Stanley Morison English typographer, designer, inventor of the Times New Roman font Date of Birth: 06.05.1889 Country: Great Britain

Biography of Stanley Morison

Stanley Morison was born in 1889 in Wanstead, Essex, a county in Britain. He grew up in London and had to leave school to support his mother after his father abandoned the family. Despite leaving school, Morison continued to educate himself and was known to be an academic child. During World War I, he refused to join the army and was subsequently arrested.

In 1913, Morison entered the publishing world as an assistant at 'The Imprint'. By 1918, he had become the chief designer at 'Pelican Press'. He later held a similar position at 'Cloister Press'. In 1922, Morison co-founded the 'Fleuron Society', an organization focused on graphic design, and served as the editor of their journal.

Starting in the 1920s, Morison worked as a consultant at the 'Monotype Corporation', where he was involved in font development. In 1929, 'The Times' newspaper sought Morison's services. They needed a new font that could accommodate more text while maintaining a readable format. Morison criticized 'The Times' for using the popular but sensationalistic font, Ionic. In response, the newspaper's management asked Morison to create a new font, which he enthusiastically took on.

Creating the new font, which would later be named Times New Roman, proved to be a challenging task. It took three years of collaboration with the newspaper's artist, Victor Lardent, before the font was presented to 'The Times' in 1932. Times New Roman quickly became the most popular typographic font, and with the advent of computers, its use became even more widespread.

Stanley Morison passed away on October 11, 1967. By the time of his death, he had gained significant respect and recognition, receiving multiple government awards and titles such as Royal Designer for Industry. He was also one of the editors of the renowned encyclopedia 'Encyclopædia Britannica'.

In 1953, Morison declined a knighthood, and in 1962, he declined the Order of the British Empire. He never knew that 40 years after his death, he would be accused of plagiarism, with claims that he had borrowed his font from William Starling Burgess, a yacht and automobile designer and aviation pioneer. The debate about whether Morison plagiarized or not remains unresolved, and both Morison and Burgess are often credited as the authors of the Times New Roman font.