Dylan Aiston - Rockwell Typography Presentation

Rockwell

A quick glance into one of the world’s most recognizable typefaces.

By Dylan Aiston

Heavy, striking lines

Thick, bold serifs

Frank Hinman Pierpoint, arranged using the letters he created.

Picture: Autumn-Gracy

Frank Hinman Pierpoint

F

rank Hinman Pierpoint was an American engineer and typographer, born in 1860, New Haven, Connecticut. He spent his youth training to become a mechanic which lead him to being employed in 1886 with a patent office. This patent office was his gateway into typography and he got to grips with typesetting machinery.

After learning the art of typography, Pierpoint left for Europe where he directed Typograph Setzmachinen-Fabrik; a German company that manufactured

typesetting machines. His career then lead him to Surrey, England, where he became a factory manager and board member of Lanston Monotype, a part of the Monotype Corporation. Here he helped oversee the reproduction and revival of classic fonts while also supervising the designing of modern fonts, including the likes of Times New Roman.

Pierpoint not only supervised typography design, he also designed his own typefaces and font families, some of which can be seen on the right.

Imprint Plantin Monotype Grotesque Horley Oldstyle Bembo Rockwell

The Monotype Corporation This image shows the Monotype Corporation in action. The Monotype Corporation has produced over 18,000 typefaces since its inception, including Rockwell!

Picture: via Megan Kroh

Origins & Intentions Headlines Subheads Titles Logos Advertising Captions

R

ockwell was released by the Monotype Corporation in 1934 . It sought to improve upon its predecessor, Litho Antique, the font Rockwell was based on.

However, Motoype Corporation was not the only industry looking to emulate Litho Antique’s style. They had to compete against a German typography corporation called Stempel Foundry. Monotype ended up winning the battle as Rockwell has remained popular for nearly a century.

Like most slab-serif typefaces, Rockwell was intended to be used mainly for display. Its bold nature and thick, blocky serifs inhibit the font when scaled down lower than 12pt, however, they shine when the font is presented at large point sizes. Monotype initially created it for use in headlines. While this has seen some use, its usage as a general display font has been much more prevalent. The afformentioned serifs and its bold geometric shape also means that Rockwell is perfect for reading from a distance.

Made for Display

Readability at a distance

Characte Slab-Serifs

eristics Vertical Stress

Geometric Shape

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN

dyna Short ascenders...

and descenders.

NOPQRSTUVWXYZA

amic High x-height

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN Serif at the apex of the capital A

Anom Low Contrast

NOPQRSTUVWXYZA Lowercase ‘a’ deviates from a geometric shape

maly

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN

BO Higher Contrast

NOPQRSTUVWXYZA

LD Longer Serifs

Real World Use

1934 Used in promotional material for the 1986 World Fair

Used on the cover of the Guinness Book of World Records in 1991

- 2021 Used in Modern day advertising

Used in manuals for Lego

Descriptions and Tracklisting

Eye Catching Advertising

Titles of DIY Books “The easy guide to DIY fashion”

Perfect for Headings Im Lauf der Zeit (Kings of the Road) is Wim Wender’s seventh feature length film.

and SubHeadings The lead character is a traveling projectionequipment mechanic who visits worn-out theaters.

Even Eye Tests!

Rockwell has gone on to inspire many modern day typographers who have used the font as a springboard for their own creations.

A Font Family Tree

Rockwell

Knile

Bibliography Slinn, J., Carter, S., Southall, R. and Boag, A., 2014. History of the Monotype Corporation. London: Printing Historical Society.

Jaspert, W., Berry, W. and Johnson, A., 1970. Encyclopaedia of Type Faces. 4th ed.

London: Blandford Press, p.194.

The Academic Book of the Future. 2019. Rockwell Typeface. [online] Available at: <https://academicbookfuture.org/2015/02/19/rockwell-typeface/#:~:text=Rockwell%20is%20a%20distinctive%20version,subtle%20changes%20 in%20glyph%20formation.> [Accessed 25 May 2021].

FontsInUse. 2021. Rockwell. [online] Available at: <https://fontsinuse.com/ typefaces/5086/rockwell?filters=all> [Accessed 26 May 2021].

Luong, M., 2018. F18 C1: Rockwell Typeface Study. [online] Medium. Available at: <https://medium.com/@mirandaluongnyc/project-3-4-rockwell-typefacestudy-90289a31594a> [Accessed 26 May 2021].