The typeface designs of Eric Gill

埃里克·吉尔的生活和他作为雕刻家和雕刻家的工作被广泛记录下来，最著名的是菲奥娜·麦卡锡的传记《埃里克·吉尔》(1989)和奇斯托弗·斯凯尔顿的《埃里克·吉尔--雕刻》(1990)。然而，尽管他作为字体设计师的工作广为人知和钦佩，但他的工作却从未受到同样的关注--唯一一本关于这一主题的书是罗伯特·哈林的《埃里克·吉尔的信件形式和字体设计》(1976年)，这本书只有页长。吉尔设计了10种字体，都是在1926年至1924年期间。到目前为止，最著名的是Gill Sans，它最初是由Montype公司于1928年制造的--现在每台计算机都配备了数字版本。Gill Sans是英国对几何结构的无衬线字体的回应，这种字体当时在欧洲大陆很流行。可以说，它已经成为最英国化的字体，英国铁路公司、企鹅图书公司、英国广播公司、英格兰教会和英国政府都使用这种字体。他的其他著名字体设计是Perpetua和Joanna，但其余的字体--Perpetua希腊字体、金色公鸡字体、Solus字体、白羊座字体、Floriated Capitals字体、Bunyan字体和Jubilee字体--大多数设计师都不知道，其中五个从未被制作成数字字体。在20世纪的大部分时间里，字体的设计是一个两阶段的过程：设计师绘制图纸，然后由一组工程师实施设计，经常对设计进行修改，以使其在技术上可行。在某些情况下，这导致了设计师和工程师之间的对话，但通常，在完成了最初的图纸后，设计师将其留给工程师进行必要的调整，决定字母间距，在某些情况下甚至设计相应的轻体和粗体字体。这个项目将调查吉尔每种字体的构思和制作，以及他与委托和实施他设计的男男女女的关系，并将讨论他作为一名字体设计师的工作与他在该领域的同龄人的关系。在这样做的过程中，它将重新评估吉尔对字体设计的贡献。他真的可以被描述为字体设计师吗，或者被认为是吉尔设计的字体真的是由制造它们的工匠和工程师设计的吗？作为一名艺术家，吉尔实际上是否参与了制造铁水活字的更平凡的方面，或者他对这一过程的工业部分保持着疏远？Gill的铁水排版字样的制作是否与那个时期的其他艺术家和设计师不同，或者不同于Monotec和LINOTER等公司内部生产的字样？该项目还将分析铁水字面制造的物理过程对Gill字样外观和功能的影响程度。他的想法是否因为技术的限制而受到损害，最初的制作方法在他后来用于照相排版和数字排版的字体中仍然存在吗？那么，今天的字体设计师能从中学到什么呢？这项研究将广泛利用圣布里德图书馆和英国单字公司字体绘制办公室保存的埃里克·吉尔的档案。这将由圣新娘图书馆馆长奈杰尔·罗奇先生推动，他在圣新娘图书馆工作了33年，并由字体开发经理罗宾·尼古拉斯先生推动，他有40年的字体开发经验，担任过各种职务。它还将利用其他吉尔档案，包括迪奇林博物馆、苏塞克斯、泰特英国博物馆和维多利亚与阿尔伯特博物馆的档案。

Eric Gill's life and his work as an engraver and sculptor have been documented extensively, most notably in Fiona MacCarthy's biography 'Eric Gill' (1989) and Chistopher Skelton's 'Eric Gill - the engravings' (1990). However, while widely known and admired, his work as a typeface designer has never received the same attention - the only book on the subject is Robert Harling's 'The letter forms and type designs of Eric Gill' (1976) which is just 64 pages long.Gill designed ten typefaces, all in the period 1926-34. By far the best known is Gill Sans, originally manufactured by the Monotype Corporation in 1928 - every computer now comes with a digital version. Gill Sans was the British answer to the geometrically constructed sans serif typefaces that were becoming popular on mainland Europe at the time. It has become arguably the most British of typefaces, used by British Railways, Penguin Books, the BBC, the Church of England, and the British government. His other well known typeface designs are Perpetua and Joanna, but the remainder - Perpetua Greek, Golden Cockerel Type, Solus, Aries, Floriated Capitals, Bunyan and Jubilee - are unknown to most designers and five have never been produced as digital typefaces.For most of the twentieth century the design of typefaces was a two-stage process: the designer would make drawings and then a team of engineers would implement the design, often making changes to the design in order to make it work technically. In some cases this led to a dialogue between designer and engineer but often, having done the initial drawings, the designer left it to the engineers to make the necessary adjustments, to make decisions about letter spacing, and in some cases even to design the accompanying light and bold variants of the typeface.This project will investigate the conception and production of each of Gill's typefaces and his relationships with the men and women who commissioned and implemented his designs and will discuss his work as a type designer in relation to his contemporaries in the field. In doing so it will re-evaluate Gill's contribution to typeface design. Can he really be described as a typeface designer, or were the typefaces that are attributed to Gill actually designed by the craftsmen and engineers who made them? As an artist, did Gill actually involve himself in the more mundane aspects of manufacturing hot metal type or did he remain aloof from the industrial part of the process? Did the production of Gill's typefaces for hot metal composition differ from those of other artists and designers of the period, or from the typefaces produced in-house by companies such as Monotype and Linotype?The project will also analyze the extent to which the physical process of hot-metal typeface manufacture affected the appearance and functionality of Gill's typefaces. Were his ideas compromised because of limitations imposed by the technology, and is the original method of manufacture still in evidence in later versions of his typefaces, produced for photocomposition and digital typesetting? And what can today's typeface designers learn from this?The research will draw extensively on the Eric Gill archives held by St Bride Library and the British Monotype Corporation Type Drawing Office. This will be facilitated at St Bride Library by the Librarian, Mr Nigel Roche, who has worked at St Bride for thirty-three years and at Monotype by the Type Development Manager, Mr Robin Nicholas, who has forty years' involvement in typeface development in a range of capacities. It will also make use of other Gill archives including those at Ditchling Museum, Sussex, Tate Britain, and the Victoria & Albert Museum.