Baxter and Jullien: building the foundations of mass consumer culture in the early Victorian era

Early Victorian sheet music marketing addressed the issues of the day which, it transpires, were not so very different from our own obsessions.

Disclaimer: I’m married to her. (Banksy is No.2)

An historical paradox, revealed and resolved

And how I’ve adapted my practice to resist its latest incursion

It’s a strategy that’s served me well.

It’s been a busy year!

And the video I made about it.

An art gallery show of my typefaces

Tom Thomson’s famous painting is a little wan, in the flesh.

I ask myself, how on earth did I think up all those typeface names?

My new typeface simulates the experience of reading in olden days, by diverse means

Rembrandt’s etchings, as a body of work, inspired the catalogue raisonné

When Art found Truth wanting

In which the bibliophile interviews himself

This is a game I take very, very seriously, because I enjoy it so much!

On the significance of coincidence

How Vittorio Alinari transformed a prize-winning painting into a global icon

My new work is a series of prints inspired by a passion for old foundry catalogs.

That’s a long-term commitment!

In which I interrogate myself on a variety of topics

Delving into “Rodin’s Last Sculpture,” a bizarre relic fraught with meaning

A formal analysis of Hollie Adams’ photography of the recent violence in Rotherham

On finding an old print of young Miss Cholmondeley gathering bluebells

The history of Cartier, Canada’s first Roman typeface, and how I went about restoring it

The scale of the 7” format produced some powerful graphics

There’s a story behind each of these quotes, and the fonts in which they‘re set.

Out of the blue, I experienced a Baskerville event.

Over the years, through successive waves of change, the Times typeface has been a persistent presence in my career—one way or another.

A thoroughly subjective selection, acquired at thrift and used book stores in southern Ontario

What on Earth could cause me to resurrect an experiment abandoned 43 years ago?

In 1962, Allan Fleming and George Lois engaged typography as conceptual art

In which Karey Shinn rescues a group of abandoned dolls and recreates a famous album cover.

How I helped preserve Leeds’ historic back-to-back neighbourhoods.

The best-selling authors of their day, if not the best.

Chess champion and new media journalist Howard Staunton revolutionized the game, promoting the design of the pieces which bear his name.

How different book publishers, editors and designers have presented Richard Harrington’s photographs of famine, taken in 1950, in the years since.

Against the tyranny of tech progress, my latest fonts wring new design concepts from a 20-year old innovation: contextual alternates.

George Gershwin’s masterpiece has inspired many an interpretation.

Addressing issues of celebrity and identity, I’ve created five thematic artefacts—serial works designed specifically for social media—that will be posted in the coming months, on several platforms.

How English is spoken can change one’s life profoundly