John Warnock, type designer?

[Si_Daniels]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

In response to "What's your favorite font?" Adobe's Chief operating officer Shantanu Narayen told Forbes...

"There are some Warnock fonts that are absolutely spectacular that we use within the company. John Warnock, as a founder of the company, did some amazing fonts."

Brownie points for picking Warnock Pro, but crediting JW for 'doing' fonts seems to take things a bit far? Or maybe not. Hopefully Tom will set him straight. ;-)

[crossgrove]

Surely that's a joke. The COO of Adobe doesn't know about Robert Slimbach? Eek.

[Si_Daniels]

I've seen his blog, he uses Comic Sans*

Cheers, Si

*I made that up.

[Thomas Phinney]

Urm. No comment at this time.

[Si_Daniels]

Sorry Tom ;-) I'm sure this is minor compared to some other "CEO/CO Oh, no he didn't!" moments.

[dezcom]

The salary for being CEO of Adobe $bazillion...the value of knowing who designs their fonts? Priceless :-)

ChrisL

[Jackie Frant]

It's an old industry habit...
Ask the guys who use to work in the back of Photolettering about whose types for ITC they designed, drew up, etc. and who got the credit for it all...

[Thomas Phinney]

In all fairness, Adobe has something over 5000 employees, and the group that does only fonts is about 10 people. So corporately speaking, we're a rather obscure arm of the company.

Now of course, on Typophile, we're the most important part of Adobe. But I think we all know that typophiles have a slightly unusual perspective on the world. :)

Cheers,

T

[Dunwich Type]

. But I think we all know that typophiles have a slightly unusual perspective on the world.

Yeah, but the view from the Ivory tower is so much better.

[Si_Daniels]

>In all fairness, Adobe has something over 5000 employees, and the group that does only fonts is about 10 people. So corporately speaking, we’re a rather obscure arm of the company.

For sure, if he'd said, "we sell what?" then you'd really be worried. ;-)

[Dan Gayle]

So who'd win in a "Name that Type Designer!" contest, Mr. Narayen or Mr. Gates & Co.?

[david h]

To err is human...

[Si_Daniels]

I'd put my money on BillG, only because he fought in the "font wars" and according to his profile Narayen joined Adobe around the time the truce was declared, and Adobe's type output had slowed to a trickle.

[Dan Gayle]

Wrong! The answer is always Steve Jobs! Ha Ha! I tricked you.

[Si_Daniels]

Doh! You got me, again.

[Stephen Coles]

Related: John Gruber on Adobe's New Direction.

...Salesmanship is [Adobe CEO] Bruce Chizen’s main passion. Not graphics, not design, not software development. Sales. ... The fact that his background is in marketing -- not graphics or technology, or, as in the case of Adobe’s founders, both -- makes it almost seem like a statement of the obvious. Of course his main passion is sales: he’s a sales guy.

But Chizen’s rise at Adobe tracks precisely with the company’s drift away from its roots as a great software company. When the company was run by graphics/technology enthusiasts, it was a great graphics/technology company. Now that it’s run by a sales guy, it has turned into a company that seems more interested in the sales and marketing of its products than in the products themselves.

[david h]

> Now that it’s run by a sales guy, it has turned into a company that seems more interested in the sales and marketing of its products than in the products themselves.

Wow!! Great wisdom.

[Dan Gayle]

I always find it funny that marketing people, who regularly work with "creatives", really could care less about the design side of stuff. (And, I might add, the technology side of design.)

Just make it work!

[dberlowgone]

“There are some Warnock fonts that are absolutely spectacular that we use within the company. John Warnock, as a founder of the company, did some amazing fonts.”

For heaven's sake people, he's a Chief Operating Officer. That means if they can't find a doctor, and someone has their foot stuck in their own mouth, he has to operate. In this case, obviously and unfortunately, there will be no treatment available until he resigns, and his replacement does the job. You have to give 'im credit, at least for, knowing that they were not asking about a character on "Happy Days".

T. Phinney said: "Urm. No comment at this time."
I would go along with that, the staff is small enough already.;)

[joffre]

“There are some Warnock fonts that are absolutely spectacular that we use within the company. John Warnock, as a founder of the company, did some amazing fonts.”

My opinion.
When John Warnock first started out he looked for a source of typefaces to license that complemented his technology when Adobe was first founded. Through his founding of a smart type development group he did initiate the founding, design, and development of “some amazing fonts”. The pen work he did was to write the checks.

[Thomas Phinney]

Well, this just got much less exciting.

It turns out that the explanation is that it was simply a misquote. Shantanu may not be a typographer, but he is well aware that Robert Slimbach designed the Warnock Pro typeface.

Cheers,

T

[Nick Shinn]

simply a misquote

Good to know Mahmoud Ahmadinejad isn't the only one that happens to.

[William Berkson]

Thomas, is Forbes printing a correction?

Nick, the mistranslation of Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel as a Jewish state should be "wiped off the map" and the correct translation, "vanish from time" are not significantly different. The import is perfectly clear: he wants the Jewish state to be replaced by an Islamic one. He is evasive when asked questions about how soon and by what means, but he is perfectly clear that he wants it to happen.

[Stephen Coles]

Oh dear.

[Si_Daniels]

So how about those Colts?