Phil Martin (1922-2005) often claimed that he had designed “400 fonts” during his career. Certainly, those “400 fonts” are associated with his name and it was he who marketed them and is credited for them. It’s also known (by Phil’s own accounts) that he had collaborators.
Recently, I was contacted by one his collaborators, George Thomas. Upon learning that Phil had passed away, George felt it was time to set the record straight and give credit where credit is due. With the help of another Martin collaborator, Roc Mitchell, now in his eighties, he compiled the following list:
Designed by Roc Mitchell and licensed to Alphabet Innovations:
- Arthur
- Borealis
- Celebration
- Corporate
- Corporate Image
- Dimensia Light
- Dimensia Regular
- King Arthur Light with Guinevere Alternates
- King Arthur with Guinevere Alternates
- King Arthur Outline with Guinevere Alternates
- Stanza
Designed by George Thomas and licensed to Alphabet Innovations:
- Eightball
- Highball
- Cueball
Designed by George Brian, an employee of Alphabet Innovations:
- Souvenir Gothic (AI’s first text family)
- Opulent Light and Opulent Bold (Unconfirmed, but George is pretty sure that Brian did the art because he had a much steadier hand than Phil.)
The rest, to the best of his knowledge, are Phil’s ideas with George Brian doing the art on much of the later works and probably influencing Phil’s ideas.
This will be tough to send to arbitration, now that Phil’s not around.
I sense a new Lennon/McCartney debate in the making. ;)
I really appreciate this. Roc Mitchell was my dad. I worked for him all through high school and half of college helping with typesetting and production art work. He put so much into his font designs and was very proud of that aspect of his art career. He also did many logo designs, some very fun cartoon work, was a very good calligrapher and a very capable portrait artist. I have a beautiful portrait of my Mom that he did. I also have an amazing drawing that he did during WW2 from his viewpoint in the bomber flying a mission over France. I appreciate that he is getting some recognition. Also, my married name is Martin, but no relation to Phil Martin.
Great to hear from you, Gene Ann, and to get more background on your dad’s story.