19 Facts About Stanley Morison

Stanley Arthur Morison was a British typographer, printing executive and historian of printing.

Stanley Morison's strong aesthetic sense was a force within the company, which starting shortly before his joining became increasingly known for commissioning popular, historically influenced designs that revived some of the best typefaces of the past, with particular attention to the middle period of printing from the Renaissance to the late eighteenth century, and creating and licensing several new type designs that would become popular.

Original typefaces commissioned under Stanley Morison's involvement included Times New Roman, Gill Sans and Perpetua, while revivals of older designs included Bembo, Ehrhardt and Bell.

Times New Roman, the development of which Stanley Morison led to the point that he felt he could consider it his own design, has become one of the most used typefaces of all time.

Stanley Morison was born on 6 May 1889, at Wanstead, Essex, but spent most of his childhood and early adult years in London at the family home in Fairfax Road, Harringay.

Stanley Morison was self-taught, having left school after his father abandoned his family.

In 1913 Stanley Morison became an editorial assistant on The Imprint magazine.

Stanley Morison married Mabel Williamson, a teacher, in 1916; the marriage was an unhappy one and Stanley Morison rapidly separated from his wife.

Stanley Morison moved on to a similar position at the Cloister Press.

Stanley Morison edited the society's journal, The Fleuron, from 1925 to 1930.

From 1923 to 1967, Stanley Morison was a typographic consultant for the Monotype Corporation.

Stanley Morison pioneered the great expansion of the company's range of typefaces, and hugely influenced the field of typography to the present day.

Aesthetically, Stanley Morison disliked the excessive historicity of Victorian romantic fine printing, with its interest in reviving blackletter and the appearance of medieval manuscripts, but preferred a more restrained style of printing that nonetheless rejected the harshly industrial appearance of the "batteries of bold, bad faces" of the nineteenth century.

Stanley Morison became friends with Brooke Crutchley, printer to the University of Cambridge, one of Monotype's best customers, and his archives went to Cambridge after his death.

Stanley Morison was typographical consultant to The Times newspaper from 1929 to 1960; and in 1931, having criticised the paper for the poor quality of its printing, he was commissioned by the newspaper to produce a new, easy-to-read typeface for the publication.

Times New Roman, the typeface which Stanley Morison developed with graphic artist Victor Lardent, was first used by the newspaper in 1932 and was issued commercially by Monotype in 1933.

Stanley Morison edited the History of the Times from 1935 to 1952, and was editor of The Times Literary Supplement between 1945 and 1948.

In 1960, Stanley Morison was elected a Royal Designer for Industry.

Stanley Morison was offered a knighthood in 1953 and the CBE in 1962, but declined both.