College Record 2014

Font Matters: a surprising conversation
by Liz Baird, Assistant Archivist
One of the delights of my job is to meet alumni when they revisit the College. Their
impressions, perhaps after some years away, often lead to anecdotes which open a
window on the very past that is giving us our today and tomorrow. Sometimes their
observations take an unexpected direction, such as gardening, personalities and, of
all things, signage. Signage? During a recent visit from a postgraduate of 1970s
vintage, he suddenly looked at one of the walls and said: ‘Ah, unfinished business.’
What, I wondered, did he mean by that? And thereby hangs a tale.
It turned out he had had some involvement with the design of the College in the
early days. When the buildings were nearing completion, great festivities were
planned for the opening on 12 November 1974. Everyone in College contributed;
this particular postgrad was given the task of organising the flow of guests, which
meant designing tickets, parking stickers for cars, and much more, including a few
directional signs which were intended to be permanent, and so were painted on the
new walls.
When the plans were well in train, the President was briefed. Sir Isaiah seemed
content with it all – except for one thing, the idea of having signs up on the walls.
‘This is Oxford,’ he murmured. ‘It is part of one’s education to discover what is
where for yourself. Colleges do not have signs.’ ‘But,’ argued Sheila McMeekin, the
first College Secretary, ‘the site is huge and some signage, at least, will be needed.’
The President reluctantly acquiesced. The Secretary and the postgrad then had to
select the font to be used. After some discussion, they settled on one with elegant
straights and gentle curves called ‘Albertus’. This is a typeface with minimal serifs,
designed for the Monotype Corporation by Berthold Wolpe between 1932 and
1940. At first it consisted only of capital letters, lower case and italics being added
later, which was based on lettering developed by Wolpe for bronze inscriptions in
which the letters (in his words) ‘… were not incised but raised; in other words the
background was lowered and the outline only of the letters cut in. Such a metal
inscription is cut with a chisel and not drawn with a pen, which gives it sharpness
without spikiness, and as the outlines of the letters are cut from outside (and not
from the inside outwards), this makes for bold simplicity and reduces the serifs to
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