Herbert Spencer (22 June 1924 – 11 March 2002) was a British designer, editor, writer, photographer and teacher. He was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

.Rick Poynor (15 March 2002)
Herbert Spencer: Influential typographer with an aesthete's eye for avant-garde design
''The Guardian''. Archived 25 January 2014.Ken Garland. (2002)
Herbert Spencer
'' Eye'' 11 (44, Summer 2002). Archived 2 October 2002.

Life and work

Spencer was an RAF

cartographer Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. He taught

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), an ...

at the Central School of Arts and Crafts from 1949 to 1955. In 1966 he became a senior research fellow in the print research department of the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...

; he was a professor of graphic arts there from 1978 until 1985.Overview: Herbert Spencer (1924–2002)
From ''A Dictionary of Modern Design'', cited at Oxford Index. Accessed January 2014. In 1949 Spencer founded ''

Typographica ''Typographica'' was the name of a journal of typography and visual arts founded and edited by Herbert Spencer from 1949 to 1967. Spencer was just 25 years old when the first ''Typographica'' was issued. He also served as the editor of the journ ...

'', a design and visual arts journal. He was editor of all the thirty-two issues published, in two series of sixteen issues each, from 1949 until it closed in 1967. He also designed and wrote for it. Between 1964 and 1973 Spencer was also editor of '' The Penrose Annual''.

Road signs

Spencer wished to prove that British road signs were chaotic. He therefore photographed road signs and published the results in two photographic essays in '' Typographica'' in 1961. As a result, the Ministry of Transport set up the Worboys Committee in 1963 to devise a consistent system of signage for British road signs.Jock Kinneir + Margaret Calvert: Graphic Designers (1917–1994) + (1936–)
Design Museum. Archived 8 July 2006.

Publications

''Pioneers of Modern Typography'' was a book Spencer wrote in 1969. It drew on and re-used material previously published by Spencer in the journal ''

'', which had brought to Britain some of the

typographical Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and ...

experiments and design history of continental Europe.Robin Kinross (Spring 1984)
Review: Pioneers of Modern Typography by Herbert Spencer
''Design Issues'' 1 (1): 89-91. Lund Humphries described the book as follows:''Pioneers of Modern Typography''
Lund Humphries. Archived 26 January 2014. * ''Design in Business Printing'', 1952 * ''Traces of Man'' (with photographs by Herbert Spencer), Lund Humphries, London, 1967. * ''The Visible Word'' (legibility studies at RCA), Royal College of Art, London, first édition in 1968, second edition in 1969. * ''Words, words, words'' London, Cologne, 1972 * ''New Alphabets A to Z'' (with Colin Forbes). London, NY, 1973 * ''The Liberated page'' London, 1987

Life and work

Road signs

Publications

References

Further reading