Women in Typography: Fonts That Changed History

Contents:

• The Pre-War Era: 1900–1940
• The Emergence of Post-Industrial Society: 1940–1980
• The Evolution of Digital Technologies: From 1980 to 2000
• The Modern Era: 2000–2020

Nowadays, there are roughly equal numbers of women and men working in the design field. However, if we turn to the most famous names in typeface design, even over the past hundred years, we will see that men predominate among them. In this article, we will analyze the reasons for this phenomenon and explain why it would be a mistake to consider modern typography exclusively a "man's job."

In this article, you will learn about:

• The reasons why type foundries were exclusively manned can be explained by a number of factors. Firstly, historically, the role of women in society was limited, and their participation in professions involving physical labor or technical skills was often considered inappropriate. Secondly, work in a type foundry required a certain amount of physical effort and technical training, which also contributed to the predominance of men in this field.

  Furthermore, there were social stereotypes that determined which professions were considered "male" or "female." This created barriers for women wishing to engage in such activities. It is also worth noting that traditional family roles often confined women to the home, which limited their opportunities to participate in such industries.

  Thus, a combination of cultural, social, and historical factors contributed to the fact that type foundries remained a predominantly male workspace.

• The first woman to create typefaces was known as Elsa M. von Neumann.
• The woman behind the creation of the Baikonur and Kama typefaces is a prominent figure in the world of typography. Her works embody a unique combination of aesthetics and functionality, making them sought after by designers and typeface enthusiasts. Each of her creations reflects a deep understanding of both traditions and modern trends in graphic design. The Baikonur typeface is inspired by space themes, while Kama has a more down-to-earth, but no less appealing character. These typefaces have become not just writing tools, but true works of art that find use in a variety of projects, from advertising to books. This designer's creative path highlights the importance of individual approach in typeface creation and its influence on visual culture.
• The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) collection features typefaces designed by renowned designer Emily Simons. She is known for her contribution to the world of typography and has created a number of typefaces that have become part of the museum's collection.
• Must-see works;
• Currently, there is a significant shift in the gender balance in the field of typography. More and more women are occupying key positions and making their contribution to this field, which promotes a diversity of opinions and approaches. Previously, typography was considered a predominantly male profession, but the modern world strives for inclusivity, and more and more young designers, many of whom are women, are beginning to create unique typefaces and work on projects that reflect their personal style. This change not only enriches the industry but also contributes to a broader perception of typography as an art in which everyone, regardless of gender, can participate. Thus, the gender balance in typography is becoming more equal, opening up new horizons for creativity and innovation.

One of the key reasons why women's access to the design profession has long remained limited is the lack of access to educational programs. Even when women were given the opportunity to study art and design, they were often directed toward skills in fields traditionally considered "feminine" – such as weaving, fabric painting, pottery, illustration, stained glass, and calligraphy. As a result, the first typefaces designed by women were used primarily for decorative purposes and had much in common with calligraphy.

Another reason for the gender inequality in type design is the specific technical processes involved in printing. For a long time, creating letters, or typefaces, involved hard and often "dirty" work, including carving wood or casting lead. Over time, thanks to the development of technology, the process of font production became more simplified, and working with them became more accessible to women. However, this occupation was not distinguished by a high status: women received significantly lower wages. Moreover, they often worked on machines that men ignored or underestimated.

The late nineteenth century saw significant changes in printing with the advent of Monotype and Linotype, which replaced traditional hand typesetting with mechanical processing. Mechanical typesetting was later replaced by phototypesetting, and then digital technology revolutionized the field. With each new invention, the number of women working in this profession increased significantly.

The Pre-War Era: 1900–1940

The first prominent figures in the field of typography began to emerge at the very beginning of the 20th century. These professionals, men, received their education in design and calligraphy in the late 19th century, namely in the 1880s and 1890s, and then began their professional careers. Entry into the printing trades was restricted to those with the relevant education, which severely limited opportunities for women, as they were unable to obtain it. In Germany, the first department to admit women in the fields of art and calligraphy opened its doors only in the early 20th century. However, even in these schools, their primary training focused on illustration, textiles, and decorative arts, leaving little opportunity for studying typography.

The Bauhaus emphasized the importance of equal education for men and women, yet almost all women ended up in the weaving workshop. Only a few managed to overcome this unspoken barrier and pursue more complex technical disciplines, such as metalworking or architecture. Walter Gropius's Declaration of Equal Rights and Opportunities remained in the realm of words and notes, without being implemented in reality.

Although it was difficult for women to obtain specialized education before the Second World War, notable female figures in the world of typography emerged as early as the late 19th century. Thus, Hildegard Henning, who created the Belladonna typeface for the Julius Klinkhardt printing house in 1912, became the first female typeface designer and left her mark on history.

At the turn of the century, some of the most famous female designers were Elizabeth Colwell and Elizabeth Friedlander. The former gained popularity through her newspaper advertisements, which she designed using a handwritten font. Friedlander, in turn, designed a font called Elizabeth, which was introduced by the German printing house Bauer in 1937. By that time, she had already left Germany to escape the threat of the Holocaust. Friedlander spent the rest of her life in the UK, where she achieved significant success in the design field.

The Emergence of Post-Industrial Society: 1940–1980

By the late 1950s, hand typesetting had completely given way to mechanized processes. This greatly simplified the work, but the importance of speed outweighed the aesthetic aspects. In the United States, mass production of new machines, such as Monotypes and Linotypes, began. In the Soviet Union, these technological innovations became available almost immediately after the end of World War II: in 1947, the Leningrad Printing Machine Plant began producing new machines.

Creating a font for Monotype required careful preparation. Each character at a new size required the development of a unique design and a separate letter. Drawings for metal matrices were produced in specialized studios. The font development process began with the designer's work, after which the letters were redrawn at a reduced scale, which often entailed changes in their shape.

The letters were created based on the drawings. Although the type foundries were predominantly staffed by women—as can be seen in photographs from these workshops—their contributions always remained anonymous.

Before 1940, women creating more than two typefaces were quite unusual. However, the second half of the 20th century saw a significant increase in both the number of female designers and the volume of their work. Gudrun Zapf-von Hesse designed over ten typefaces during her career. She began learning calligraphy in the 1930s while working in a bookbinding workshop in Weimar. By the end of the 1940s, she had created her first capital letter, Hesse-Antiqua, which was intended for book embossing. Zapf-von Hesse's career in type design began when she took a job at the Stempel type foundry. The first typeface she created for mass production was Diotima, introduced in 1952. It was followed by the display typefaces Smaragd and Ariadne, as well as Shakespeare, released in 1968 specifically for the publication of Shakespeare's sonnets. Throughout her life, Zapf-von Hesse worked with typefaces, including digital versions, which she began collaborating with in the 1990s.

At the same time, Galina Bannikova was working in the field of fonts, book graphics, and easel graphics. Her most famous work is the Bannikovskaya typeface, created in 1950 as part of the production of typesetting fonts by the Polygraphmash Scientific Production Association.

During her work, Bannikova carefully studied early Russian civil fonts dating back to the early 18th century, as well as European fonts of the Renaissance period. This in-depth study contributed to the development of a unique design for a Cyrillic font in the antique style. Among her other famous works are the Baikonur (1960-1969) and Kama (1967-1971) fonts.

Galina Bannikova also researched issues of font legibility and the distinction of individual characters, which was especially relevant for book and newspaper publishing. She became the author of a number of theoretical and historical works devoted to typographic art.

Another significant figure in the typographic world of the mid-20th century is Margaret Calvert. In the late 1950s, this British designer, specializing in graphics and type, worked with her mentor and later studio partner, John Kinnear, to redesign road signs in the United Kingdom.

The typefaces and visual concepts they created set new design standards for transport systems across Europe. In 1963, Calvert and Kinnear designed the typeface known as Transport, which continues to be used on road signs in the UK.

Unfortunately, her name was undeservedly forgotten for many years, and recognition came to her only after the death of her studio partner. Nevertheless, Calvert continues to actively create fonts and participates in various design conferences.

The Evolution of Digital Technologies: From 1980 to 2000

In the 1980s, personal computers began to actively penetrate everyday life, which became a real breakthrough in the field of font design. Previously, to create a letter, a designer had to realize it in a physical format, producing type. However, with the advent of software for creating digital outline fonts, this process has undergone significant changes.

Modern technologies have significantly reduced the distance between the stages of design and production of fonts. This phenomenon contributed to the "democratization" of the font creation process: designers now have the opportunity to develop and export fonts for printing directly on their computers. It is important to note that no special education was required to work with such programs.

At this time, Barbara Lind, Linnea Lundquist, Kim Booker, and Lori Szujewska join the Adobe team. Carol Twombly, another type designer at the company, worked at Adobe for over ten years and made significant contributions to the development of typefaces such as Trajan, Myriad, and Adobe Caslon. In 1999, she decided to leave her profession and focus on creative pursuits: drawing, beadwork, basket weaving, and fabric painting. One of the reasons for her departure was that she was never able to appreciate the new screen fonts that became popular in accordance with the demands of the time.

A prominent figure in the design scene of the 1980s and 1990s, Zuzana Licko, born in 1961, is the author of over thirty font families and one of the first female designers to explore digital typefaces in depth. She was introduced to computers by her father, who helped him process data during summer vacations. In 1984, she founded Emigre magazine with her husband, Rudi VanderLans, where she designed fonts on her new Macintosh using a bitmap font program.

In the mid-1990s, she adapted two historical typefaces: Mrs. Eaves, which became a modern take on Baskerville, and Filosofia, inspired by Bodoni. Lichko modernized these fonts to make them suitable for both print and screen use, and developed an extensive set of ligatures for each. In 2011, the Museum of Modern Art in New York included five digital typefaces from the Emigre collection in its Design and Architecture Collection.

Fiona Ross worked at Linotype from 1978 to 1989, becoming the first woman in a management position. Her responsibilities included developing fonts and typesetting schemes for non-Latin alphabets. She employed an exclusively female team. Fiona is currently a type designer at Tiro Typeworks, a consultant in the field, and a lecturer at the University of Reading in the UK. Her expertise covers Arabic, South Asian, and Thai type design. Her well-known works include typefaces such as Adobe Devanagari, Adobe Thai, and Murty Kannada, which were created in collaboration with other designers.

The Modern Era: 2000–2020

Since the early 1990s, the world of typography has undergone significant changes. The number of personal computers has steadily increased, and with each passing year, screen resolutions have increased, making it possible to clearly see even the most subtle nuances of fonts. Designers began to actively use not only desktop PCs but also laptops, which opened up new horizons for working anytime and anywhere.

The number of programs for creating fonts has increased. Since the early 2000s, FontLab was considered the main tool in this field, but applications such as RoboFont and Glyphs soon entered the market. The profession of font designer has become more accessible, and young professionals, a significant number of whom are women, are entering the field.

Alexandra Korolkova began her journey in the world of typography in the early 2000s while studying at university. Today, her creations have won numerous awards. She is an employee of ParaType, a leading company in the Russian font market. Alexandra also teaches typeface design and is the author of a book entitled "Living Typography."

In 2013, Alexandra Korolkova became the first Russian designer to be awarded the Charles Peignot Prize for outstanding contribution to type design, which the Association Typographique Internationale awards only a few times a decade. Korolkova is a key figure in the development of such typefaces as Circe and Golos, as well as a new typeface system for Sberbank and other projects. One of her most notable achievements is the creation of the PT Sans and PT Serif typeface families, developed between 2009 and 2011. These fonts were created as part of a project aimed at creating a single font supporting all languages ​​spoken in Russia, in collaboration with Olga Umpeleva under the supervision of Vladimir Efimov.

Fonts created by Veronica Burian, designer and co-founder of TypeTogether, have also won international awards. For example, her typeface Maiola was awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Type Design by The Type Directors Club in 2004. Several other typefaces designed by TypeTogether have also received recognition at international competitions such as the ED-Awards and ISTD. The company actively supports young designers through the Gerard Unger Fellowship, which provides graduates with the opportunity to develop projects they began during their studies.

The early 2000s marked the launch of many women whose achievements in typography deserve special recognition. Here is just a small fragment of this extensive list:

• Andrea Thinnes is the person who founded the typecuts project.
• Verena Gerlach is a designer who works independently in her personal studio.
• Laura Meseguer is the creator of the Type-Ø-Tones studio.
• Ryoko Nishizuka, lead designer at Adobe Fonts;
• Gayane Baghdasaryan, creator of the Brownfox studio.
• Nadine Chahine is the founder of the I Love Typography project dedicated to fonts, and also a designer of Arabic fonts as part of her second venture, ArabicType.
• Alice Savoy is a designer working on her own project called Frenchtype.
• Sol Matas is one of the founders of the typographic studio Huerta Tipográfica.
• Liron Lavi Turkenich is The founder of the "Aravit" initiative, which combines elements of Hebrew and Arabic.

At international font conferences, these women emphasize not only their professional achievements, but also their individuality. Just a few years ago, such events were almost always in the hands of men. Louise Fili, for example, shares memories of being the only female representative at font conferences in the 1980s.

Paula Scher argued that for designers, participation in conferences is an important step towards popularity. Although more than half of art university graduates in Europe are women, event organizers often claim that they select speakers based on the fame of their work or the relevance of their experience.

The issue of gender balance in fields where women are no less present, and sometimes even more present, than men has only recently become a pressing issue. However, changes are already being observed. For example, at the Typomania conference in 2018, women made up only 4% of the total number of participants, while in 2019 this figure increased to 16%. In 2021, the number of women participants almost equaled the number of men.

Both the place and importance of women in type design have changed over time. The first typeface designed by a woman was a sample that appeared in 1912, and female type designers were quite rare at the time. Women now make up the majority of students in specialized educational institutions and courses in this field.

As the author of a book on women's typography, I am often faced with the question of why there are so few prominent women in the world of type design. This always surprises me. In fact, there are quite a lot of such designers, their names have simply not been actively researched. Perhaps they are not yet in the public eye, they are rarely invited to conferences and public events, but they exist and continue to create and present new fonts every day.

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• Katya Shashina, head of the Moscow branch of Ladies, Wine & Design, an organization whose goal is to help women in the design field, shared her thoughts.