It is easy to overlook type design because it is everywhere. Typically we read for content and ignore the familiar structural forms of our alphabet and its formal construction in a typeface. Only when the characters are very large, or are presented to us in an unusual way, do we pay attention to the beautiful curves and rhythms of repetition that form our visible language.

Since Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the mid-fifteenth century, the word has become increasingly technological in its appearance. Early type was cast in metal, but today's new type design is often created digitally on the computer through a combination of visual and mathematical manipulation.

The history of culture can be told through the history of the letterform. The lineage of many typefaces can be traced back to Greek inscriptions, medieval scribal handwriting, or early movable type. Lithos, which means “stone” in Greek, was designed by Carol Twombly as a classically inspired typeface. She examined Greek inscription before attempting to capture the spirit of these letterforms in a type system for contemporary use.

Lithos was not an exact copy from history nor was it created automatically on the computer. Hand sketches, settings that used the typeface in words and sentences were developed and evaluated. Some were judged to be too stiff, some “too funky,” but finally one was just right. These were the early steps in the search for the form and spirit of the typeface. Later steps included controlling the space between letters an designing the variations in weight for a bold font. Twombly even designed foreign-language variations.

Clearly, patience and a well-developed eye for form and system are necessities for a type designer.

As a kid, when I wasn't climbing trees, skiing, or riding horses, I was drawing and sculpting simple things. I wanted a career involving art of some kind. The restrictions of two-dimensional communication appealed to my need for structure and my desire to have my work speak for me. The challenge of communicating an idea or feeling within the further confines of the Latin alphabet lad me from graphic design into type design. -Carol Twombly