![]() |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
HOME FAMILIES & SUPERFAMILIES ABOUT WORKSHOPS VIDEOSBLOG NEWS & LINKS |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
MAGMA II PRO
|
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
SUMNER STONE STONE TYPE FOUNDRY ALPHABET FARM PO BOX 53, GUINDA, CA 95637 PHONE +530.318.7282 Our primary activities at the Foundry have been typeface design, font production, and font marketing, but have also included writing about type design, typography, and letterform history; teaching type design; and identity projects. The typefaces shown on this website have all been designed by Sumner with the exception of some of the ITC Bodoni faces. Our designs include several superfamilies and cover a wide range of typographic styles for both text and display. My paternal grandfather, Clarence Robert Stone seems to have been the primary carrier of the text genes. He became an authority on teaching reading and authored many readers and workbooks as well as a seminal book for teachers about the research on silent and oral reading and the reading pedagogy. My first memory with typographic content was having my grandfather opening a book to read to me as a child and declaring, “Lines too long.” The person who had the most significant influence on my career as a letter-maker was Lloyd Reynolds with whom I studied at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. I took Art History from Reynolds as a freshman, and the first assignment was a one paragraph paper in which the class was to describe the “life movement” in an Assyrian frieze that depicted a slain lioness. I remember struggling greatly with this but finally, in order to meet the deadline, writing the paper. It came back with only one comment. “Margins too small.” As a student of Reynolds, I was captured by calligraphy and I have been a prisoner ever since. During my calligraphy class he showed a film made by Hallmark Cards featuring Hermann Zapf making beautiful letters. I was moved. As a consequence I applied for a job at Hallmark where Zapf was a consultant. My two years in Kansas City were worth every minute because of Zapf’s periodic presence. In Sonoma, California I established The Alpha and Omega Press — a letterpress, silk screen, and letter making studio and during this time taught calligraphy at San Francisco State, the University of California Extension in San Francisco as well as numerous workshops. I earned a master’s degree in Mathematics from Sonoma State University and learned to program computers. Stone Type Foundry Inc. is in its 28th year. I have been a Director of Typography, type designer, type founder, teacher, calligrapher, graphic designer, and farmer. I have a BA in Sociology from Reed and an MA in Mathematics from Sonoma State University. In addition to the typefaces shown on this website I have designed custom typefaces for a variety of clients including General Motors, Mobil, Bell Canada, The San Francisco Public Libary, Scripps College, and The Arion Press. I have designed logotypes for various clients. I was the first Director of Typography for Adobe Systems where I conceived and implemented Adobe’s typographic program including the Adobe Originals. I have taught calligraphy and typography at a variety of institutions, including Cooper Union, City College of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, & University of California Extensions at San Francisco & San Jose. I have conducted workshops on lettering and type design at many institutions, and done a good deal of lecturing and writing in the fields of type design and typography. I will be teaching workshops on Type Design here at Alphabet Farm starting this Spring. I have written two books about type design and typography – On Stone: The Art and Use of Typography on the Personal Computer and Font: Sumner Stone, Calligraphy and Type Design in a Digital Age. – and authored numerous articles on these subjects. A partial bibliography is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumner_Stone.
Set in Cycles Thirtysix and Cycles Eleven, |
||
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |