If you’re a type nut who will be in the London area on Thursday, 28 May, Matthew Carter is going to be giving a free lecture, “Genuine imitations: a type designer’s view of revivals“, at the St Bride Library.
It may be free, but you still have to book a ticket in advance, so act now — the St Bride events have been selling out quite a lot lately. (Great for the library, a little frustrating for interested people who don’t plan ahead.)
“A number of Matthew Carter’s designs have been based on historical types: ITC Galliard, Big Caslon, Big Figgins, Miller and Vincent among them. Others, like Snell Roundhand and Mantinia, were derived from non-typographic sources from the past. In this lecture he explains his debt to the historical legacy — especially to the resources of St Bride’s. His type revivals have varied in faithfulness to their models, which raises questions about the responsibilities of the continuator of traditional forms, about degrees of interpretation, adaptation to current technology, ancestor worship and travesty.”
Update: All sold out now. Hopefully you acted fast and I’ll see you there. Meanwhile, here’s a nice article about Carter from the Washington Post (nothing new if you already know who he is, but it’s nice), since it looks like he’s doing a talk in DC next week (also sold out).