Matthew Carter

For other people of the same name, see Matt Carter (disambiguation).

Specimens of typefaces by Matthew Carter.

Matthew Carter (born in London in 1937)^[1] is a type designer. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Carter's career in type design has witnessed the transition from physical metal type to digital type. He was named a 2010 MacArthur Fellow.

Education

Although Carter had intended to get a degree in English at Oxford University he was advised to take a year off so he would be the same age as his contemporaries who had gone into National Service. It was through his father, Harry Carter, also a type designer, that Matthew Carter was given an internship at the Joh. Enschedé type foundry in the Netherlands. So at the age of 19, Carter spent a year studying in The Netherlands where he learned from Jan van Krimpen's assistant P. H. Raedisch, who taught Carter the art of punch cutting. By 1961 Carter was able to use the skills he acquired to cut his own version of the semi-bold typeface Dante.

Career

Carter eventually returned to London where he became a freelancer as well as the typographic advisor to Crosfield Electronics, distributors of Photon phototypesetting machines. Carter designed many typefaces for Mergenthaler Linotype as well. Under Linotype, Carter created well known typefaces such as the 100-year replacement typeface for Bell Telephone Company, Bell Centennial.

In 1981, Carter and his colleague Mike Parker created Bitstream Inc.^[1] This digital type foundry is currently one of the largest suppliers of type. He left Bitstream in 1991 to form the Carter & Cone type foundry with Cherie Cone. Matthew Carter focuses on improving many typefaces' readability. He designs specifically for Apple and Microsoft computers. Georgia and Verdana are two fonts created primarily for viewing on computer monitors. Carter has designed type for publications such as Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Wired, and Newsweek. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), is a senior critic for Yale's Graphic design program, has served as chairman of ATypI, and is an ex officio member of the board of directors of the Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA).

Carter has won numerous awards for his significant contributions to typography and design, including an honoris causa Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Art Institute of Boston, an AIGA medal in 1995, and the 2005 SOTA Typography Award. A retrospective of his work, "Typographically Speaking, The Art of Matthew Carter," was exhibited at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in December 2002. In 2010, Carter was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, otherwise known as a "genius" grant.^[2]

In 2007, Carter designed a new variant of the typeface Georgia for use in the graphical user interface of the Bloomberg Terminal.

Typefaces

Matthew Carter's typefaces include:

Bell Centennial[1] Big Caslon Bitstream Charter Big Figgins Carter Sans (2011) Cascade Script Elephant Fenway

ITC Galliard Gando Georgia[3] Mantinia Meiryo (Latin range) Miller Monticello

Nina Olympian Rocky Shelley Script Snell Roundhand[1] Skia Sophia

Tahoma Verdana[3] Vincent Wilson Greek Wrigley Yale University typeface

See also

• List of AIGA medalists

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} A Man of Letters, U.S. News & World Report, 1 September 2003.
2. ^ http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x2084591041/Cambridge-font-man-wins-MacArthur-grant
3. ^ ^{a b} The Helvetica Hegemony

• Eye, No. 11, Vol. 3, edited by Rick Poynor, Wordsearch Ltd, 1993.

External links

• MyFonts
• Georgia & Verdana — Typefaces for the screen
• Type Designer Showcase biography at Monotype Imaging
• Designing Modern Britain exhibition biography

Persondata
Name	Carter, Matthew
Alternative names
Short description	Famous typographer
Date of birth	1937
Place of birth	London, England
Date of death	n/a
Place of death	n/a