Albert Boton

Albert Boton’s first professional career was in carpentry. Luckily for designers and typographers, his desire to pound nails was quickly supplanted by a knack for hammering out graphic design and great letterforms.

Boton’s design career was built on a strong foundation of study and apprenticeships with some of the great names in type. While still in his early twenties, Boton studied graphic design and took courses in calligraphy from Adrian Frutiger. Success in these classes netted him a job as an apprentice type designer for the Deberny & Peignot type foundry in Paris. Here he continued to work and study under Frutiger and another famed type designer, Ladislas Mendel. Under Frutiger’s direction, in 1957 Boton contributed to the design of the Univers type family. His profound understanding and ability in the typographic arts was evident.

After leaving Deberny & Peignot, Boton worked in a variety of advertising agencies and design studios as an art director and freelance designer. During this time he created hundreds of typefaces and logotypes, among them Chadking, Roc, Brasilia, Black Boton, and Pharaon. He also collaborated with Albert Hollenstein on the ITC Eras typeface family.

In 1981 Albert Boton was hired by the Carré Noir Design Agency as its art director. Shortly thereafter, he became responsible for all typography and type design within the company. Since retiring from Carré Noir in 1997, Boton continues to create fresh, new typeface designs. Throughout his career, Boton has contributed to the future of the typographic community by teaching design, calligraphy and lettering at Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Design and the Imprimerie Nationale in Paris.

Little falls outside Boton’s range of typeface styles, and yet there is a recognisable creative spirit evident in all his designs. Whether you consider the classic serif forms of Pompei and ITC Elan, the elegant sans serif shapes of ITC Eras, or the powerful display characters in Pharaon and Kit, all suggest that mix of sophistication and joie de vivre that is the essence of Albert Boton.

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