W.A. Dwiggins & F.W. Goudy

A young W.A. Dwiggins worked on book designs and lettering from the Goudy's dining room table when they lived in Hingham MA (circa 1904-5). Bertha Goudy and Mabel Dwiggins were very close friends who shared many adventures together. Later in life WAD seems to have made some derogatory remarks about Goudy and his work.... I wonder if it was a true falling out or if they remained friends. Mabel certainly wrote fondly of Bertha after her death in "Hingham Interlude", an essay in a collection titled "Bertha S. Goudy – First Lady of Printing".

Goudy's 'Companion' sneak preview

Ascender's Jim Ford is starting work on a version of Goudy's 'Companion' typeface. Originally designed for the magazine 'Women's Home Companion' in 1927 and first used in the June 1931 issue. The 2nd page of the magazine has an article about the design entitled 'Our New Dress'... it notes Companion as a design 'with a degree of strength, yet with a touch of femininity; a type easily legible and also decorative. It must as well harmonize with the body type of the magazine' (which was Goudy's 'Garamont' typeface).

Letterpress proofs of the roman typeface were provided by Richard Matthews at University of Tampa Press. The italic proofs were made by Rich Hopkins at Hill & Dale Press. Shown above are a few letters currently being digitized:

Slides from Goudy presentation

I gave a short talk about the Goudys and some of my recent work at a conference called TypeCon in Atlanta, GA in July. I've uploaded the presentation and hope you find it useful and/or enjoyable. Steve

http://www.goudyfonts.com/pdf/GoudyLecture7-2009.pdf

Bertham - Goudy's 100th font

Steve Matteson recently completed work on his latest Goudy revival: Bertham Pro.

Bertham Pro is unmistakably American in appearance recalling a day of quality craftsmanship and hard work.

The Bertham Pro fonts include a variety of OpenType features including swash capitals, small capitals and old style figures.

View Bertham Pro at www.Ascenderfonts.com.

Calling All Fonts

Ascender is hoping to make this site the place to find the 'best' versions of Goudy fonts. Subjective? Yes! But criteria would include character set completeness, design quality (curve shape, spacing, kerning, detailing). It may be possible or even necessary for us to include more than one version. We are happily taking your suggestions and submissions which will bring the best of the Goudy legacy to the web.

Goudy Fleurons font released

Today we completed work on our newest Goudy font - a picture font called Goudy Fleurons. You can check it out at www.AscenderFonts.com

Goudy's Friar font now available for download

Goudy's 105th font, Friar, has recently been introduced by Ascender as part of their new collection of digital revivals. Friar Pro is a tribute to Frederic W. Goudy and his joy of typographic exploration. Friar Pro was developed by Steve Matteson, and features a range of OpenType typographic features. An interactive font sample and a PDF Type Specimen is available for viewing on the AscenderFonts.com website.