research is concerned with the design and use of

wayfinding aids and information for cab passengers in London from 1815 to 1914. My

previous research and teaching specialised in the following areas: the architectural

aesthetics of hygiene; Victorian industrial architecture; the decorative use of cast iron in the

nineteenth century and its reception; the history of technology, particularly engineering

drawings; and subterranean urban space and its representations, focusing on literature,

paintings, photography, print culture and film.




4BDr Mary Dyson Senior lecturer


Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 8084

Mary Dyson has taught in the Department since 1984 and her background in psychology

informs and guides her research interests and methods. Her research focuses on users,

primarily of electronic material (e.g. interface design) and she believes in the need to

empirically investigate design outcomes. This has led to the following research strands:

detailed empirical studies exploring factors which affect reading from screen

evaluation studies of information systems

analysis of relationships between disciplines

use of tools in design

perception of visual material

23BReading from screen Some of this work has been funded by Microsoft Organisation, and has empirically

investigated the layout and navigation of text on screen contributing to recommendations

on the design of electronic texts to support effective reading. See Hpublications H including

Dyson 2003, 2004, 2005; Dyson and Gregory; 2002; Dyson & Kipping, 1997, 1998a, 1998b;

Dyson and Haselgrove, 2000, 2001+ funded project (legibility on screen) + Souto and Dyson,

2004 + González de Cosio and Dyson, 2002a).

24BEvaluation of information systems This research evaluates from two perspectives: analyses of usability, focusing on structure

and presentation; surveys of users interactions with systems. See HpublicationsH including

Dyson, Andrews, 1994; Dyson and Moran, 2000; Dyson, Brigden et al, 2000; Bowen, Brigden

et al, 2001; González de Cosio and Dyson, 2002b and the funded project ‘ HEvaluation of web

interfaces to on-line collection HU’ U. A particular focus of her own work, and of research

students, has been Honline learning environments H. See also Hpublications H including Dyson,

Lonsdale et al, 2006; Dyson and Campello, 2003; Simao and Dyson, 2004; Fadel and Dyson

2006a, 2006b

25BRelationships between disciplines These papers critically analyse how typographic knowledge and skills interact with other

disciplines (psychology and Human Computer Interaction) drawing on her multi- and inter-

disciplinary experience. See also Hpublications H Dyson, 1999; Dyson 1999/00; Dyson, Brigden,

Bowen, Jenkins, Palmer, and Phillips, W. 2000.


http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/research/typ-publications.asp





26BUse of tools in design Interest in pedagogical and human factors aspects of electronic publishing has led

explorations of the relationship between designing and software. See HpublicationsH Dyson,

1994; 1995; 1997, 2003.

27BPerception of visual material Drawing on her PhD in perception, this strand of research applies psychological techniques

to investigations of various typographic and graphic materials. A particular interest which

started through supervising a research student, is examination material; see HpublicationsH

Lonsdale, Dyson and Reynolds, 2006. She is currently working on how designers perceive

visual material through exploring the Hperception of typefaces by typography students H. Earlier

work explored the Hperception of symbols H and analyses of their features. See also Hpublications H

including Dyson and Box, 1997; Dyson, 1994; Dyson and Box, 1994.

28BFunded projects

53BEvaluation of web interfaces to on-line collections

Designation Challenge Fund grant from Museums and Galleries Commission awarded to

HRural History Centre H at the University of Reading to make collections within the Centre more

accessible. Mary Dyson worked on the preparatory stages of the project with Kevin Moran as

a Research Assistant to assess the situation on the web with regard to access to collections at

the time, and carried out an evaluation of a sample of web sites which shared some features

with the proposed site.

54BLegibility on screen

Two projects funded by Microsoft Corporation:

Experimental investigation of the effects of line length, document height and number of

columns when reading from screen (Gary Kipping worked as Research Assistant)

Effects of reading speed and line length on comprehension on screen (Mark Haselgrove

worked as Research Assistant)

55BPerception of symbols on screen and methods of retrieval from a database

Project funded by British Library Research and Development Department with Hilary Box as

Research Assistant, in two parts: empirical investigation of the discrimination of symbols on

screen; exploration of methods of retrieving symbols from a database using graphic

characteristics.

Dyson, M., Box, H., Twyman, M. (1994), ‘The perceptions of symbols on screen and methods

of retrieval from a database’, British Library Research and Development Department BLRD Report,

Vol. 6163 pp.1-89.

56BEvaluation of current staff and student use of Blackboard at Reading

Project funded by The University of Reading’s Teaching and Learning Development Fund

working with Maria dos Santos Lonsdale (Typography) and Maria Papaefthimiou (Centre for

Development of Teaching and Learning).




http://www.ruralhistory.org/index.html


The project describes, analysed and evaluated how Blackboard is being used at Reading, in

advance of the change to Blackboard Academic Suite in October 2006. This created a

baseline set of data for comparison with future developments and identified existing good

practice. The data came from students, staff and the courses themselves using system logs,

questionnaire, small group discussions, and individual interviews.

57BA new look at typefaces: what characterises designers’ perceptual abilities?

Research funded by the University of Reading’s Research Endowment Trust Fund to support

pilot work on the categorical perception of typefaces by design students. An undergraduate

research assistant (Sarah Nadin) was funded by Reading University's Centre for Excellence in

Teaching and Learning in Applied Undergraduate Research Skills. This work has been

presented at the third International conference in HTypography & Visual Communication

2007 H, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki.


http://ictvc.org/

http://ictvc.org/


5BDr Mike Esbester Postdoctoral Research Fellow‘Designing information for everyday life, 1815-1914’

project(full-time)


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6214

Mike Esbester is a Research Fellow, working on the AHRC-funded project ‘Designing

information for everyday life, 1815-1914’, under Paul Stiff (Principal Investigator). The

project explores how information about daily life was designed, communicated and used,

focusing on printed ephemera. The project website – to be launched shortly – will give more

detailed information.

Prior to joining the Department in October 2006, Mike was based in the Institute of Railway

Studies and Transport History at the University of York, where he undertook his PhD

research. Funded by the AHRC, Mike’s thesis – ‘‚Dead on the Point of ‘Safety‛: Occupational

Safety Education on the Great Western Railway, c. 1913-39’ – examined the techniques used

by the railway industry between approximately 1913 and 1939 to convey safety information

to its staff. It also explored the meanings found within the company-produced safety

messages, exposing the power relationships between employees, company and state.

Mike’s research interests lie in historical socio-cultural aspects of transport, mobility, and

technology; occupational safety in the twentieth century; visual culture and media history;

and business history, particularly corporate communication and cultures.




6BKatherine Gillieson Lecturer (part-time)


Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 6207

Katherine Gillieson joined the Department as a part-time Lecturer in 2004. She also works as

a designer for a range of clients and contributes regularly to popular design publications.

Katherine’s research interests lie within two main themes. The first is diagrammatic

representation and book design. She is interested in the way that illustrations, diagrams and

various forms of text interact to convey ideas: the graphic language of ‘complex texts’. A

case-study of commercial non-fiction books on science for older children, published in the

UK, is serving as a reference point in the investigation. The model for graphic description

developed as part of this project may also serve as a basis to describe digital environments

and other complex systems.

Katherine’s second main research interest is in a more reflective appraisal of meaning in

graphic language, how theory can inform practice, and in the political dimensions of visual

communication. Here a main area of focus is the presence of patterns, symmetries and

visual order in different realms of cultural production, from a communication design

perspective. Running through her work is an approach based on identifying and exploring

patterns in areas of life, in the built environment, and in different socio-cultural contexts.

In addition to these two themes, Katherine is also active in interdisciplinary, practice-based

and digital work collaborations. She has contributed to performance work and the

multimedia/dance festivals ‘Square Zero’ in 2005 and 2006. She is an active developer and

moderator of group blogs and other social networking sites to develop online research

communities, such as the SZ 6-month ‘ Hvirtual workspace H’ and ‘ HThe Science Project H’ which

considers issues related to science, youth and media.



http://www.squarezero2.blogspot.com/

http://www.echae.com/scienceproject/


7BEric Kindel Lecturer (full-time)


Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 6398

Eric Kindel joined the Department in 1998. He currently teaches undergraduate design

practice, and contributes lectures and seminars on design theory and history throughout the

degree programmes, informed in many instances by elements of his research described

below. Research work currently falls into three main areas:

29BThe stencilled text Research into Hthe stencilled text H forms a wide-ranging investigation into the use of stencils

for lettering and marking out texts. The period under consideration begins in the fifteenth

century and ends in the present day. The intention is to recover a relatively continuous

history of stencil letters and stencilling by drawing together artefacts and practices that

have, in many cases, fallen from view.

30BIsotype revisited Research has recently commenced on a three-year project titled ‘ HIsotype revisited H’. It is

funded by a major grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and will use as its

core archive the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection housed in the Department. The

project team will also include Prof Sue Walker and Dr Christopher Burke.

31BStudies in 20th-century design and production Work under this rubric focuses on themes and episodes of twentieth-century graphic design

characterised by a strong production dimension. The intention is to generate historical

narratives from new and unexpected angles and to extend the generally perceived

boundaries of graphic design practice by investigating instances of ‘non-designers’ adopting

its production tools to extraordinary or enduring effect. The products of this work have

been strategically-illustrated essays published in Eye magazine, a widely circulated graphic

design quarterly (see list below). While appearing in a ‘popular’ rather than a ‘scholarly’

journal, each essay draws on strategies and standards of research and visual presentation

essential to scholarly work, and which – in the right form – are equally appropriate to Eye.

The intention is to unify design research, writing and visual presentation for the benefit of a

wider audience than would likely encounter those scholarly publications where I also

pursue this aim.

‘When 1+1=3’, Eye, vol. 11, no. 43, Spring 2002, pp. 36–45

Hwww.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=62&fid=269

‘Hoofdletters …’, Eye, vol. 12, no. 47, Spring 2003, pp. 30–7

H/www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=85&fid=451


http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/research/typ-fundedprojects.asp#project6

http://www.reading.ac.uk/typography/research/typ-fundedprojects.asp#project3

http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature.php?id=62&fid=269



‘Worlds of moiré’, Eye, vol. 13, no. 52, Summer 2004, pp. 18–27


‘Ishihara’, Eye, vol. 14, no. 56, Summer 2005, pp. 18–23


‘Cheap jack flash’, Eye, vol. 15, no. 60, Summer 2006, pp. 46–51







8BGerry Leonidas Senior Lecturer (full-time)


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6397




9BPaul Luna Professor and Head of Department


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6209

Professor Paul Luna’s undergraduate teaching is mainly concerned with the practice of

typography. Research students under his supervision are investigating aspects of 20th

century publishing and design, and the design of undergraduate textbooks.

Paul Luna joined the Department in 1998 from Oxford University Press where he was head

of corporate design, the culmination of twenty years work at OUP that included stints as a

designer/typographer and later as head of art & design in the academic division.

Responsibilities included the design of major publications such as the Oxford English

Dictionary, bilingual dictionaries, the Oxford Shakespeare, and the Revised English Bible, as

well as commissioning artists for the annual Oxford Almanack. As head of corporate design,

he oversaw the development and worldwide implementation of a new corporate identity for

the OUP business. In addition to design practice, Paul Luna also wrote and lectured on issues

related to his OUP activities, focussing on the transfer of knowledge from typographers and

typesetters to ‘lay’ users of desktop publishing, and on research into typefaces designed

specifically for OUP between 1939 and 1960.

32BResearch Paul Luna’s main area of research is the design of complex text, especially dictionaries, in

both paper and electronic formats. Dictionary design involves the close mapping of

typographic elements to underlying structure, and has particular requirements for effective

typeface choice. Paul’s interests cover both the historical development of dictionary design

and the ‘state of the art’, especially the relationship of typographic design to production

technologies. Currently preparing a monograph on the topic of Typography and

Lexicography.

Other interests include type design, the automation of typesetting, and the role of

typography in visual identity.

Recent research projects and consultancies:

2001-2 Oxford University Press: The design of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5/e

2004 Pearson Education: The design of undergraduate textbooks (with Linda Reynolds

and Katherine Gillieson)

2004 Oxford University Press: Looking up! The design of children’s dictionaries

(researcher Nadja Guggi)

2004 Lexicography Masterclass Ltd: The design of an Irish-English dictionary (researcher

Nadja Guggi)




10BJames Mosley Visiting Professor


James Mosley has taught in the Department since 1964. Until his retirement in 2000 he was

librarian of the St Bride Library (formerly known as the St Bride Printing Library), London.

He was one of the founding members of the Printing Historical Society in 1964 and the first

editor of its Journal. He teaches at the Rare Book School, University of Virginia,

Charlottesville VA, and at the École de l’Institut d’histoire du livre, Lyon.

His recent and current research has been in the following areas, which can broadly be

defined as the factors, cultural and technical, that determined the letterforms that have

been used since 1600 in different media, noting their cross-influences and the new

functions to which they were adapted.

The techniques and personalities concerned with the traditional processes for the making of

printing types, and unpublished documentation in this field. One current work in

preparation is a ‘Dictionary of punchcutters’, with over five hundred entries on the lives and

work of these skilled but often poorly-documented people. A recent essay seeks to examine

the effect, often highly misleading, of the making of such figures into celebrated and

mythical figures: ‘Garamond, Griffo and others: the price of celebrity’, Bibliologia (Pisa:

Istituti editoriali e poligrafici internazionali), 1 (2006), pp. 17–41.

Another current project is an edition of the unpublished text in French relating to

punchcutting and typefounding by Jacques Jaugeon, 1704, which exists in manuscript form

(copies in the Institut de France and Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris), to which it is

proposed to join the related images which were prepared as a part of the projected and

long-delayed general ‘Description des arts et métiers’.

The type known as the romain du roi, and the work entitled Médailles sur les principaux

événements du règne de Louis le Grand (Paris, Imprimerie royale, 1702), which had a major

influence on subsequent typography. He was co-curator of the exhibition, Le romain du roi: la

typographie au service de l’état at the Musée de l’imprimerie, Lyon, in 2002, and is currently

preparing a study of the making of the Médailles.

The European printing types, writing and inscriptional lettering, that are broadly allied to

the innovative Italian calligraphy of the mid-16th century, the introduction of which is

attributable to the writer Giovan Francesco Cresci, of whom the latest study was published

in Typography papers 6 (2005). Documentation is in preparation of surviving architectural

lettering and formal and informal signwriting of the 18th and 19th centuries in Britain, of

surviving traditional work in this style, and the locating of instructional handbooks for sign-

makers.

Recent publications have included The Nymph and the Grot: the revival of the sanserif letter

(London: Friends of the St Bride Printing Library, 1999), and the co-curating of the related

exhibition at the Soane Museum, London. Notes and commentary to facsimile editions of

Simon-Pierre Fournier, Manuel typographique, Paris, 1764–6 (1995), and the Kurtze doch nützliche

Anleitung von Form- und Stahlschneiden, Erfurt, J. M. Funcke, 1742 (1998), published by the

Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt. Collected essays on letterforms were issued in an Italian

translation under the title, Le radici della letter moderna, a cura di Giovanni Lussu (Viterbo, 2001).



11BDr Linda Reynolds Lecturer


Telephone: +44(0)118 378 8081

Linda Reynolds has taught part-time in the Department since 1983. She has combined this

with research and information design consultancy, and her recent work at Reading has

included teaching design research methods to undergraduate and postgraduate students,

contributing to and running undergraduate modules on the theory of typography and the

use of colour respectively, and undertaking research and consultancy. Before joining the

Department she was Senior Research Fellow in the Graphic Information Research Unit at

the Royal College of Art, where she worked on a range of funded projects relating to the

legibility of printed documents, microforms, screen displays and signage. A recent paper

describes some of the work of this Unit, one of the key players in typographic research in

the 1970s:

The Graphic Information Research Unit: a pioneer of typographic research. Typography Papers

2007, 7, 115–137. Her recent research relates to three areas:

33BTypographic design for children Together with Sue Walker I have been involved in the Department's AHRC-funded

programme of research on typography for children. I have been particularly concerned with

empirical studies of how typographic factors such as typeface, word and letter spacing, and

line spacing might affect children’s reading. These studies employed realistic, high-quality

reading materials, and the testing took place in local primary schools. The test procedure

mimicked the way in which children might be asked individually to read aloud to their

teacher. Further information is available at Hwww.kidstype.org

34BDesign of highly structured text I am also interested in the relationship between content and form in highly structured text

such as indexes, catalogues, and directories, and how this relationship affects the efficiency

with which these products are searched and information retrieved from them. I have

recently investigated the relationship between page layout and the ease and speed with

which information can be retrieved from a complex directory. The Health and Safety

Executive asked the Department to re-design the Approved Supply List, a publication that

provides information about requirements for the classification and labelling of substances

that are dangerous for supply. Three possible new layouts were compared with the existing

layout by means of a timed look-up task and in-depth interviews with a panel of users. The

re-design proposed on the basis of the research has halved the number of pages in the

publication, thus reducing costs considerably, and has been well received by users. This

work is summarised in:

Improving the user-friendliness of a directory of chemical substances. Information Design

Journal 2000/01, 10 (3), 267-281. ISSN 0142-5471 [Backdated publication – appeared in

2002]


http://www.kidstype.org/


35BColour I have a particular interest in the physiology and psychology of colour perception and the

ways in which colour can be used to help convey meaning, both in print and on screen. In

1996 I completed a major investigation of the most effective way of using colour on air

traffic control displays, a project funded by National Air Traffic Services Ltd which I had

begun while working at the Royal College of Art. See:

The functional use of colour on visual display units: air traffic control displays Information

Design Journal 1996, 8 (2), 109-124.

I am currently working on a paper discussing ways of describing the role of colour in

documents. This has arisen out of my undergraduate module, ‘The use of colour in

documents’, where I found myself in need of a simple way of categorising the various uses

to which colour might be put.



12BDr Fiona Ross Lecturer, part-time


Telephone: +44(0)118 378 8081

Fiona Ross specializes in non-Latin type design and typography. From 1978 to 1989 she

worked for Linotype Limited (UK) and was responsible for the design of Linotype’s non-Latin

fonts and typesetting schemes. Since 1989 she has worked as a consultant, type designer

and visiting lecturer, and in 2003 joined the Department, teaching non-Latin typeface design

on the MA Typeface Design programme, and academic writing skills for all postgraduates in

the Department.

Fiona Ross holds a BA in German, a PgDip in Sanskrit and Pali, and a PhD in Indian

Palaeography from SOAS (London University). She is a Board member of the Association

Typographique International (ATypI) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her current

research has 3 strands:

36BNon-Latin typeface design: theory, history, practice This strand relates to the practice of typeface design that answers contemporary needs for

reproducing vernacular scripts in the different media of print and screen. It encompasses

research into script behaviour, orthographies, and typographic practices to ensure the

optimum representation of each writing-system. It explores the political and cultural

influences on type design alongside commercial considerations that have determined font

repertoires and type styles up to the present day; and in doing so it seeks to establish a valid

research methodology that has practical application in the typographic development of non-

Latin scripts. This strand of research informs her teaching, writings, and practical design

work.

37BDesign approaches to multi-script typeface design This work considers non-Latin typeface requirements in the context of multi-lingual

documents. It examines the relationship of one script to another in terms of styling,

dimensions and proportions, and colour.

The outcomes are evident in the practical work such as the typeface designs for Adobe Thai,

Adobe Arabic, and also the Hindi fonts for Vodafone completed in 2008 in collaboration

with Tiro Typeworks, where designs are required to work alongside Latin (or other scripts)

without compromising the integrity of the script in development.

38BThe relationship of tools and typefounding methods to the visible appearance of non-Latin typeforms This strand relates to the visible appearance of non-Latin typeforms, their evolution and

shaping that arose directly out of the processes of typefounding and mechanisms of

composition over the last four centuries. It considers the relationship of font tools to the

design outcomes and their relevance in contemporary designs.



13BDr Margaret Smith Reader


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 8081

Margaret Smith studied undergraduate history at Stanford University, and in the Graduate

Library School at the University of Chicago for her MA. She completed her doctorate at

Cambridge University in 1984, her dissertation titled ‘Form and its relationship to content

in the design of incunables’ supervised by Philip Gaskell.

Her professional work began in libraries, first as a manuscript librarian, then as an

undergraduate librarian; for over a decade she worked on the eighteenth century volume of

the Index of English Literary Manuscripts. In 1985 she began working part-time in the

Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, joining full-time in 1993, and

retiring in 2005 as Reader in Book Design History. For a brief time she worked as a

bookbinder for the short-lived Elephant Press located in St German’s, Cornwall.

Margaret Smith has been an active member of the Printing Historical Society, serving as its

General Secretary, and currently as the editor of its Journal and (since 2004) as its Chair. In

1984 she was a co-founder of the Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, for which she

organised several conferences, and in 2005 joined the Oxford Companion for the Book team

as an Associate Editor. Among her research interests are the following themes:

39BBook design at the transition from manuscript to print Changes wrought by the introduction of printing in the fifteenth century affected society in

many ways. Printing also changed the nature of the book, turning it into a mass-produced

object. The book – long the province of the scribe – was a well-established and highly

developed text vehicle. Many of its most fundamental characteristics persist to this day;

others were changed by the technology in response to the new economics of book making,

and by the demands and needs of new readers.

A background study in my PhD research generated statistics based on a sample (argued to be

the equivalent of a random sample) drawn from the recorded details in the Gesamtkatalog der

Wiegendrucke (format, types and type sizes, column structure, presence of such features as

signatures, foliation, illustration, printer's marks, etc). Since that work have come several,

more detailed, studies. One article argues that in incunables page-numbering was barely

used, and leaf-numbering was confined to a few texts; whereas by the end of the sixteenth

century instead of a few roman-foliated editions, the majority of books used arabic

pagination.

Much of my published work has addressed the use of colour, mostly red – including printed

red, hand-supplied red, and then the replacement of red by the use of differentiating black

types – small capitals and, eventually, italics. Methods of hand rubrication, based on a group

of partially completed copies in the Bodleian Library, revealed strategies of collaborative

rubrication in large books; the lack of consistency between different copies of an edition

suggested not workshop-based rubrication, but work done to specific clients' requirement.

To look at why red-printing was rejected, several laboratory studies, in collaboration with

Alan May, led to an analysis of methods of two-colour printing. The struggles of early



printers to handle red strongly suggest a primarily functional (rather than decorative) role

for colour, in the articulation system of the medieval manuscript. Ultimately the economics

of two-colour printing defeated it. When Anton Koberger printed the St Bruno Psalter, he

radically changed the design of his copy text, rejecting the binary use of red and black in

order to segregate constituents, and substituting principles of layout and coordination that

worked in black and white. An analysis of the information that can be gleaned from a rare

surviving red-printing frisket is presented in my article ‘A fragment used for ‚servile‛

purposes: the St Bride Library red-printing frisket’.

My book The title-page: its early development 1460-1510 documents the movement from the

manuscript method of opening texts, to the label-title, then to the label-title-plus-woodcut,

and finally to the decorated title-page, exploring the role that mass production played in

providing both the opportunity for, and then the driving force behind, the rapid uptake of

the new feature. Work in progress is a book which returns to colour to draw together the

movement from the colourful medieval manuscript to the monochrome book of the printed

era. Its provisional title is The book becomes monochrome. My Leverhulme fellowship during

Autumn Term 2001 allowed direct observations on several dozen incunables in The British

Library, the Cambridge University Library and the Bodleian.

40BThe Renaissance design behind a late Victorian trade binding The binding design of the Sampson Low Series, Illustrated Biographies of the Great Artists (1879-

1895), is directly dependent on one of the greatest title-page border designs of the early

sixteenth century, the title-page of the edition of Terence printed in Venice in 1511 by

Lazarus de Soardis. Current work on an article links the binding designer, Joseph Cundall, to

the original, via his work with Charles Whittingham of the Chiswick Press, Sir Henry Cole

and the design education philosophy of the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A). This

is a case study of the transmission of pattern via the print and printed sources.



14BPaul Stiff Reader


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 0118 378 8083

Paul Stiff worked in book publishing before joining Typography in 1980. Between 1985 and

1989 he co-edited, with Robert Waller, Information Design Journal and then was sole editor

until 1999. In 1996 he founded, and presently still edits, Typography Papers, the book-length

series of volumes promoting and embracing a wide range of typographic research. His very

wide interests in what for two decades he has described as ‘design for reading’ are, for

practical purposes, presently concentrated into three linked strands which are briefly

described below.

41BModern typography and the development of information design

58BThe optimism of modernity: recovering modern reasoning in typography

Paul Stiff is principal investigator for this four-year research programme, funded by the Arts

and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

The programme aims to tell the story of an incomplete and now almost forgotten project:

that of modernity in British typography, the moment of which coincides with the political

and social changes from Atlee’s government to the end of the post-War settlement in 1979.

Modernity in design is here taken as not a matter of style but as ‘a visible form of social

philosophy’. The project, a failure in many respects, left an intellectual and practical legacy

to what (unfortunately) came to be called ‘information design’. For more information see

the website Hwww.optimism-modernity.org.uk

Recent work arising from the project includes lectures in Prague, Krakow, and London, and

these publications:

‘Some documents for a history of information design’. Information design journal+document

design, vol. 13 number 3, pp. 318–330 (November 2005)

This questions the view that the constitutive ideas of 20th-century information design

emerged exclusively from the European modern movement. It identifies a separate

strand within an economy of riches: New York, 1912, the America of technological

capitalism, of new business schools and management theories. It argues, against

prevailing monolinear histories, that modern information design is best comprehended

as an interdisciplinary venture, flowing not only from professional designing but also

from applied linguistics, applied psychology, ergonomics, technical writing, technologies

of instruction, and consumer movements. The paper concludes with an etymology of

‘information design’.

‘Showing a new world in 1942: the gentle modernity of Puffin Picture Books’. Design

Issues, volume 23, number 4, pp. 22–38 (Autumn, 2007)



This argues that modernity as a social project is profitably distinguishable from its

associated styles. It introduces the rich phenomenon of ‘reconstruction publishing’, that

remarkable venture of the 1940s offering visions of a world adaptable to human needs

through design and planning. In the plan for these wartime publishing ventures can be

heard an echo of Tschichold’s words of 1930, on the aims of the new movement in

typographic design which had grown up in central Europe during the previous decade:

‘Standardization, instead of individualization. Cheap books, instead of private-press

editions. Active literature, instead of passive leather bindings.’

Exhibition: ‘ HEdward Wright: design work HU’ U. (University of Reading, 21 January to 27 April

2007.)

This survey of Edward Wright’s (1912–1988) designing uncovered a part of the ‘buried

history of dissident modernism’. Some of it was provocatively outside the mainstream.

An example, and a particular challenge of his public work, is lettering in contemporary

architecture, of which the best known is at New Scotland Yard (1966–8). More of special

interest includes letters on Alison & Peter Smithson’s ‘House of the future’ at the Ideal

Home Exhibition (Olympia, 1956), and at the 6th Congress of the International Union of

Architects (South Bank, 1961). In his talk opening the exhibition, Professor Joseph

Rykwert observed: ‘It is wonderful that something which was actually crucial to very

many people has been given its historical value and location.’ (An accompanying book,

edited by the project’s post-doctoral researcher, Petra Cerne Oven, is available: Edward

Wright: readings, writings.)

42BOrigins of modern information design

59BDesigning information for everyday life, 1815–1914

Paul Stiff is principal investigator for this four-year research programme, funded by AHRC,

which began in October 2006.

Some of the most inventive designing of the nineteenth century was thrown away. Many of

the interactions of everyday life were conducted through, and recorded by, ephemeral

printed documents. Their rich and varied configurations and texts made new demands on

newly literate audiences. Victorian ‘information design’ is the most intelligent, but little

known, ancestor of today’s graphic design. This project aims to reveal and explain what can

be learned from it.

The primary materials are written, designed, and printed artefacts: material texts, everyday

documents of consultation and transaction. We hypothesize that they record the mental

work of a community and social interactions within it – informing, guiding, calculating,

measuring, answering, figuring. Do they provide evidence for communities of reading and

for ‘cognition on the streets’? How did new readers learn to negotiate non-linear

configurations of information: tables, hierarchical lists, bar charts, route maps? And this is

largely the work of artisans, before professional designers emerged: what does it tell us

about ‘information design before designers’?

To test these questions we will survey a range of objects from three domains:

representations of space and time (diagrams, timetables); product documentation

(catalogues, sales bills, specifications); and forms, media for the conduct of interrogations

and dialogues. We will analyse these artefacts for language, typographic organization,

http://www.optimism-modernity.org.uk/events/index.html


production and dissemination, and evidence of reception. We aim to identify fields and

periods of innovation, the emergence of new graphic genres.

43BDesign for reading and the external environment

60BGraphic support for wayfinding

This is one facet of an engagement in the continuing project to establish a knowledge-base

for information design as well-grounded theory, well-constituted professional practice, and

fruitful research domain. Recent work includes ‘‚This is how to get there‛: graphic support

for wayfinding in everyday life’, a lecture given, in modified versions, at the Information

Design Conference 2007, Greenwich; the 3rd International Conference on Typography and

Visual Communication, Thessaloniki; and Vision Plus 12, Schwarzenberg, Austria.

As the words ‘wayfinding’ and ‘navigation’ become increasingly metaphorical, largely

expressive of virtual environments, this investigation turns to real journeys. Close

observation of the graphic products that people make to support real acts of navigating and

wayfinding offers a sharp reminder that in everyday life we generate not only mental events

– such as elusive ‘cognitive maps’ – but also tangible products. This is about such everyday

graphic objects, including mappings and other forms of drawn and written guidance, which

people reflexively produce when they help other people to find their way from one place to

another. The graphic objects which are shown and described are demotic and ephemeral,

not gallery pieces. These rich and intriguing products – the things which people make when

they shape their spatial knowledge into specifications for other people to follow – are the

results of a process of everyday information designing. It appears that there has never been

a survey of quite this kind.

61BLetters within architecture and works of art

The following paper arises from a long-standing interest in public lettering as an index of

cultural value:

‘Brunelleschi’s epitaph and the design of public letters in fifteenth-century Florence.’

Typography Papers, volume 6, pp. 66–114 (December 2005)

This essay offers a design-based perspective on early renaissance inscriptions in Florence.

It explores the revived classical majuscules which gave material form and enhanced

cultural value to the texts which they embodied in Florentine works of art and

architecture during the first half of the fifteenth century. It also entails a novel

examination of the spatial configuration of such inscriptions, suggesting some methods

of planning which epigraphic commissions must have entailed. It shows that by mid

century, avant-garde practice had been normalized, exemplified by the epitaph to

Brunelleschi in Florence’s duomo. New illustrations constitute an extended repertoire of

powerful visual evidence.



15BMichael Twyman Emeritus Professor

Email: [email protected] Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6397

Michael Twyman has taught in the University since 1959. He introduced the undergraduate

course in Typography & Graphic Communication in 1968, and became the head of the

newly formed department of that name in 1974. After formal retirement in 1998 he has

continued to teach postgraduate students on a part-time basis and to be responsible for the

Centre for Ephemera Studies (founded in 1993). His interest in the history of lithography,

jobbing printing and ephemera, theoretical aspects of typography, letterforms, and

illustration have led to more than a dozen books and scores of papers. Some of his books are

cited as standard works in their field, and he has been the recipient of several awards. He is

presently Vice-President of the Printing Historical Society, Chairman of the National

Printing History Trust, a Council member of the Ephemera Society, and Chairman of the

Advisory Board of the Bodleian Library’s JISC Electronic Ephemera Project.

My main research interests at present lie in the following overlapping areas:

44BHistory of lithography Having written extensively on various aspects of lithography, I attempted to distil my work

in the field in the British Library’s Panizzi Lectures for 2000 (published as Breaking the mould:

the first hundred years of lithography (2001)). All the same, my research in this field continues.

Several papers on aspects of lithography (one written jointly with Alan May) have appeared

in the last few years, and I contributed a chapter on ‘Barnett Freedman: master

lithographer’ to Ian Rogerson’s book on the artist (2007). I have recently been commissioned

by the Library Company of Philadelphia to write a chapter for a book Philadelphia on stone,

which will be published within a few years. I am constantly adding to my descriptive

catalogue of early lithographed books (which forms part of a book published in 1990), and

am also preparing material for separate papers or monographs on the work of the

lithographic letterer, the use of lithography for monochrome jobbing printing, and the

lithographic notebook of the geologist John Phillips (compiled when he was in his teens).

45BHistory of chromolithography My most recent research has focused sharply on chromolithography, that is, printing

lithographically in colour. The major output will be a substantial book (at present half-

written). This will cover the emergence of the process in Germany, France and Britain in the

second quarter of the nineteenth century, and its subsequent development and

industrialisation in Europe and the United States. A substantial part of the book will be

devoted to unravelling the changing practices of artists and printers associated with the

process. Some spin-offs from this research include a paper ‘Chromolithography: the

European legacy’ in The Ephemera Journal of the American Ephemera Society, and a

commission from Yale Center for British Art to contribute a chapter on the production of

posters for a book to accompany an exhibition ‘Art for all: British posters for transport’.

As a prelude to the book referred to above, I am curating an exhibition ‘Couleurs: les

prouesses de la chromolithographie’ for the Musée de l’imprimerie de Lyon (opening mid



November 2007). Over 500 items will be exhibited and discussed in what is almost certainly

the first representative exhibition on chromolithography anywhere (see the publicity blurb

below). A book to accompany the exhibition, which is to be published jointly by the Musée

de l’imprimerie and Panama Musées, focuses on the different approaches of Godefroy

Engelmann and Charles Hullmandel to lithographic colour printing in the 1830s.

46BPrinted ephemera Research in this field maps on to my work on lithography, both monochrome and colour,

since the process was frequently used to meet the day-to-day requirements of society. My

work on ephemera goes back to the 1960s, when I made a study of two jobbing printers

from Ulverston, a father and son, both called John Soulby, and wrote Printing 1770 to 1970.

Latterly ephemera has been given a focus in the University through the establishment of the

Department’s Centre for Ephemera Studies, with Lord Briggs as its patron. I have been its

Director since its inception and was responsible, with others in the Centre, for the

completion and publication of an Encyclopedia of Ephemera and a Register of ephemera collections

in the United Kingdom. Since then, printed ephemera has been the subject of public lectures or

keynote papers in London (British Library), Wellington (National Library of New Zealand),

Baltimore, Chambéry and Recife. Specific strands of ephemera that I have been working on

include the history of forms design and production, the methods to be used for identifying

the processes used in ephemera, and what might be called ‘street reading’.

My work in all three fields has been enriched by teaching specialists at Rare Book Schools in

Virginia, Lyon, and Dunedin (and in February 2008 I shall be teaching at Rare Book School in

Melbourne). These courses have focused on either lithography or ephemera, and have

provided me with opportunities to meet specialist scholars, curators, collectors and dealers

from various parts of the world, and to work with a wide range of material from the special

collections of major libraries and print rooms. Experience of this kind has helped to inform

contributions to two volumes of The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain (both in press):

‘Printed ephemera’ (vol. 5, 1695-1830) ‘The illustration revolution’ (vol. 6, 1830-1914).



16BGerard Unger Professor(part-time)


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 6397

Gerard Unger lectures and teaches studio projects to both undergraduates and postgraduates

in the Department. You can find out more about him and his work at Hgerardunger.comH.



http://www.gerardunger.com/


17BSue Walker Professor of Typography, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities


Telephone: + 44 (0)118 378 8060

Sue Walker has taught in the Department since 1980 and was Head of Department from

1997. She is currently Dean of Arts and Humanities and Faculty Director of Research. Before

becoming a full-time academic in 1999, she was an active partner in Text Matters, an

information design consultancy based in Reading. She is a Council member and Fellow of

the Design Research Society, a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, and on the

Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) panel for Art and Design.

Her current research has three strands:

47BFactors that influence the graphic organisation of language

62BPrescription and practice

Much visual organisation of graphic language is bound by rules, such as those that might be

found in house style manuals, letter-writing and typing manuals and teaching at school, as

well as those the rules and conventions that form part of the tacit knowledge of experts:

designers, typographers, compositors and printers.

Typography and language in everyday life: prescriptions and practices (Longman Pearson, 2001)

explores this theme introducing perspectives on the graphic aspects of language. It focuses

on the typography of non-expert designers through genres such as letter-writing and hand-

produced notices and signs, and reviews the written prescriptions that are likely to have

influenced design decisions that have been made.

A more recent paper, ‘The manners of the page: prescription and practice in English letter

writing’, forthcoming in Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 66, nos. 3 & 4, ‘Studies in the

cultural history of letter-writing’ examines the relationship between prescription and

practice in the visual organisation of correspondence. It summarises prescriptions from a

small survey of letter-writing manuals in English dating from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-

nineteenth centuries, and looks at the extent to which rules were followed in practice in

examples from autographic collections of correspondence containing letters dating from the

fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries.

48BTypographic design for children This AHRC-funded project examines typography and visual organisation in young children’s

reading and information books. You can find more information about the project and the

people involved on the project web site: Hwww.kidstype.org HU.U

Part of the work is concerned with the historical development of the design of reading and

information books. The design elements being studied include those at a micro level (such

as typeface, word spacing, and use of type variants, such as bold and italic), those at a macro

level (such as picture/text relationship and interaction, and use of space to structure textual



elements) and those that affect the materiality of the book, such as paper used and printing

process employed. The contextual factors relevant to the design process in this case include

education policies, legibility and vision research, methods of teaching reading. typeface

development and manufacture and publishing practices.

49BInformation design: theory, history, practice Most of my design practice in recent years has been in the field of information design as a

partner in Text Matters, a consultancy based in Reading. I am member of the editorial board

of Information Design Journal, and through the Information Design Association and

Information Design Network have contributed to the wider information design agenda in

the UK. Recent collaboration with the Design Council has resulted in a briefing paper about

Hinformation design H.


http://www.designcouncil.org/information


18BRob Waller Professor of Information Design


Telephone: +44 (0)118 378 6411

Rob Waller’s career has spanned the worlds of design research and practice. He joined the

Department in 2007 after nearly 20 years as a practicing designer. He started his career as a

researcher with the Open University, working in a multidisciplinary team investigating

learning from text, before starting his consultancy Information Design Unit in 1988. He

founded Information Design Journal in 1979, and edited it until 1990 (from 1985 co-editing with

Paul Stiff). He is Chair of the Information Design Association and has organized a number of

related conferences.

Rob’s research interests centre around the role of typography in language: enabling writers

to extend their means of expression from purely linear to graphically structured language;

enabling readers to engage with text in an active and purposeful way.

50BReader models for information design The best information design supports the strategies and practices of readers. Implicitly or

explicitly, designers build models of readers, in order to anticipate and provide for their

needs – to search for information, perform tasks, make decisions. By developing typologies

of reading purposes or strategies, and tools for linking them with information design

techniques, the goal of this research is a design method that more fully integrates

information design into the working methods used by writers and designers.

51BTypography and genre theory This work, stemming from Rob’s 1987 doctoral thesis, develops a theory of typography’s

contribution to language, concluding that it has multiple roles in enabling the expression of

topic structures by writers, and triggering appropriate reading strategies by information

users. Together with important constraints and affordances of the text artefact (eg, page,

double spread, poster, screen), this combination of writer- and reader-centred factors

accounts for the development of distinctive text genres.

52BUse of information design to support people with poor functional literacy The UK population includes a high proportion of people with functional literacy problems.

The government response has been to put a major effort into the improvement of basic

skills, but with only limited success. So government and industry regulators are keen to

encourage much greater clarity in the information provided to citizens to help them make

important decisions about critical issues such as health, pensions, tax, and benefits.

This programme of research addresses issues such as: understanding the cues used by poor

readers to structure their reading; the role of information design in providing for effective

reading strategies such as skim-reading, and enabling drill-down from high-level to detailed



explanations; processes to support information providers wishing to prioritise clarity;

measurement tools to predict the difficulty of documents.


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