Jump to content

Cyrus Highsmith

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyrus Highsmith (born 1973)[1] is an American typeface designer, illustrator, and author.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997, he worked at Font Bureau in Boston as Senior Type Designer[8][9] until founding his own type foundry, Occupant Fonts, in 2016, distributing alongside his former employers via the Type Network service.[10][11]

Some of Highsmith’s most well-known typefaces are Zócalo, used by the Mexican daily El Universal, and the Antenna series, which was used in several magazine designs[12] as well as by Ford and the official Star Wars website. Other clients for custom fonts include or have included The Wall Street Journal, Martha Stewart Living, La Prensa Gráfica of El Salvador, ESPN, and Men’s Health. His typefaces Prensa and Relay won the 2001 Bukvaːraz! award,[13][14] organized by ATypI (the International Typographic Association) in 2001. In 2015, Cyrus Highsmith received the Gerrit Noordzij Prize by the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague.[15][16]

In addition to typeface design, Highsmith has been teaching at his alma mater, the Rhode Island School of Design, since 2000,[17] while also lecturing and taking part in juries in North America, Japan and across Europe.[18] He is the author of Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals published by Font Bureau in 2012.[19] With his own imprint, Occupant Press, he publishes children’s books and other prints. In 2016, Highsmith founded Occupant Fonts in Providence, Rhode Island, which continues to publish his typefaces designed while at Font Bureau as well as new releases.

In September 2017, it was announced that Occupant Fonts had been acquired by the Japanese type foundry Morisawa [ja] [20][21] and thenceforth functioned as their Providence drawing office, with Highsmith as its creative director, overseeing RISD graduates June Shin, Marie Otsuka and Cem Eskinazi.[22] The first two releases in cooperation with Morisawa are Citrine and the Latin-character range of A1 Gothic (both derived from his typeface Allium), published that same year.[23]

List of typefaces

[edit]
A FontShop specimen image of Highsmith's Quiosco. It was inspired by the approach of type designer William Addison Dwiggins in creating an obvious difference between the curve shapes on the outside and inside of the letterforms.
  • Allium
    • Citrine (for Morisawa)
    • A1 Gothic (latin-character range; for Morisawa)
  • Amira
  • Antenna
  • Antenna Serif
  • Benton Sans
  • Biscotti
  • Bureau Roman
  • Caslon’s Egyptian
  • CySans[24]
  • Daley’s Gothic
  • Dispatch
  • Eggwhite
  • Escrow
  • Gasket
  • Heron Sans
  • Heron Serif
  • Ibis
  • Icebox
  • Loupot
  • Magmatic (with June Shin)
  • Miller Headline
  • Novia
  • Occupant Gothic
  • Prensa
  • Quiosco
    • Quiosco Display (with Cem Eskinazi)
  • Relay
  • Salvo Sans
  • Salvo Serif
  • Scout
  • Serge
  • Stainless
  • Tick
  • Tock
  • Zócalo

Books

[edit]

Text and illustrations

[edit]
  • Highsmith, Cyrus, & Occupant Fonts staff. How to Speak Rooster. Providence (Rhode Island): Occupant Fonts, 2018. ISBN 978-0-9898333-1-8
  • Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals (Revised Edition). Princeton Architectural Press, 2020. ISBN 978-1-61689-941-7
  • Apple Bear Cat. Providence (Rhode Island): Occupant Press, 2013.
  • Inside Paragraphs: Typographic Fundamentals. Boston: Font Bureau, 2012. ISBN 978-0-9654-7220-3

Illustrations/Picture book

[edit]

About

[edit]
  • KABK, ed. Products of a Thinking Hand (Gerrit Noordzij Prize exhibition book). The Hague: Uitgeverij de Buitenkant, 2018. ISBN 978-9-4909-1382-3

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Cyrus Highsmith". MyFonts. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  2. ^ Macmillan, Neil (2006). An A-Z of Type Designers. Yale University Press. pp. 105–6. ISBN 0-300-11151-7.
  3. ^ Rawsthorn, Alice (5 December 2010). "The Look of Letters". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  4. ^ Middendorp, Jan. "Space and Rhythm". Eye. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  5. ^ Heller, Steven. "Rebel Without a Caslon: An Interview with Cyrus Highsmith". AIGA. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  6. ^ Palino, Christian. "An Interview with Cyrus Highsmith". Typographica. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  7. ^ Garcia, Mario R.; Reibstein, Reed. "Cyrus Highsmith: An interview with one of America's top type craftsmen". Garcia Media. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  8. ^ Middendorp, Jan. "Creative Characters: Cyrus Highsmith". MyFonts. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  9. ^ Jockin, Thomas (30 January 2016). "Inside Paragraphs: An Interview with Font Bureau Type Designer Cyrus Highsmith". Medium. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  10. ^ "Occupant Fonts on Type Network". Type Network. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  11. ^ Devroye, Luc. "Occupant Fonts". Type Design Information. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  12. ^ "Cyrus Highsmith - Fonts In Use". Fonts in Use. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  13. ^ "Type Directors Club : News : bukva:raz! Results". 18 September 2013. Archived from the original on 18 September 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  14. ^ "ATypI Bukva:raz! 2001 Award Winners". FontShop. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  15. ^ "Cyrus Highsmith receives the 2015 Gerrit Noordzij Prize - Announcements - Art & Education". www.artandeducation.net. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  16. ^ Witman, Bob. "Amerikaan krijgt Noordzijprijs". de Volkskrant. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  17. ^ "Cyrus Highsmith". www.risd.edu. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  18. ^ "Judges - Morisawa Type Design Competition 2016". competition.morisawa.co.jp. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  19. ^ "Inside Cyrus Highsmith's New Book, a Typographic Classic in the Making - Print Magazine". 5 June 2012. Archived from the original on 21 January 2018. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  20. ^ Inc., Morisawa. "Morisawa Acquires U.S.-based Occupant LLC's All Licensed Fonts, Brand". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 23 December 2017. {{cite press release}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  21. ^ "Morisawa Acquires U.S.-based Occupant LLC's All Licensed Fonts, Brand". 15 September 2017. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  22. ^ "Morisawa Opens Latin Type Designing Office in U.S." Morisawa USA Inc. 9 September 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  23. ^ "モリサワ 2017年の新書体を発表 (Morisawa Announces New Typefaces for 2017)". Morisawa Inc. 28 July 2017. Retrieved 23 January 2018.
  24. ^ "Entre parágrafos by Cyrus Highsmith". Fonts In Use. 19 June 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cyrus_Highsmith&oldid=1187089842"