Articles
Interview: Phil Martin cont....
Mark Simonson: What made you want to become a type designer?
Phil Martin: By age 45 I had developed a love affair with language. My top art client was Fleming & Sons in Dallas,
my home town, a manufacturer of egg cartons. I painted mock-ups to show their clients what the egg carton design
would look like. So I painted with a brush almost every type style existing at that time. My constantly sore thumb and
two fingers that held the brush fed a love of letterforms up my right arm and into my heart. Oh God, what a dream! Not
only to love the language, but to create the shapes which allow the reading of it.
MS: So, you were working as a lettering artist? How long had you been doing that?
PM: In my general services as a commercial artist, I had developed a reputation for what we called hand-lettering
at that time. You also reminded me that when I came out of WW II, I worked at two art studios before opening my own.
First there was Whaley Studios with Earl Routsong as the lettering man, next Bud Biggs Studio with Lou Snell as lettering
man. The fact that I can call their names today reminds me that I admired their work. Not at all in their class was I.
Only at this moment do I realized Earl and Lou must have been the sparks that determined my future. Earl was a native
Dallasite; Lou was from Ohio.
MS: How did Alphabet Innovations start?
PM: Always searching for a substitute for talent, I bought a Photo Typositor made by Visual Graphics and taught myself
how to put my own letters on film strips. When I had a new face ready, I would set copy to show it off, make 35 photostats
and mail them to potential clients, saying this look is available only from Martin Studios in Dallas. When I had a dozen
faces ready, a Dallas typesetting company asked for a franchise. That night at home I gave myself 15 minutes to decide on
the name that would replace Martin Studios.
MS: Who else was involved in AI and what were their roles?
PM: My secretary was Barbara Jameson. I averaged a new secretary every two years. My last one was Debbie Nugent.
Then there was Wilson Jones who did the font opaquing. Film Strips of that time had pin-holes, requiring a little
opaque to be painted on. Then there was George Brian who came as a beginner designer. When he left eight years later,
I had become his student. He did more work than I on my most successful face - Souvenir Gothic - and my biggest flop -
Scenario. More than half of those franchised typographers paying me royalty of 25 to 30 cents for every word set included
copies of all their settings with their monthly royalty reports. Just imagine how this let me know what was selling and
what was not. Upon George Brian's leaving, George Thomas came to work for me. A technical genius in my view. He made my
studio the branch office of Merganthaler. When type director Mike Parker quit Merg to found Bitstream and hire away all
Merg's type-knowledgable people, Steve Byers had no way to keep Merg in production except for what George and I did for
him. And Ed Kelton worked for me a short time doing "this and that." Those are all of the personnel of AI and TS that
there ever were. I got kidded that you had to have a first name for your last name, if you wanted to work for me. George
Brian, George Thomas, my webmaster today is Don Thomas, my favorite cab driver today is Karl David Henry.
AI staff meeting, c. 1975. Phil Martin at right.
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