Typeface design education from Cooper Union

Paul Barnes

Guest Speaker
Paul barnes
Paul Barnes is a British graphic designer, specializing in the fields of typography & type design. With Christian Schwartz he is a partner in Commercial Type, an internationally renowned typefoundry with offices in London & New York. Graduating from the Typography course at the University of Reading in 1992, he worked in the early 1990s at the studio of Roger Black and later he became the art director of Spin magazine. Since 1995 he has worked independently and in colloboration on a wide range of design projects. With Peter Saville, he has designed logos for clients such as Kate Moss and Givenchy, and created the “Original Modern” concept for the City of Manchester. In 2010 they created the ‘Modern England’ flags for the England football team with sportswear manufacturer Umbro. He has been a design and typographic consultant to many publishers including The Guardian and The Observer Newspapers, GQ, Wallpaper*, Harper’s Bazaar and frieze . As typographic consultant to The Guardian he was involved in the iconic redesign in 2006, and with Christian Schwartz created the new series of typefaces. For this as part of The Guardian redesign team they received the prestigious Black pencil from the D&AD, as well as being nominated for the Design Museum’s Designer of the Year. He has designed several retail typefaces, such as the acclaimed Dala Floda and Marian and also corporate typefaces for the National Trust in England and typefaces for magazines as diverse as Condé Nast Portfolio (with Christian Schwartz), O , the Oprah magazine and Vanity Fair. In newspapers he has designed new typefaces for The Daily Telegraph in London and Finland’s leading quality newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. He has also created the letters used by Puma football teams in the 2010 World Cup. In 2009 Schwartz and Barnes set up Commercial Type, an independent type foundry retailing both their own designs, designs by their staff, and other designers. In September 2006, with Schwartz he was named one of the 40 most influential designers under 40 in Wallpaper*. A year later The Guardian named him as one of the 50 best designers in Britain.

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