Samuel Winfield "Tommy" Thompson (1906–1967) was an American

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...

and

typeface designer Type design is the art and process of designing typefaces. This involves drawing each letterform using a consistent style. The basic concepts and design variables are described below. A typeface differs from other modes of graphic production su ...

. He was born

Blue Point, New York Blue Point is a hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York, United States. The population was 5,156 at the 2020 census. Blue Point is in the Town of Brookhaven. Geography According to the United States Censu ...

. In 1944 he became the first designer to earn royalties for a type design, from

Photo Lettering Inc. A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...

for his Thompson Quill Script. Previously, designers had worked in house for foundries or had sold the rights to their faces outright. He maintained a studio in Norwalk,

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

and was the author of several books on type and lettering.

Typefaces

Thompson designed all of these foundry types: * Post Headletter (1943,

Monotype Monotyping is a type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface. The surface, or matrix, was historically a copper etching plate, but in contemporary work it can vary from zinc or glass to acrylic glass. The ...

), privately cast for the

Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

. * Collier Heading (1946,

), privately cast for

Collier's Magazine ''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened in 1905 to ''Colli ...

. * Mademoiselle (1953, Baltimore Type Foundry), matrices cut by

Herman Schnorr Herman may refer to: People * Herman (name), list of people with this name * Saint Herman (disambiguation) * Peter Noone (born 1947), known by the mononym Herman Places in the United States * Herman, Arkansas * Herman, Michigan * Herman, Minn ...

. Originally cast for Mademoiselle Magazine, but later offered for general sale. *

Baltimore Script Samuel Winfield "Tommy" Thompson (1906–1967) was an American calligrapher, graphic artist and typeface designer. He was born Blue Point, New York. In 1944 he became the first designer to earn royalties for a type design, from Photo Lettering I ...

(1955, Baltimore Type Foundry), matrices cut by

George Battee George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

. * Additional weights of Futura for Intertype (1950s). * Thompson Quill Script (1953,

American Type Founders American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85% of all type manufactured in the United States. De Vinne, Theodore Low, ''The Practice of Typography,'' Century Comp ...

), this was also made available for

phototypesetting Phototypesetting is a method of setting type. It uses photography to make columns of type on a scroll of photographic paper. It has been made obsolete by the popularity of the personal computer and desktop publishing (digital typesetting). Th ...

In addition, he prepared a version of Baskerville for the ATF Typesetter; this was the first 7-unit typeface for the machine, which previously used 5-unit typefaces similar to those used by the Justowriter on which it was built.Underwood, Richard G., ''Production and Manufacturing Problems of American University Presses,'' Association of American University Presses, 1960. (Later, in 1964, the ATF Typesetter Model B-8, offered an 18-increment system allowing further improved typesetting.)

Books

* ''The script letter; its form, construction and application,'' New York, The Studio Publications Inc., 1939. * ''The ABC Of Our Alphabet, 1945. * ''How to render roman letter forms. A pattern for understanding and drawing roman letters and other styles of lettering and type faces related to them,'' New York, American Studio Books, 1946. * ''Basic layout design; a pattern for understanding the basic motifs in design and how to apply them to graphic art problems,'' New York, Studio Publications, in association with Crowell, c. 1950.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Tommy American typographers and type designers 1906 births 1967 deaths People from Blue Point, New York