Stanley Morison – Designer of Times New Roman Typeface

Stanley Morison (1889-1967) was a print historian and typographic designer.

Biography – Stanley Morison, Graphic Designer

Stanley Morison, widely regarded as one of the most influential typographic designers of the twentieth century, pursued the subject due to his passionate interest. He worked for several publishers and printing houses early on, including Francis Meynell’s Pelican Press and the Cloister Press. 1922, he co-founded the scholarly typographic journal The Fleuron (1922 – 1930) with Oliver Simon. Morison began his career as a freelance consultant. He was quickly appointed typographical adviser to the Monotype Corporation. He became one of England’s greatest types of impresarios over the next ten years.

Monotype

When Stanley Morison joined Monotype, hot-metal type casting machines replaced hand-setting type. Morison revived classical typefaces such as Garamond (1922) and Bembo (1929) and brought Eric Gill to Monotype, commissioning him to design Gill Sans (1928) and Perpetua (1929). He also introduced Berthold Wolpe’s Albertus (1938). In the late 1920s, Morison became a typographic consultant for The Times newspaper, redesigning it and creating the Times New Roman typeface in 1932, becoming one of the world’s most widely used typefaces.

Print historian

Stanley Morison, also known as a distinguished graphic designer, played a vital role in the typographic department of Cambridge University Press from 1925 until 1944. During his career, he published over 170 works on the history of typography, printing, and related subjects. Among his well-known publications are First Principles of Typography, first published in London in 1936 and later in Cambridge in 1950. Additionally, he made significant contributions to The Fleuron, an influential periodical focused on typography and print design.

Additional Reading – Sources

Dormer, P. (1999). The illustrated dictionary of twentieth-century designers: the key personalities in design and the applied arts. Greenwich Ed.

Macmillan, N. (2006). An A-Z of Type Designers. United States: Yale University Press.

Morison, S. (1936). First Principles of Typography. United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.

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