Designed for maximum legibility at a minimal size, Bell Centennial has saved millions of trees. Carter's font Walker (1995), created for the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, aims for expressive flexibility over functional legibility: in Walker, the serifs are separate characters from the main body of the letter; these "snap-ons" come in several styles, allowing the user to mix and match structural elements. According to Carter, many people who purchase typefaces from Carter & Cone, his Cambridge-based typefoundry, are not design professionals. Their interest was sparked by working on desktop computers. The field of type design also has become more egalitarian: "For most of my life type design has been seen as a brave but arcane business that requires a lifetime's dedication to produce one typeface. I'm happy that notion has gone, that type design has been demystified." The typeface Mantinia, released by Carter & Cone in 1993, is a set of capitals designed to complement Carter's text face Galliard, introduced in 1978. Mantinia includes a range of ligatures--special characters that link two or more letters into a single mark--and other alternative characters that allow the user to fit titles into fixed spaces, rather as a stone cutter pieces together the fabric of a wall. Mantinia is an homage to the fifteenth-century Italian painter Andrea Mantegna, who had studied inscriptions from classical architecture. [back] © Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Bell Centennial Typeface, design completed 1978 Designer: Matthew Carter (b. 1937) Produced for Mergenthaler Linotype Walker, typeface, 1995 Designer: Matthew Carter Art director: Laurie Haycock Makela (b. 1956) Senior designer: Matt Eller Courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Mantinia, typeface, 1993 Designer: Matthew Carter (b. 1937) Courtesy Carter & Cone, Cambridge