David Lemon
David Lemon's first-grade teacher gave him poor marks in penmanship; she complained that he was drawing the letters instead of writing them. As a painting student in the early 1970s, David explored the relationship between word and image. Looking for a better vehicle, he took a class from lettering artist Jim Parkinson. Jim was just finishing the Rolling Stone typeface now available as Parkinson. The minute David saw the drawings, he knew he wanted to design type. David switched to design school and studied type, against his advisor's recommendation.
David did graphic design and production work at several magazines and newspapers. He learned their computer typesetting systems, and continued to study the esthetics and technology of type. When the Apple LaserWriter came out, he read about PostScript, and saw that Adobe had a calligrapher running its type department. He visited Sumner Stone, and showed his designs. Soon Sumner hired David to help Adobe turn typefaces into fonts. At Adobe, David became an expert in Type 1 font development, then multiple master fonts, and eventually had a chance to help direct the development of OpenType. As manager for the Adobe type team, David continues to work for the synergy of art and technology.
[David Lemon, April 2005]
