Edward Johnston

{{short description|British craftsman, calligrapher and typographer}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Edward Johnston

| image = Edward Johnston.png

| caption = Edward Johnston, 1902

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1872|02|11|df=yes}}

| birth_place = San José de Mayo, Uruguay

| death_date = {{death date and age|1944|11|26|1872|02|11|df=yes}}

| death_place = Ditchling, England

| nationality = British

| education = University of Edinburgh

| occupation = Type designer

}}

Edward Johnston, CBE (San José de Mayo, Uruguay 11 February 1872 – 26 November 1944) was a British craftsman who is regarded, with Rudolf Koch, as the father of modern calligraphy, in the particular form of the broad-edged pen as a writing tool.{{Cite book|url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-79760-7|title=Advances in Ergonomics in Design|series=Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems |editor-last=Rebelo|editor-first=Francisco|year=2021|volume=261 |publisher=Springer Cham|via=Springer Link|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-79760-7|isbn=978-3-030-79760-7|s2cid=237284477 }}

He is best known as the designer of Johnston, a sans-serif typeface that was used throughout the London Underground system until the 1980s. He also redesigned the famous roundel symbol used throughout the system.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/people/edward-johnston-man-behind-londons-lettering|title=Edward Johnston: the man behind London's lettering|publisher=London Transport Museum}}

Early life

Johnston was born in San José de Mayo, Uruguay.{{cite web|last1=Crawford|first1=Alex|title=Edward Johnston|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/34/101034209/|website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123104437/http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/34/101034209/|archive-date=23 November 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|title=Font Designer — Edward Johnston|publisher=Linotype GmbH|url=http://www.linotype.com/733/edwardjohnston.html|access-date=5 November 2007}} His father, Fowell Buxton Johnston (born 1839), was an officer in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, and the younger son of Scottish MP Andrew Johnston{{Cite web |date=2009 |title=JOHNSTON, Andrew (1798-1862), of Rennyhill, Fife |url=https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/johnston-andrew-1798-1862 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418231211/http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/johnston-andrew-1798-1862 |archive-date=Apr 18, 2023 |website=History of Parliament Online}} and his second wife, abolitionist Priscilla Buxton,{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=Priscilla |url=http://archive.org/details/extractsfrompris00john |title=Extracts from Priscilla Johnston's journal and letters |date=1862 |publisher=Carlisle : Charles Thurnam and Sons |others=Duke University Libraries}} daughter of Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet. Johnston's uncle (his father's elder brother), also Andrew Johnston, became an MP in Essex in the 1860s.

The family returned to England in 1875. With his father seeking work, and his mother ill, Johnston was raised by an aunt. He was educated at home, and enjoyed mathematics, technology, and creating illuminated manuscripts. His mother died in 1891, and he began to work for an uncle. He spent some time studying medicine at Edinburgh University but did not complete the course.

After his mother's death, his father was remarried, to a sister of Robert Chalmers, 1st Baron Chalmers. Johnston's half-brother, Andrew Johnston (1897–1917), was killed when his aeroplane crashed while serving in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War.

Career

File:Edward Johnston, Writing and Illuminating and Lettering (4935595370).jpg

File:Twelfth Night Johnston.png. It was cut into wood by Johnston's colleague Noel Rooke.]]

After studying published copies of manuscripts by architect William Harrison Cowlishaw, and a handbook by Edward F. Strange, he was introduced to Cowlishaw in 1898 and then to William Lethaby, principal of the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Lethaby advised him to study manuscripts at the British Museum, which encouraged Johnston to make his letters using a broad edged pen.

Lethaby also engaged Johnston to teach lettering, and he started teaching at the Central School in Southampton Row, London, in September 1899, where he influenced the typeface designer and sculptor Eric Gill. From 1901 he also taught a class at the Royal College of Art and many students were inspired by his teachings.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/2017/02/17/edward-johnston/|title=Edward Johnston|publisher=Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220705012134/https://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/2017/02/17/edward-johnston/ |archive-date= Jul 5, 2022 }}

He published a handbook, Writing & Illuminating, & Lettering in 1906. He started a second book in the 1920s but it was unfinished at his death.

In 1913, Frank Pick commissioned him to design a typeface for London Underground, and the simple and clear sans-serif Johnston typeface was the result.

In 1913, Johnston was one of the editors of The Imprint, a periodical for the printing industry. For this paper, Monotype made a complete new font: Imprint, series 101, exclusively for use in The Imprint. Actually this was the first revival character font Monotype made. In the 9 issues of The Imprint, many articles about calligraphy were included.

He has also been credited for reviving the art of modern penmanship and lettering single-handedly through his books and teachings. Johnston also devised the simply crafted round calligraphic handwriting style, written with a broad pen, known today as the foundational hand (what Johnston originally called a slanted pen hand, which was developed from Roman and half-uncial forms).

He influenced a generation of British typographers and calligraphers, including Graily Hewitt, Irene Wellington, Harold Curwen and Stanley Morison, Alfred Fairbank, Florence Kingsford Cockerell, Eric Gill and Percy Delf Smith.{{cite journal|last1=Nash|first1=John|title=In Defence of the Roman Letter|journal=Journal of the Edward Johnston Foundation|url=http://www.ejf.org.uk/Resources/JRNarticle.pdf|accessdate=13 October 2016}} He also influenced the transition from Gothic to Roman letters in Germany, and Anna Simons was a student. He also lectured in Dresden in 1912.{{cite web |title=Holograph drafts of lecture on Lettering and the teaching of lettering, delivered before the Fourth International Congress for Art Education. Dresden, 1912 |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/62348120 |website=search.worldcat.org |access-date=28 August 2024 |language=en}} In 1921, students of Johnston founded the Society of Scribes & Illuminators (SSI), probably the world's foremost calligraphy society.

Not all his students were happy with his decision to create a sans-serif design for the Underground, in a style thought of as modernist and industrial. His pupil Graily Hewitt privately wrote to a friend:

In Johnston I have lost confidence. Despite all he did for us...he has undone too much by forsaking his standard of the Roman alphabet, giving the world, without safeguard or explanation, his block letters which disfigure our modern life. His prestige has obscured their vulgarity and commercialism.{{cite book|last1=Howes|first1=Justin|author-link=Justin Howes|title=Johnston's Underground Type|date=2000|publisher=Capital Transport|location=Harrow Weald, Middlesex|isbn=1-85414-231-3|page=7}}

Johnston also created a blackletter-influenced design for a 1929 German edition of Hamlet.{{cite web|last1=Werner|first1=Sarah|title=Johnston's Hamlet|url=http://hilobrow.com/2014/08/04/kern-your-enthusiasm-4/|website=HiLoBrow|access-date=2 May 2016}}

Personal life

He met Greta Grieg, a Scottish schoolmistress, in 1900, and they were married in 1903. They had three daughters. They lived in London until moving, in 1912, to Ditchling, Sussex, where Eric Gill had settled in 1907. His wife died in 1936. He was appointed a CBE in 1939. He died at home in Ditchling,The Eric Gill Society: [http://www.ericgill.org.uk/associates/edward-johnston-1872-1944 Associates of the Guild: Edward Johnston] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081010172820/http://www.ericgill.org.uk/associates/edward-johnston-1872-1944 |date=10 October 2008 }} and is buried in St Margaret's churchyard.{{cite web |url=https://sussexparishchurches.org/church/ditchling-st-margaret/ |website=Sussex Parish Churches |access-date=11 July 2022 |title=Ditchling – St Margaret (Monuments)}}

Edward Johnston Memorial in Farringdon Station

A memorial to Johnston was unveiled in 2019 at Farringdon Station. Designed by Fraser Muggeridge, it is dedicated to both Johnston and his underground alphabet. Compared to both signage and sculpture, the memorial is huge wood type mounted on the wall of the underground station.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAxVW-9fRo|title=Edward Johnston: A Memorial in Type (documentary)|accessdate=17 August 2022|via=www.youtube.com}}{{Cite web |title=Edward Johnston: the man behind London’s lettering |url=https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/stories/people/edward-johnston-man-behind-londons-lettering |access-date=2024-05-26 |website=London Transport Museum |language=en}}

File:Edward Johnston memorial at Farringdon.jpg

Publications

File:West Brompton.jpg

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston

| year = 1906

| title = Writing & Illuminating & Lettering

| others = illustrations by Johnston & Rooke

| publisher = Dover Publications

| isbn = 0-486-28534-0

| url = https://archive.org/details/writingilluminat00johnrich

}}{{cite journal|title=Review of Writing and Illuminating, and Lettering by Edward Johnston|journal=The Athenaeum|issue=4163|date=August 10, 1907|page=161|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__I_PcOFSw8C&pg=PA161}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1986

| title = Lessons in Formal Writing

| publisher = Taplinger Publishing Company

| isbn = 0-8008-4642-7

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1909

| title = Manuscript & Inscription Letters

| others = 5 plates by Gill, at least one engraved by Rooke

| publisher = John Hogg

| location = London

| url = https://archive.org/details/cu31924020596601

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1913

| title = articles about calligraphy

| edition = The Imprint

| publisher = The Imprint Publishing Company

| location = Covent Garden, London

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1990

| title = Decoration and Its Uses

| publisher = Tenspeed

| isbn = 0-89815-401-4

}}

First publication of this text appeared in "The Imprint", 1913, vol. 1: pp. 7–14, vol. 2: pp. 128–133
{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1914

| title = The House of David, his Inheritance: A Book of Sample Scripts

| edition = manuscript on vellum

| publisher = Victoria and Albert Museum

| location = London

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1966

| title = The House of David, his Inheritance: A Book of Sample Scripts 1914 A.D.

| editor = J. P. Hartman

| pages = 32

| publisher = Victoria and Albert Museum

| location = facsimile of the manuscript, original in: Victoria and Albert Museum

| isbn = 0-11-290236-7

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1971

| title = Formal Penmanship and other papers

| editor = Heather Child

| pages = 156

| publisher = Lund Humphries Publishers Limited

| location = London

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1915

| title = A carol and other rhymes

| publisher = Hampshire House Workshops

| location = London

| url = https://archive.org/details/carolotherrhymes00john

}}

{{cite book

| first = Edward

| last = Johnston |author-mask=2

| year = 1937

| title = "Penmanschip" in: in: S.P.E. Tract no. XXVIII, "English Handwriting"

| editor = Robert Bridges

| edition = second impression

| pages = 239–245

| publisher = Oxford University Press

| location = Oxford

}}

References

External links

[http://www.ejf.org.uk/ The Legacy of Edward Johnston] at www.ejf.org.uk The Edward Johnston Foundation
[http://www.vads.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=search&words=edward+johnston+central+saint+martins+museum&mode=boolean Edward Johnston's works held at the Central Saint Martins Museum and Study Collection] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120629063734/http://www.vads.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=search&words=edward+johnston+central+saint+martins+museum&mode=boolean |date=29 June 2012 }}
[http://www.vads.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=search&words=edward+johnston+crafts+study+centre&mode=boolean Edward Johnston at the Crafts Study Centre] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219081413/http://www.vads.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=search&words=edward+johnston+crafts+study+centre&mode=boolean |date=19 February 2012 }}
[http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?search=ss&sText=Edward+Johnston&LinkID=mp02447&rNo=0&role=sit National Portrait Gallery] Edward Johnston, 1937
[https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/collections/collections-online/photographs London Transport Museum Photographic Archive]
{{LTM archive|1998-81306|Example of Johnston font used on a bus stop}}
{{LTM archive|1998-20736|Edward Johnston working at Lincoln's Inn Field}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20071013022934/http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/results.php?cmd=search&words=%22edward+johnston%22&mode=boolean&submit.x=8&submit.y=11&submit=submit Edward Johnston Collection] held by the Crafts Study Centre and hosted online by the [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012233436/http://vads.ahds.ac.uk/index.php Visual Arts Data Service (VADS)]
[http://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft] holds many Edward Johnston works and personal effects
[http://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk/event/underground-100-years-of-edward-johnston-lettering-for-london/ Underground: 100 Years of Edward Johnston's Lettering for London] exhibition at [http://www.ditchlingmuseumartcraft.org.uk Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft] March - September 2016
[https://archive.org/stream/writingilluminat00johnuoft#page/n5/mode/2up Writing & Illuminating & Lettering, 8th edition 1917] is online at The Internet Archive in various formats PDF, Plain Text, DAISY, ePub and Kindle]