MAYA TYPEFACE

With commentary by Seymour Chwast, co-founder of Push Pin Studios


























The following is an excerpt of a letter, written in August 18, 1989 by the celebrated graphic designer, Seymour Chwast, member of the Art Directors Hall of Fame and co-founder with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel of the legendary Push Pin Studios:




I have carefully studied the type face Maya, created by John Randolph Carter for Andresen Typographics, and find it to be a fascinating design that is in many ways unique and unprecedented in its conceptual approach.
In my design and illustration career, historical periods of the graphic arts have been of great interest as well as the source of personal inspiration. I have recently co-authored a book titled Graphic Style from Victorian to Post Modern with Steven Heller published by Abrams. Because of my interest in typography which has led me to design type faces of my own, I have seen thousands of type designs of tremendous stylistic varieties.
Having witnessed such a great wealth of historical styles and typographic invention, I would expect a new headline type face to either depend on a gimmick or use an earlier historical design as a spring board. Maya however, seems to possess a very rare originality and freshness perhaps because its construction depends on formal logic which is extremely rigorous and basic.

All the letter forms sit in a checkerboard grid that has been rotated 45 degrees so that the black letters form diamonds with the corners touching, or almost touching. When used in its purest form with more than one line of type stacked upon the other, dramatic white diamond spaces appear between the letters. The variation of spacing and weight of the Maya characters as they sit embedded in the grid is part of the attractiveness of the face.
It would seem impossible for a designer to attempt the creation of a new type face with no vertical strokes, no horizontal strokes, and no curves! While there is some loss of legibility, this is precisely what John Randolph Carter has done, and the result is admirable.
I would like to commend John Randolph Carter for his fresh and original contribution to the art of typographic design, a world in which a contribution such as his is extremely rare and thought provoking.





That letter is reproduced in full below:




Click on letter to enlarge





Click on letter to enlarge