William Addison Dwiggins
Encyclopedia
William Addison Dwiggins (June 19, 1880 Martinsville, Ohio
- December 25, 1956 Hingham, Massachusetts
) was a U.S. type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. He attained prominence as an illustrator
and commercial artist, and he brought to the designing of type and books some of the boldness that he displayed in his advertising work.
. Alblabooks, a series of finely conceived and executed trade books followed and did much to increase public interest in book format. Dwiggins was perhaps more responsible than any other designer for the marked improvement in book design in the 1920s and 1930s. He gained recognition as a calligrapher and wrote much on the graphic arts, notably essays collected in MSS by WAD (1949), and his Layout in Advertising (1928; rev. ed. 1949) remains standard.
WAD (as he called himself) is credited with coining the term 'graphic design
er' in 1922 to describe his various activities in printed communications, like book design, illustration, typography, lettering and calligraphy (his first typeface designs were released much later). The term did not achieve widespread usage until after the Second World War.
theatre in a garage (.5 Irving Street) behind his home in Hingham, Massachusetts (30 Leavitt Street), and a puppet group named the Püterschein Authority. In 1933 he performed his first show there, "The Mystery of the Blind Beggarman." Dwiggins built his second theatre under his studio at 45 Irving Street. Further productions of the Püterschein Authority included "Prelude to Eden," "Brother Jeromy," "Millennium 1," and "The Princess Primrose of Shahaban in Persia." Most of his marionettes were twelve inches tall. The marionettes were donated to the three-room Dwiggins Collection at the Boston Public Library
in 1967.
are most widely used—were specifically designed for Linotype
composition and have the clean spareness of the motor age. Metro is most notable as his most modern sans serif typeface. Metro was developed by Linotype in the late 1920s in response to similar type being sold from European foundries such as Erbar
, Futura
, and Gill Sans
.
Martinsville, Ohio
Martinsville is a village in Clinton County, Ohio, United States. The population was 440 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Martinsville is located at ....
- December 25, 1956 Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...
) was a U.S. type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. He attained prominence as an illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
and commercial artist, and he brought to the designing of type and books some of the boldness that he displayed in his advertising work.
Book designer
His scathing attack on contemporary book designers in An Investigation into the Physical Properties of Books (1919) led to his working with the publisher Alfred A. KnopfAlfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
. Alblabooks, a series of finely conceived and executed trade books followed and did much to increase public interest in book format. Dwiggins was perhaps more responsible than any other designer for the marked improvement in book design in the 1920s and 1930s. He gained recognition as a calligrapher and wrote much on the graphic arts, notably essays collected in MSS by WAD (1949), and his Layout in Advertising (1928; rev. ed. 1949) remains standard.
WAD (as he called himself) is credited with coining the term 'graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
er' in 1922 to describe his various activities in printed communications, like book design, illustration, typography, lettering and calligraphy (his first typeface designs were released much later). The term did not achieve widespread usage until after the Second World War.
Marionettes
Dwiggins' love of wood carving led to his creation of a marionetteMarionette
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a manipulator. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms...
theatre in a garage (.5 Irving Street) behind his home in Hingham, Massachusetts (30 Leavitt Street), and a puppet group named the Püterschein Authority. In 1933 he performed his first show there, "The Mystery of the Blind Beggarman." Dwiggins built his second theatre under his studio at 45 Irving Street. Further productions of the Püterschein Authority included "Prelude to Eden," "Brother Jeromy," "Millennium 1," and "The Princess Primrose of Shahaban in Persia." Most of his marionettes were twelve inches tall. The marionettes were donated to the three-room Dwiggins Collection at the Boston Public Library
Boston Public Library
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was the first publicly supported municipal library in the United States, the first large library open to the public in the United States, and the first public library to allow people to...
in 1967.
Typefaces
His typefaces—Electra and CaledoniaCaledonia (typeface)
Caledonia is a transitional serif typeface designed by William Addison Dwiggins in 1938 for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.Dwiggins chose the name Caledonia, the Roman name for Scotland, to express the face's basis on the early nineteenth century Scotch Roman typeface however, though Dwiggins...
are most widely used—were specifically designed for Linotype
Linotype machine
The Linotype typesetting machine is a "line casting" machine used in printing. The name of the machine comes from the fact that it produces an entire line of metal type at once, hence a line-o'-type, a significant improvement over manual typesetting....
composition and have the clean spareness of the motor age. Metro is most notable as his most modern sans serif typeface. Metro was developed by Linotype in the late 1920s in response to similar type being sold from European foundries such as Erbar
Erbar (typeface)
In typography, Erbar or Erbar-Grotesk was the first geometric sans-serif typeface ever created. Designer Jakob Erbar's aim was to design a printing type which would be free of all individual characteristics, possess thoroughly legible letter forms, and be a purely typographic creation...
, Futura
Futura (typeface)
In typography, Futura is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed in 1927 by Paul Renner. It is based on geometric shapes that became representative visual elements of the Bauhaus design style of 1919–1933...
, and Gill Sans
Gill Sans
Gill Sans is a sans-serif typeface designed by Eric Gill.The original design appeared in 1926 when Douglas Cleverdon opened a bookshop in his home town of Bristol, where Eric Gill painted the fascia over the window in sans-serif capitals that would later be known as Gill Sans...
.
Legacy
In 1957, A year after his death (DEC, 25 1956), Bookbuilders of Boston, an organization of book publishing professionals that Dwiggins helped to establish, renamed their highest award the W.A. Dwiggins Award.Typefaces
- Metro series
- Metrolite + Metroblack (1930, Linotype)
- Metrothin + Metromedium (1931, Linotype)
- Metrolite No.2 + Metroblack No.2 (1932, Linotype)
- Metrolite No.2 Italic + Lining Metrothin + Lining Metromedium (1935, Linotype)
- Metromedium No.2 Italic + Metroblack No.2 Italic (1937, Linotype)
- Metrolight No.4 Italic + Metrothin No.4 Italic (Linotype)
- Electra series
- Electra + Electra Oblique (italic) (1935, Linotype)
- Electra Bold + Italic (Linotype)
- Electra Cursive + Italic (1944, Linotype)
- Charter (Designed 1937-42, used only for one book, never released, Linotype)
- Hingham (Designed 1937-43, cut in 7 pt. but not released, Linotype)
- Caledonia seriesCaledonia (typeface)Caledonia is a transitional serif typeface designed by William Addison Dwiggins in 1938 for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company.Dwiggins chose the name Caledonia, the Roman name for Scotland, to express the face's basis on the early nineteenth century Scotch Roman typeface however, though Dwiggins...
- Caledonia + Italic (1938, Linotype)
- Caledonia Bold + Italic (1940, Linotype)
- Arcadia (Designed 1943-47, used only for Typophile's Chapbook XXII, never released, Linotype)
- Tippecanoe + Italic (Designed 1944-46, used only for one book, never released, Linotype)
- Winchester Roman + Italic + Winchester Uncials + Italic (1944–48, hand cast by Dwiggins, never released)
- Stuyvesant + Italic (1949, Linotype), based on type cut by J.F. Rosart in Holland about 1750.
- Eldorado + Italic (1950, Linotype)
- Falcon + Italic (1961, Linotype)
- Experimental 267D (not released)
Books illustrated or designed
- Beau Brummell, Virginia Woolf (Rimington & Hooper, 1930)
- The Complete Angler, Izaak Walton (Merrymount Press, 1928)
- A History of Russian Literature, from the Earliest Times to the Death of Dostoyevsky, Prince D.S. Mirsky (Alfred A. Knopf, 1927)
- The Lone Striker, Robert Frost (Alfred A. Knopf, 1933)
- Paraphs, Hermann Püterschein (Alfred A Knopf for the Society of Calligraphers, 1928)
- The Time Machine: An Invention, H. G. Wells (Random House, 1931)
- The Witch Wolf: An Uncle Remus Story, Joel Chandler Harris (Bacon & Brown, 1921)
External links
- Art Directors Club biography, portrait and images of work
- Inventory of W. A. Dwiggins Collection, University of Maryland Libraries
External references
- Letters of Credit: A View of Type Design, Walter Tracy (1986), pp 174–194
- The Type Designs of William Addison Dwiggins, Vincent Connare, May 22, 2000