page_title: William Addison Dwiggins
section_title: Typefaces
hierarchical_section_title: William Addison Dwiggins / Typefaces
caption_attribution_description: Caslon Old Face Italic Type Specimen
context_page_description: William Addison Dwiggins, was an American type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. He attained prominence as an illustrator and commercial artist, and he brought to the designing of type and books some of the boldness that he displayed in his advertising work. His work can be described as ornamented and geometric, similar to the Art Moderne and Art Deco styles of the period, using Oriental influences and breaking from the more antiquarian styles of his colleagues and mentors Updike, Cleland and Goudy.
context_section_description: Dwiggins' interest in lettering led to the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, sensing Dwiggins' talent and knowledge, hiring Dwiggins in March 1929 as a consultant to create a sans-serif typeface, which became Metro, in response to similar type being sold from European foundries such as Erbar, Futura, and Gill Sans, which Dwiggins felt failed in the lower-case. Dwiggins went on to have a successful working relationship with Chauncey H. Griffith, Linotype's Director of Typographic Development, and all his typefaces were created for them. His most widely used book typefaces, Electra and Caledonia, were specifically designed for Linotype composition and have a clean spareness.
  The following list of his typefaces is thought to be complete. Dwiggins had the misfortune of entering the field of type design during a period that encompassed, successively, the Great Depression and the Second World War, and as a result, many of his designs did not progress beyond experimental castings. Several of his typefaces saw commercial release only after his death, or, while not released themselves, have been used as inspiration for other designers.
  Metro series
  Metrolite + Metroblack (1930, Linotype)
  Metrothin + Metromedium (1931, Linotype)
  Metrolite No.2 + Metroblack No.2 (1932, Linotype)
  Metrolite No.2 Italic + Lining Metrothin + Lining Metromedium (1935, Linotype)
  Metromedium No.2 Italic + Metroblack No.2 Italic (1937, Linotype)
  Metrolight No.4 Italic + Metrothin No.4 Italic (Linotype)
  The Metro series was redesigned on entering production, with several characters changed to better echo the then-popular Futura. This formed the Metro No. 2 series. Some revivals return to Dwiggins' original design choices or offer them as alternates.
  Electra series
  Electra + Electra Oblique (italic)  (1935, Linotype)
  Electra Bold + Italic (Linotype)
  Electra Cursive (1940, Linotype, a true italic for Electra)
  Matching ornaments, sometimes called the Caravan series (Linotype)
  Charter (Designed 1937-42, used only for one book, never released, Linotype)
  Hingham (Designed 1937-43, cut in 7 pt. but not released, Linotype)
  Caledonia series
  Caledonia + Italic (1938, Linotype)
  Caledonia Bold + Italic (1940, Linotype)
  Arcadia (Designed 1943-47, used only for Typophile's Chapbook XXII, never released, Linotype)
  Tippecanoe + Italic (Designed 1944-46, used only for The Creaking Stair by Elizabeth Coatsworth, never released, Linotype), Dwiggins's take on Bodoni
  Winchester Roman + Italic + Winchester Uncials + Italic (1944–48, hand-cast by Dwiggins, not released by Linotype; the Roman was later digitized as ITC New Winchester)
  Stuyvesant + Italic (c.1949, used for only a few books, Linotype, never released), based on type cut by Jacques-François Rosart in Holland c.1750.
  Eldorado + Italic (1950, Linotype; revived by Font Bureau in the 1990s in three optical sizes), based on types cut by Jacques de Sanlecque the Elder used by Antonio de Sancha
  Falcon + Italic (developed 1944 / released 1961, Linotype), a "sharp-finished old-style" serif book typeface
  Experimental 63 (c. 1929-32, never released), a humanist modulated sans-serif prefiguring Optima by 25 years, unknown to Zapf before 1969
  Experimental 267D (not released), intended as an answer to Monotype’s Times New Roman, but ultimately abandoned in favor of licensing Times itself.
  Other fonts, inspired by his various lettering projects, have been created after his death, although these were not authorised by Dwiggins in his lifetime:
  Dossier (2020, by Toshi Omagari for his Tabular Type Foundry; based on several unfinished typewriter font designs for Underwood, Remington and IBM)
  Dwiggins Deco (2009, by Matt Desmond for MadType; based on a modular alphabet of geometric shapes made by Dwiggins in 1930 for American Alphabets by Paul Hollister)
  P22 Dwiggins Uncial (2001, by Richard Kegler for International House of Fonts; based on uncial calligraphy by Dwiggins for a 1935 short story)
  P22 Dwiggins Extras (2001, by Richard Kegler for International House of Fonts; a set of decorations based on stencil and woodblock designs used by D
caption: Dwiggins' "How is one to assess" text used in a Linotype specimen of Caslon.
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