Robin Kinross
Writer, typographer, publisher
I am a user and an observer of type. Joining ATypI in 1990, was a way of coming into contact more closely with international colleagues in the field. It has been fascinating to see at close range the type world debating and arguing with itself in these years of huge change.
After graduating (1975) and postgraduating (1979) from the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading, I began to do 'editorial typography' (= editing and design in one process) as well as write about typography. In 1980, while still living in Reading, I published the first book under the imprint of Hyphen Press: a second edition of Norman Potter's What is a designer. Ten years later, by then in London, Potter and I followed this with a third edition of that now classic text, and with Models & Constructs, a fresh book that he had written. This was the start of more serious publishing, and Hyphen Press is now my main activity.
Among the Hyphen books have been my Modern typography (1992), Counterpunch by Fred Smeijers (1996), Designing books by Jost Hochuli and myself (1996), the monograph Printed matter on Karel Martens (1996), and Christopher Burke's Paul Renner (1998).
My two-volume work Anthony Froshaug, which appeared finally in 2000, tries to use both new and very old ways of looking at the life & work of one particular person, the English typographer Anthony Froshaug. A spread from the book is shown here:
In 2002 we published a new edition of Harry Carter’s A view of early typography. I hope that this will be the first of a series that retrieves still vital works of typographic scholarship.
Hyphen Press has no programme. Most of its books have been refused by 'straight' publishers, and are the work of myself as editor/publisher and the authors, who tend to be also designers. We try to stick to the critical and informal spirit of our first book, to take advantage of the integrative possibilities of desktop publishing, and of the still high standards of book production in the Netherlands, where most of the books are made.