Robin Nicholas

Born Westerham, Kent 25-4-1947

Joined the Monotype Type Drawing Office in 1965. Worked at making type drawings for two years before training in punch-cutting, hand justifying and proving. Then managed the Type Drawing Office for 10 years before taking up current position as Head of Typography for Monotype Imaging.

Between 1978 and 1980 designed Nimrod, a group of related roman faces designed for newspaper text, headlines and small ads. In 1982 developed a sans serif typeface for bitmap font laser printers which was later developed, with Patricia Saunders, into the Arial typeface family - chosen by Microsoft as a core font for Windows 3.1 (and subsequent versions).

Robin design directed the production of Clarion and Columbus and supervised the digital revival of many Monotype faces including; Bell, Centaur, Dante, Janson, Fournier, Van Dijck, Walbaum, Bulmer and Pastonchi.

During 1996/7 Robin worked with London design agency Newell & Sorrell on the new corporate identity typeface for British Airways.

1998 saw the production of a new sans serif typeface family for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), designed by Robin in conjunction with SAS’s design agency, Stockholm Lab.

Subsequent projects have included a new corporate identity typeface family for Barclays Bank, again in conjunction with Interbrand Newell & Sorrell, and the design of a new sans serif typeface for internet start-up company, boo.com.

Other custom typeface projects include a sans serif family for Opel motors, specially drawn weights of a geometric sans face for Ikea, a new sans serif design in five weights for British Council and a display typeface for Norstedts, a Swedish publishing house.

A new sans serif typeface, called Felbridge, was released into the Monotype Library in 2003. Designed to give excellent readability on computer screens and in small point sizes.

Recent work includes extending the range of sans serif typefaces for Barclays Bank, now being used for the new Barclaycard identity.

Robin also periodically gives talks at conferences and to students on type design and production matters.

All trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners. Click here for a list of all trademarks used on this site. Site Map