Some type designers are seemingly born into the craft. Others find their career in typeface design as the result of a momentous event. A post card – just your garden-variety postcard – was the impetus that brought George Ryan into a life of type.
Born in Rockville Centre, New York, in 1950, Ryan was in his late 20s and working in a print shop when a co-worker flipped a postcard across the print room. The projectile narrowly missed Ryan as he was working on a particularly delicate job. Rather than retaliate this juvenile stunt, he decided to grab a newspaper and head for a quite place to “cool off.”
There was a want ad for “letter drawers” at Linotype in the classifieds of the newspaper. “The rest,” according to Ryan, “is history – my history.” Having worked at both Linotype and Bitstream, Ryan is now one of Monotype imaging’s senior design staff.
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