- Bradbury Thompson
Bradbury Thompson (1911–1995) was an influential American graphic designer and art director of the twentieth century.
Life and work
"Communication Arts" opened an article on Bradbury Thompson, in its March/April 1999 issue, like this: "When it came to the blending of photography, typography and color, nobody did it better than Bradbury Thompson... In his own quiet way, he expanded the boundaries of the printed page and influenced the design of a generation of art directors." [http://www.commarts.com/CA/feapion/brad/ A feature on Thompson at Communication Arts] ]
Thompson was born in
Topeka, Kansas . He attended Washburn College and graduated in 1934 [ [http://www.washburn.edu/alumni/BTC/about.htm Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center - About the center] ] . A facility called the Bradbury Thompson Alumni Center now stands atWashburn University . In 1937, Thompson designed the college's mascot, "The Ichabod."Thompson was art director of "Mademoiselle" magazine for fifteen years beginning in 1945.
A signature design from Thompson was his Washburn College Bible. This book was one of the first to use the
Sabon typeface designed byJan Tschichold and released in 1967.Thompson served on the faculty of Yale University. He received the
AIGA Gold Medal in 1975. [ [http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalists AIGA Medalists] ] He received the Type Director's Club Medal in 1986.He died on November 1, 1995.
Alphabet 26
Thompson developed Alphabet 26 or a "monoalphabet" - an alphabet consisted of just one case (instead of using separate uppercase and lowercase letterforms as typefaces typically do). His monoalphabet was a modern serif (comparable to
Bodoni ) with lowercase a, e, m and n mixed with uppercase B, D, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, P, Q, R, T, U and Y. (The forms of C/c, O/o, S/s, V/v, W/w, X/x and Z/z are essentially the same in uppercase and lowercase in the first place.)Alphabet 26 does not eliminate uppercase; however, uppercase letters are simply larger versions of their lowercase counterparts. This was intended to regularize the letters of the alphabet, making them more logical and intuitive, and also making learning the alphabet easier for children. Thompson first published the alphabet in a "Westvaco Inspirations for Printers".
The set of letters for Alphabet 26 thus appears:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Books by Bradbury Thompson
* "The Art of Graphic Design", Yale University Press, 1980. (ISBN 978-0300043013)
ee also
*
List of AIGA medalists External links
* [http://www.yale.edu/aya/blueprint/spring96/art.html Memorial events for Thompson at Yale University]
* [http://people.rit.edu/rrrfad/html/gr_history/timelines/timelines_bradbury_thom.html Timeline of Thompson's life]
* [http://www.pbtweb.com/alpha26/index.html Alphabet 26 on the website of Paul Baker Typography]
* [http://www.adcglobal.org/archive/hof/1977/?id=277 Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work]References
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