Matthew Carter
“The fruits of your talent and ability are nothing short of genius. As one of the few designers who has drawn typefaces for metal, photo, and digital medium, the substance of your designs is legendary. The typefaces you create combine indisputable beauty and relevance to the real-world of graphic communication in such a manner that they are of enduring value and destined to have an impact on graphic expression for generations to come.
The wealth of the typefaces you have drawn, the integrity you bring to your profession, and your continued dedication to expanding the design community’s knowledge of type and typographic design, deserve the highest recognition. It is with pride that the Type Directors Club presents you with the club’s highest honor—the TDC Medal.”
Matthew Carter, born in London in 1937, is a type designer and the son of the English typographer Harry Carter (1901–1982). He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He designed the early 1.0 web fonts Verdana and Georgia. In 2010, he was named a MacArthur Fellow.
In 1981, Carter and Mike Parker created Bitstream Inc. Carter left Bitstream in 1991 to form the Carter & Cone type foundry with Cherie Cone. Carter focuses on improving many typefaces’ readability. Verdana and Georgia are two fonts created primarily for viewing on computer monitors. Carter has designed type for publications such as Time, The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Wired, and Newsweek. He is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), is a senior critic for Yale’s Graphic design program, has served as chairman of ATypI, on the Board of Directors of the Type Directors Club, and is an ex officio member of the board of directors of the Society of Typographic Aficionados (SOTA).
Aside from the TDC Medal, Carter has won numerous awards for his significant contributions to typography and design, including an honoris causa Doctorate of Humane Letters from the Art Institute of Boston, an AIGA medal in 1995, and the 2005 SOTA Typography Award. In 2010, Carter was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, otherwise known as a “genius” grant.
Listen to Carter speak about his career in conversation with Debbie Millman at the Type Directors Club 2018 conference, Type Drives Culture, in this video.