Picerne - Matthew Carter

Matthew Carter is an English type designer, born in 1937. His father, Harry Carter, was also a typographer. At 19, Carter interned at the Joh. Enschede type foundry in the Netherlands.  During this time, Carter learned the art of punchcutting, which is creating letter punches out of steal and then used for printing. With the tools he learned from interning, Carter created his own version of Dante in 1961. After studying in the Netherlands, he returned to London and became the typographic advisor at Crosfield Electronics. Carter was also a freelancer, and a type designer for Mergenthaler Linotype. During this time, Carter developed Bell Centennial, which was the replacement type for Bell Telephone Company. In 1962, Carter created the logo for Private Eye, which is a British magazine. Carter and Mike Parker, another typographer, founded Bitstream Inc. in 1981. Bitstream Inc. is one of the biggest suppliers of type today. Carter then left Bitstream in 1991 and started Carter & Cone, another type foundry with Cherie Cone.

Carter has developed many typefaces for companies, specifically Apple and Microsoft. He also designed for many magazines such as Time, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Wired. He has won many awards for his work, including being a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Carter has a long list of typefaces that he designed, which are the following.

-       Verdana

-       Tahoma

-       Georgia

-       Bell Centennial

-       Cascade Script

-       Elephant

-       Fenway

-       Yale

-       Wrigley

-       Shelley Script

-       Rocky

-       Olympian

-       Gando

-       ITC Galliard

-       Mantinia

-       Miller

-       Carter Sans

-       Big Figgins

-       Big Caslon

-       Bitstream Charter

-       Monticello

-       Nina

-       Snell Roundhead

-       Skia

-       Sophia

-       Walker

-       Vincent

-       Wilson Greek

Below is an example of Carter’s Bitstream Charter.