At the beginning of the 1920s, Monotype entered a period of achievement that, today, is seen as one of the most important in modern typographic history. It was during this time that, under the direction of Stanley Morison, Monotype developed what was to become the foundation of its current library. This included new designs, such as Gill Sans, Perpetua and Romulus, and revivals of typefaces lost for centuries. Bembo was one of the designs in this latter group.
The history of Bembo originates in Venice, an important typographic center in 15th and 16th century Europe. Many printers established businesses in Venice at this time, but none so significant as Aldus Manutius. Next to Gutenberg, Aldus was perhaps the most influential printer of the Renaissance and the first of many great scholar-printers. Late in the 15th century, Aldus published a relatively insignificant essay by the Italian scholar Pietro Bembo. The type used for the text was a new design commissioned by Aldus and cut by Francesco Griffo, a goldsmith-turned-punchcutter.
The typeface, which was modestly launched in a 60-page favor to a friend and became eminently popular in Italy, soon found its way into France. Here the design came to the attention of Claude Garamond, the famous French type founder, and through his efforts to duplicate it the design eventually spread its influence to Germany, Holland and the rest of Europe. The Aldine roman, as it came to be known, became the foundation of new typeface designs for hundreds of years
Even though Bembo was technically created in the 14th or 15th century it was brought back into its prime in the year 1929. So things that happened in 1929 kinda go like this. Herbert Hoover is the 31st president. The Great Depression started. The first academy awards were announced. The Yankees wear the first uniform numbers. Hoover Dam authorized. Popeye created. Babe Ruth becomes the 1st to hit 500 homers.
The Old Style (or Garalde) types start to demonstrate a greater refinement—to a large extent augmented by the steadily improving skills of punchcutters. As a consequence the Old Style types are characterised by greater contrast between thick and thin strokes, and are generally speaking, sharper in appearance, more refined. You can see this, perhaps most notably in the serifs: in Old Style types the serifs on the ascenders are more wedge shaped (figure1.1).
Another major change can be seen in the stress of the letterforms (figure 1.2) to a more perpendicular (upright) position. You may remember our old friend, the lowercase e of the Humanist (Venetian) types, with its distinctive oblique (sloping) crossbar; with Old Style types we witness the quite sudden adoption of a horizontal crossbar. Fonts that are Old Style include Garamond Premier, Goudy, Cloister, Rinceau, Ingvaeonic.
Stanley Morison (6 May 1889 – 11 October 1967) was an English typographer, designer and historian of printing.
Born in Wanstead, Essex, and self-taught, having left school after his father abandoned his family, Morison became an editorial assistant on Imprint magazine in 1913 . As a conscientious objector he was imprisoned during the First World War, but became design supervisor at the Pelican Press in 1918 .
In 1922 he founded the Fleuron Society dedicated to typographical matters (a fleuron being a typographic flower or ornament). He edited the society's journal The Fleuron from 1925 to 1930 . The quality of the publication's artwork and printing was considered exceptional. From 1923 to 1925 he was a staff editor/writer for the Penrose Annual, a graphics arts journal.
From 1923 to 1967 Morison was typographic consultant for the Monotype Corporation. In the 1920s and 1930s, his work at Monotype included research and adaptation of historic typefaces, including the revival of the Baskerville and Bembo types. He pioneered the great expansion of the company's range of typefaces and hugely influenced the field of typography to the present day.
Morison was also typographical consultant to The Times newspaper from 1929 to 1960 and in 1931, after having publicly criticised the paper for the poor quality of its printing, he was commissioned by the newspaper to produce a new easy-to-read typeface for the publication. Times New Roman, the typeface Morison developed with graphic artist Victor Lardent, was first used by the newspaper in 1932 and was published by Monotype in 1933.
Morison edited the History of the Times from 1935 to 1952 and was editor of the Times Literary Supplement between 1945 and 1948 . He was elected a Royal Designer for Industry in 1960 and was a member of the editorial board of Encyclopædia Britannica from 1961 until his death in 1967 in London.
Other typefaces designed by Morison for the Monotype Corporation include Blado (1923) and Bembo (1929)
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