Who the hell designed Penny Farthing?

[David Rault]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Hello Fellow Typophiles,

I am desperately trying to find the name of the typographer who designed Penny Farthing, a Letraset font which appeared regularly in their catalogs in the seventies.

Anyone?

Thanks in advance.
dr

[Mark Simonson]

Bob Newman. It was released by Letraset in 1974.

[David Rault]

Mark, you just made your way to the "Thank you" page of my upcoming book. Thank you.

Oh and by the way, the typography book I have been working on for the last few years has been released by Perrousseaux (the french publisher of Blanchard and Frutiger books) march 19th in France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada. Some of you typophiles are inside. I'm working on the english version right now. You can check the book there: http://www.davidrault.com/guidetypo.

dr

[Stefan H]

David,

I just had a look at the site linked. The book looks nice. Look forward to the English version.

Cheers

[Mark Simonson]

Cool!

[Typedog]

really cool, I need a new book.

Guerrizmo+Design
No man is an island unto himself_John Donne

[Ricardo Cordoba]

...the name of the typographer who designed Penny Farthing...

David, I really hate to be a word snob, but in English, typographers set type. Type designers design typefaces. :-)

As Stefan says, looking forward to the English version of your book!

[David Rault]

Ricardo: oops sorry bout that. thanks for the heads up.

and thanks for the comments everyone. as soon as I have an english / american publisher, I let you know.

dr

[David Rault]

This being said,

I can't find any information about this Bob Newman, who appears to have designed many iconic typefaces from the seventies (including Data 70). Anyone?

dr

[Ricardo Cordoba]

Hmmm... He is not listed in the most recent edition of An A-Z of Type Designers...

MyFonts has some info on Letraset, and its designers, here.

Identifont's page on Freda Sack mentions Newman.

[David Rault]

yes got these links too. not much... unbelievable. the guy disappeared.

dr

[Ricardo Cordoba]

A real shame, since he designed some really iconic 1970s faces -- but you said that already. :-)

There might be magazine articles about him in design journals... It might be worth checking out a library's online records.

[Si_Daniels]

You could maybe ask Dave Farey - he was one of the Letra-set back in the day.

[Ricardo Cordoba]

I found a listing for a book called Letraset: A Lesson in Growth, by John Chudley (1974). But, according to Dave Nalle, who discusses it here, the book is mostly about the business end of things.

P.S.: Adding to Si's comment, Freda Sack or Colin Brignall would also know something about Newman.

[David Rault]

hey, thanks a lot everyone. I will contact the people aforementioned and hope to actually get in touch with the man himself.