The typeface designs of Eric Gill

埃里克·吉尔的生活和他作为雕刻家和雕塑家的工作被广泛记录，最著名的是菲奥娜·麦卡锡的传记《埃里克·吉尔》（1989年）和克里斯托弗·克莱顿的《埃里克·吉尔-雕刻》（1990年）。然而，尽管广为人知和钦佩，他作为一个字体设计师的工作从来没有得到过同样的关注-唯一的一本关于这个主题的书是罗伯特·哈林的《埃里克·吉尔的字母形式和字体设计》（1976），这本书只有64页长。吉尔设计了十种字体，都是在1926年至1934年期间。到目前为止，最著名的是Gill Sans，最初由Monotype公司于1928年制造-现在每台计算机都带有数字版本。Gill Sans是英国人对当时在欧洲大陆流行的几何构造的无衬线字体的回答。它可以说是最英国的字体，被英国铁路，企鹅图书，英国广播公司，英国教会和英国政府使用。他的其他著名的字体设计是Perpetua和乔安娜，但其余的- Perpetua希腊，金公鸡类型，梭子鱼，白羊座，花卉首都，班扬和银禧-是未知的大多数设计师和五个从来没有被生产为数字字体。对于大多数的二十世纪的字体设计是一个两阶段的过程：设计师会绘制图纸，然后一组工程师会实施设计，通常会对设计进行修改，以便使其在技术上可行。在某些情况下，这导致了设计师和工程师之间的对话，但通常情况下，在完成最初的图纸后，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，甚至设计了相应的字体的浅色和粗体变体。这个项目将调查吉尔的每一种字体的概念和生产，以及他与男人的关系，妇女谁委托和实施他的设计，并将讨论他的工作作为一个类型的设计师与他同时代的领域。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一个字体设计师吗？或者说，吉尔的字体实际上是由制作它们的工匠和工程师设计的？作为一个艺术家，吉尔实际上是参与了制造热金属类型的更世俗的方面，还是他对这个过程的工业部分保持了超然的态度？吉尔的热金属合成字体的生产与那个时期的其他艺术家和设计师的字体不同，或者与Monotype和Linotype等公司内部生产的字体不同？该项目还将分析热金属字体制造的物理过程在多大程度上影响了吉尔字体的外观和功能。他的想法是因为技术的限制而妥协的吗？他最初的制造方法是否仍然存在于他后来的字体版本中，用于照相排版和数字排版？今天的字体设计师能从中学到什么？这项研究将广泛借鉴圣新娘图书馆和英国莫诺公司类型绘图办公室举行的埃里克吉尔档案。圣布莱德图书馆的图书管理员奈杰尔·罗奇先生（他在圣布莱德工作了33年）和字体开发经理罗宾·尼古拉斯先生（他在各种能力方面都参与了40年的字体开发工作）将促进这一点。它还将利用其他吉尔档案，包括那些在迪奇林博物馆，苏塞克斯，泰特英国，和维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆。

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.