Ron Carpenter (designer)

Ron Carpenter (born 1950, Dorking) is an English typographer. He was trained as a cartographer and later became a typeface designer. He currently works for independent font foundry, Dalton Maag.

Ron—Ronald Barry Carpenter in full—grew up in the village of Brockham, Surrey, as the younger of two brothers born to George and Audrey Carpenter. He attended Brockham Village School, before finishing his studies at Sondes Place School.

Whilst at school he worked at weekends on a local chicken farm owned by Frank Hollands, along with being a Young Farmer, a member of the Brockham Bonfire Committee and into amateur theatre. Also very musical, Ron learnt to play the guitar and harmonica, performing in a band at the village hall and even as a one-man band combining them with a kick drum.

In 1979—at a Christmas Eve party in the local Brockham Village Hall—he was introduced to the sister of one of his friends, Julie. After a lengthy engagement he married Julie in 1990; together they moved into a flat in Reigate, before buying a house shortly before their first and only son, Morgan was born in 1992.

Out of school at the age of 16 Ron trained as a cartographer. His work involved the surveying for and hand drawing of Ordnance Survey maps. During this time he developed an interest in typography and soon after put his previously learnt drawing skills into practice with a job at Monotype.

In 1986—whilst working for Monotype, Carpenter designed and developed his best known font, Calisto MT an old style serif. The Calisto face is intended to function as both a text and display face.

After having to leave Monotype in 1992, he worked for a time as a freelance typographer, before joining Bruno Maag in his start-up company Dalton Maag. He currently still works for Dalton Maag as a mentor to and trainer of interns and new starters, along with being a reviewer of developing fonts.

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