Ron Carpenter (designer)

Ron Carpenter (born 1950, Dorking) is an English typographer. He was trained as a cartographer and later became a typeface designer. He currently works for independent font foundry, Dalton Maag.

Ron Carpenter and his wife, Julie.

The Man

Early life

Ron, second from left, performing with his band.

Ron—Ronald Barry Carpenter in full—grew up in the village of Brockham, Surrey, as the younger of two brothers born to George and Audrey Carpenter. He attended Brockham Village School, before finishing his studies at Sondes Place School.

Whilst at school he worked at weekends on a local chicken farm owned by Frank Hollands, along with being a Young Farmer, a member of the Brockham Bonfire Committee and into amateur theatre. Also very musical, Ron learnt to play the guitar and harmonica, performing in a band at the village hall and even as a one-man band combining them with a kick drum.

His Own Family

In 1979—at a Christmas Eve party in the local Brockham Village Hall—he was introduced to the sister of one of his friends, Julie. After a lengthy engagement he married Julie in 1990; together they moved into a flat in Reigate, before buying a house shortly before their first and only son, Morgan was born in 1992.

The career

Cartography

Out of school at the age of 16 Ron trained as a cartographer. His work involved the surveying for and hand drawing of Ordnance Survey maps. During this time he developed an interest in typography and soon after put his previously learnt drawing skills into practice with a job at Monotype.

Monotype

In 1986—whilst working for Monotype, Carpenter designed and developed his best known font, Calisto MT an old style serif. The Calisto face is intended to function as both a text and display face.[1]

Dalton Maag

After having to leave Monotype in 1992, he worked for a time as a freelance typographer, before joining Bruno Maag in his start-up company Dalton Maag. He currently still works for Dalton Maag[2] as a mentor to and trainer of interns and new starters, along with being a reviewer of developing fonts.

Fonts

Carpenter has designed the following type fonts: Cantoria (1986), Calisto, Amasis (1992), Dante (1993).[3][4][5][6] He has also designed Aktiv Grotesk, Co, Kings Caslon, Lexia, Plume, Stroudley and Viato as part of his design work for Dalton Maag.[3] [4][5][7] [8]

References

  1. ↑ Macmillan, Neil. An A–Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press: 2006. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
  2. ↑
  3. 1 2 "Adobe Type Collections". Monotype Imaging. International Typeface Corporation. 2001–2010. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  4. 1 2 "The Source of the Originals". Monotype Imaging. Linotype GmbH., U.K. 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2010.
  5. 1 2 Adobe system, Inc. (2007). Adobe Type Library Reference Book (3rd Edition). Adobe Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-321-54472-2.
  6. ↑ Fiedl, Frederich, Nicholas Ott and Bernard Stein. Typography: An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Through History. Black Dog & Leventhal: 1998. ISBN 1-57912-023-7.
  7. ↑ http://www.daltonmaag.com/people/Ron_Carpenter.html Ron Carpenter at Dalton Maag
  8. ↑ https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/ron-carpenter/26/794/6b2 Ron Carpenter LinkedIn

External links

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