William Caslon

This week I'm taking back, way back, back into time (Sorry couldn't resist). This is William Caslon, he actually started out as an English gunsmith, and it was because of his typefaces and the fact that they were so legible that it help secure his spot as one of the leading printers during that time in England. Graphic Designers where a thing even before they were a thing it seems.

Born in Cradley, Worcestershire, he learned to be an engraver in Birmingham, started his own business in London in 1716 engraving gun locks and barrels, and a bookbinder's tool cutter (hmm books and typefaces, might there be a correlation between this choice an our current project?)

His biggest claim to fame just might be the fact that his typeface was used in the first printed version of the United States Declaration of Independence. Ironic seeing as he is British. While his typefaces fell out of favor about a year after his death they were later revived in the late 1840's and they are also widely used today.