Today, a coworker asked me, “Who is Frederic Goudy, what’s his deal with sheep, and WHAT is letterspacing?” Dissatisfied with my answer, she concluded “Drugs.”
—me, journal entry, 2010
My old work email signature had this quote attributed to one of my creative heroes, Frederic W. Goudy:
“Any man who would letterspace lowercase would steal sheep.”
There are a few variations on this quote. Rumor has it, he had actually said “fuck” or “shag” or “screw” as opposed to “steal”
and that he had said it about the typesetting on an award he was receiving at the moment.
Fred Goudy’s career didn’t take off until he was in his 40s. His whole studio burned down, and a ton of original work along with it, and he just kept going.
Years later, his second studio burned down too.
He was one of the most prolific American type designers, whose fonts we still use over 100 years later.
He was really good at drawing letters, and kinda sassy about it.
Also attributed to Goudy:
“Someday I’ll design a typeface without a K in it, and then let’s see the bastards misspell my name.”
—bwargh von modnar
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