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John Downer
Born Tacoma, Wa
Nationality American Occupation(s) Typeface Designer, Logo Designer, Sign Painter Years active 1969-present
John Downer (born 1951) is an American sign painter, typeface and logo designer.
[1]
[2] Downer began his career as a painter of signs.
[3]
[4]
[5] Among his best-known digital fonts are
Iowan Old Style , Roxy,
Triplex Italic , and Brothers.
[6]
[7]
[8]
Downer studied at
Washington State University and the
University of Iowa .
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12] His work was featured amongst that of others in the 2014 documentary Sign Painters .
[13]
[14]
[15] He has lectured on type and sign design at conferences and at
The Cooper Union .
[16]
Typeface designs
Iowan Old Style - Venetian old-style serif
Roxy (Font Bureau) - stroke-modulated sans-serif
Triplex Italic (Emigre)
Brothers (
Emigre ) - chamfered display
wedge-serif influenced by nineteenth-century lettering
[17]
Paperback (House Industries) - text serif face with
optical sizes
SamSans - humanist sans-serif
Vendetta (Emigre) - inspired by old-style Venetian serif fonts but with sharpened serifs
Council (Emigre) - condensed display
wedge-serif , capitals-only
Ironmonger (Font Bureau) - angular all-caps display alphabet inspired by lettering on buildings
Simona (Design Lab) - serif, similar to the work of
Fournier and
Bodoni
Proprietary typefaces
Gonnick [for cartoonist Larry Gonnick]
Screenmax (bitmap serif typefaces at 7 pixel x-height in Roman, Italic, Bold and Black)
References
^ Downer, John.
"The Art of Founding Type" .
Emigre . Retrieved 19 August 2015 .
^
"A sign painter at work" . Kombinat . Archived from
the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^
Hoefler, Jonathan .
"John Downer at The Propagandist" .
Hoefler & Frere-Jones . Retrieved 21 January 2016 .
^
"Défense D'Af: Faux Ghostsign from John Downer" . Ghost Signs (blog) . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^ Hansford, Vanessa.
"Sign Painter, John Downer" . The Simple Things . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^
Butterick, Matthew .
"Iowan Old Style" . Typography for Lawyers . Archived from
the original on January 16, 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2015 .
^ Berry, John.
"An American Typeface Comes of Age" . dot creative . Retrieved 2 August 2015 .
^ Downer, John.
"Call It What It Is" .
Emigre . Retrieved 20 March 2016 .
^
"Alastair Johnston interviews John Downer" (PDF) . Alastair Johnston . Retrieved 21 February 2016 .
^ Thomas, Shelbi.
"The Iowan Type" . Iowa Alumni Magazine . University of Iowa Alumni Association. Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^ Peters, Yyves.
"An Exhibition of Hand Lettered Posters by John Downer" . FontFeed . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^
"Iowa Digital Library collections: John Downer, signpainter" .
University of Iowa . Retrieved 30 October 2021 .
^ Peters, Yyves.
"Sign Painters Movie Explores Contemporary Sign Painting" . Font Feed . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^ Uuong, An.
"Sign Painters: a Sign of the Times" . Artscope . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^ Davies, Bree.
"Sign Painters Shines A Colorful Light on the History of a Hidden Craft" . Westword . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^
"Introduction to Sign Painting" .
Cooper Union . Retrieved 5 May 2016 .
^ Heck, Bethany.
"Brothers review" . Font Review Journal . Retrieved 13 September 2019 .
External links