Michael Twyman

Michael Twyman (born 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He joined the university staff in 1959. He established a BA (Hons) course in Typography & Graphic Communication which eventually grew into its own department in 1974. According to Professor Twyman both the program and the department were the first of their kind in the world. He retired from full-time teaching in 1998 but still teaches postgraduate students and is also the Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies.

Twyman is often cited for his works on the history of printing and ephemera, especially lithography. In addition, he is well known for his writings on the theory of graphic language. He also completed and edited Maurice Rickards' book Encyclopedia of Ephemera (London: British Library, 2000). He was a founder member of the Printing Historical Society and has edited and contributed to issues of its Journal.

Twyman is not to be confused with family law lawyer and conservative political thinker Michael Tweyman, of Toronto, Ontario. http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/12/23/daniel-cere-responds-to-colby-cosh-on-the-meaning-of-bruker-v-marcovitz.aspx]

Selected works

• (1970) Printing 1770–1970: an illustrated history of its development and uses in England. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London.
• (1970) Lithography 1800-1850. OUP, London
• (1979) A Schema for the Study of Graphic Language. In The Processing of Visible Language, (Eds, Kolers, P.A., Wrolstad, M.E. & Bouma, H.) Plenum, New York
• (1982) The Graphic Presentation of Language, Information Design Journal 3(1), 2-22.
• (1985) Using Pictorial Language: A Discussion of the Dimensions of the Problem. In Designing Usable Texts, (Eds, Thomas Duffy & Robert Waller), Academic Press, Orlando.
• (1990) Early Lithographed Books : a study of the design and production of improper books in the age of the hand press. Farrand, London.
• (1996) Early Lithographed Music : a study based on the H. Baron collection. Farrand, London.
• (1998) The British Library Guide to Printing: history and techniques. British Library, London.
• (2000) Breaking the Mould : the first hundred years of lithography. British Library, London.
• (2007) Images en couleur. Godefroy Engelmann, Charles Hullmandel et les débuts de la chromolithographie. Musée de l'imprimerie, Lyon.

Sources

• Staff pages of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Accessed April 13, 2007.
• Interview with Michael Twyman at www.letterspace.com Accessed April 13, 2007.
• Works by or about Michael Twyman in libraries (WorldCat catalog)