I have been writing on typographic design and related subjects since the 1990s.
This output has included books, conference papers, book chapters, journal articles and book reviews.
Like most designers who write, I have used writing to better understand my own preoccupations and clarify my views. A number of overlapping themes therefore recur at different points and there is some duplication, as parts of one article or paper gave rise to others.
Books (as sole author)
Space as Language: The Properties of Typographic Space Cambridge University Press 2023
The Complete Typographer Thames and Hudson 2010
Book chapters
Routledge Handbook of the English Writing System: Routledge 2016
Art and Text Black Dog 2009
Font: the sourcebook Black Dog 2008
Conference papers and lectures
2017 Susan Garretson Swartzburg Memorial Book Arts Lecture, The Poetics of Printing Wells College, Aurora NY.
2015: Conference paper: Letter, craft and ornament in post-digital practice ‘Face Forward’ typographic conference, Dublin Institute of Technology
2013 Conference paper Sacred and Profane ‘International Conference of the Image’, Chicago
2012: Public Lecture Type Design and the Letter Arts Letter Exchange lecture series, The Artworkers’ Guild, London
2011: Keynote paper Painted Words at ‘TypoTage’ conference, Museum für Druckkunst, Leipzig. Subsequently published in Slanted
2011 Conference paper Type and Tactility ‘Typecon 2011’ New Orleans
2010: Conference paper: Words and Spaces ATypI conference Dublin
Conference paper: Type design and the duty to language Agrafa conference ‘Responsibility in Design’, Katowice
2009 Conference paper The Typographer as Reader ‘Typecon 09’ Atlanta. Subsequently published in Linotype Forum
2009: Conference paper Spaces within, spaces between; an exploration of the Counterform ‘Typographic Horizons’ conference, Birmingham. Subsequently published in Letter Exchange Forum
Conference paper Alternate Histories and Historical Alternates at St Bride’s Conference London.
2008 Conference paper: Typographic Literacies ‘New Views 2’, London College of Communication.
2007: Conference paper Teaching typography in the 21st century: Reviewing the fundamentals of typography in a post-modern design culture at AGRAFA Conference ‘Basics’, Katowice, Poland
2006:Conference paper: The decorative typography of the union card: a typographic timeline at ‘Moving Type’ conference, Birmingham
Conference paper: Changing signs/Signs of Change: Street Typography in Budapest, 3rd international St Brides Conference, St Brides Printing Library, London; (subsequently selected for publication in St Brides Journal Ultrabold in late 2006)
1996 Conference paper The Digital Scriptorium ‘International Association of Word and Image Studies’ conference, Dublin. Subsequently published in IAWIS Journal
Selected texts full texts from a selection of my writing can be accessed via the links below.
On experimental typography and the visual text
The Schwitters Legacy 2009
Painted Words 2011
Sacred and Profane: The devotional, the subversive and the magical
in visual text practice 2013
On typography and typeface design:
Old forms, new ideas 2008
Type Design and the Letter Arts 2012
Types for the New Century: catalogue essay 2012
Beyond classification: new legs for a dead horse 2013
Letter, craft and Ornament in post-digital practice 2015
From Snuffbox to Surfboard:The typographic ligature 2016
On type and design education:
The Typographer as Reader 2009
Tactility and Typographic Space 2011
Reviews
Ravenscar type specimen 2024
Emigre fonts: a compendium 2025
Will Hill 