While sorting through old stuff (I’m looking for the first sketches for Officina) I came across the first cheque ITC wrote me in the summer of 1991. ITC Officina had officially been introduced in November 1990 after we had delivered data as early as 1989. In preparation for a TypeBoard Review Meeting on January 21st I had introduced my concept:
„My favourite idea = a correspondence face, on the same lines of thinking as Stone Informal; a face for business correspondence that reads better while taking up less space than Courier or Pica, but still doesn’t look too much like a proper “designed” typeface – because once you’re using a real typeface, the whole page wants to be laid-out, to be designed. A business letter, an estimate, an invoice should be more neutral, not making a comment about its content. So we need something between Courier and American Typewriter, again perhaps both with and without serifs. Also the present versions of Courier and Letter Gothic available for LaserWriters by Adobe and Bitstream are too light to withstand more than one copy stage (ITC Officina).
Obviously, the name was in the air already. After that meeting, I made a proper proposal which I cannot find in my files right now. I am sure we’ll find that document soon so I can publish it in the course of this research into typographic history.
The first cheque came to the unbelievable sum of One Dollar and Nine Cents. The fees for cashing it would have been much higher, so I kept it as an original document. ITC Officina is still a bestseller in that library. And although the license fees are a little higher these days, I certainly couldn’t live from that money.
Attended a two-day design workshop by a book cover designer years ago. His most memorable comment was: “If you’re in this for the money, get a new job now.”
But $1.09 for officina? You were robbed!
Very Respectfully,
Hi! I’m afraid I’m not familiar with how foundries pay, but was that cheque the only payment you got for designing ITC Officina? Don’t you get royalties or something whenever the font is sold or used? Could you please explain how the industry pays?
Thanks in advance :)
Of course that wasn’t the only payment. But i thought sending a check for that amount was very funny. Typedesigners get a share of the sales, anything from a few percent to 30% of the money the distributor makes. And that distributor may have to pay licenses to somebody else in turn. As a FontFont designer, you get 20% of the retail sales, and as FontFonts are only sold through a few exclusive channels, it is easy to check where the fonts are sold and what the figures are. For other licensors like ITC, sales may go through many channels, from one licensee to another, so the share of the designer often doesn’t amount to very much.
Ahh, yes. I’ve received too many checks like this in the past. That is why I don’t sell my type through major foundries. But in the end, you have to design typefaces for the love of the forms and their function.
That truly is unbelievable! I hope you have received better compensation by now.
Can you give any advice to people that want to get started in typedesign?