Oswald Cooper

Oswald Bruce Cooper – born 13. 4. 1879 in Mountgilead, Ohio, USA, died 17. 12. 1940 in Chicago, USA – type designer, calligrapher, teacher.

1894: trains as a printer. 1899: moves to Chicago. Attends the Frank Holme School of Illustration where F. W. Goudy teaches lettering. 1902: teaches at the Holme School, intermittently also head of the school. 1904: opens the Bertsch & Cooper advertising agency in Chicago with the illustrator Fred S. Bertsch. 1912: travels in England, France and Germany. 1913. draws the lettering which is used in advertisements for the Packard Motor Company and produced by the American Type Foundry (ATF). 1921: turns his agency into a studio for design, typesetting and photography. 1924: sells his studio and resumes work as a freelance graphic artist. 1939: works on the corporate identity for the "Chicago Daily News" newspaper.

Fonts: Cooper Oldstyle (1919), Cooper Black™ (1920), Cooper Italic (1924), Cooper Black condensed (1925), Cooper Hilite (1925), Cooper Initials (1925), Pompeian Cursive (1927), Cooper Fullface (1928).

* TYPOGRAPHY – An Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History by Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott (Editor), Bernard Stein, published by Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.