In the 1930s Dwiggins established a marionette theatre in his studio to perform plays written by himself and members of the Manuscript Club, a group of his Hingham neighbors. In carving the marionettes he discovered that he achieved more liveliness if he simplified the planes of their faces rather than striving for verisimilitude. In a darkened theatre shadows and light tricked the eye into seeing the planes as smooth curves. While working on Hingham, Dwiggins realized that he could apply his marionette discovery to type design. By building curves out of angles and straight lines he was able to make the 7 pt. newsface appear smooth and yet crackle with “whip-lash” vitality. He christened his technique the “M-Formula”.
Dwiggins was born 1880 in Martinsville, USA, and died 1956 in Hingham, Massachusetts, USA. Only five of his type designs were ever completed and of those only four are available digitally, one in an incomplete version. (There are also digital renditions of Winchester, the Plimpton Initials and his uncial lettering from The Drums of Kalkapan.) Despite this uneven digital legacy, Dwiggins’ influence on contemporary type design has been enormous. His M-Formula has inspired a generation of young type designers. Dwiggins could ask for no better legacy.
Fig. 1: William Addison Dwiggins with marionette of himself. Photograph by Robert Yarnall Richie.
Fig. 2: M-Formula. Drawing of lowercase h for Exp. 223 dated 25 August 1938.
Fig. 3: Marionettes carved by William Addison Dwiggins. From left to right: Azrael, Djul, Lilith and Draco (all from Prelude to Eden 1956).
Fig. 4: Ticket for a performance of Marionettes: Under The Püterschein Authority c. 1933. Designed, illustrated and lettered byWilliam Addison Dwiggins.
