Book 475
Typographically Speaking: The Art of Matthew Carter
Margaret Re
Princeton Architectural Press 2002
Matthew Carter (b. 1937) is a legendary typographer whose name should be better known. The New Yorker once described Carter as “the most widely read man in the world,” owing to the ubiquitousness of some of his best-known fonts and type designs. Basically, everyone knows Carter’s work even if you don’t realize it. Verdana, Georgia, Tahoma, Galliard, along with scores of others—these were all created by Carter. But my favorite might be Bell Centennial, created in the 70s for use in phone books. On the occasion of their centennial, AT&T tasked Carter with creating a type that would use substantially less space than the then-current Bell Gothic without loss of legibility at the small sizes and poor printing process used for phone books. And even though I haven’t seen an actual phone book in years, I still have a clear memory of Bell Centennial and its clarity and functionality. Truth is, I think I kinda miss it. Phone books, too.