Staff Profile:Professor Fiona Ross

Name:

Professor Fiona Ross

Job Title:

Professor

Responsibilities:

Fiona lectures in type design with specific reference to Arabic, South Asian and Thai writing systems on the MA Typeface Design and MRes Typeface design pathways in MA Communication Design.

She teaches components of the Research Methods module for all postgraduates; supervises PhD students whose research relates to her area of specialism; and is the PI of the Leverhulme-funded research project 'Women in Type: a social history of women's role in type drawing offices, 1910-1990' ( women-in-type.com)

Fiona is Curator of the Non-Latin Type Collection, with responsibilities for its maintenance as a growing resource for researchers and students, including the digital capture of original artefacts and the development of digital databases to form on-line resources.

Areas of Interest:

Fiona has background in languages and from 1978 to 1989 worked for Linotype Limited (UK) and was responsible for the design of Linotype's non-Latin fonts and typesetting schemes. Since 1989 she has worked as a consultant, type designer, art director, and lecturer, and in 2003 joined the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading.

Her recent work as type designer has been in collaboration with Tim Holloway and John Hudson (as Associate Designer of Tiro Typeworks), notably on Adobe Arabic (TDC award 2006), Adobe Thai, Vodafone Hindi (TDC award 2008) and Adobe Devanagari (2009), Nirmala UI Devanagari (2011), Aldhabi (Perso-Arabic script, 2012) and Sarkar (Bengali script, 2012). More recently with co-designer John Hudson, Sanskrit Text (for Windows 10), and Murty Gurmukhi, Murty Hindi, Murty Telugu, Murty Sanskrit, Murty Bangla and Murty Kannada for Harvard University Press for the Murty Classical Library of India: http://www.murtylibrary.com/designand- typography.php. Also, with Neelakash Kshetrimayum on Bengali fonts including ABP 2015 (2017) and Linotype Bengali revival (2019).

In addition to presenting conference papers and running workshops, Ross has co-curated seven international exhibitions, written and contributed to books and numerous articles; her work and research is focused on (1) non-Latin type design: theory, history, practice; (2) design approaches to multi-script typeface design; (3) the relationship of tools and typefounding methods to the visible appearance of typeforms of diverse writing systems; (4) documenting type design as an often-unacknowledged collaborative process.

In 2014 Fiona received the SoTA Typography Award and in 2018 the TDC Medal.

Research groups / Centres:

Publications:

Y

Jump to: 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003 | 2002 | 1999 | 1998 | 1993 | 1989

Number of items: 37.

2019

• Izadpanah Abkenar, B. and Ross, F. (2019) Twentieth-century Persian newspaper types – investigating the design process. [Show/Exhibition]
• Ross, F. (2019) A pocketful of type: the impact of mobile phones on global type design. Type, Fall 2019 (4). pp. 24-33.

2018

• Izadpanah Abkenar, B. and Ross, F. (2018) Marlik typeface. Rosetta Type Foundry.
• Ross, F. (2018) Historical technological impacts on the visual representation of language with reference to South Asian typeforms. Philological Encounters, 3 (4). ISSN 2451-9189 doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/24519197-12340054
• Izadpanah Abkenar, B. and Ross, F. (2018) Markazi text typeface. Google Fonts.

2017

• Ross, F. and Kshetrimayum, N. (2017) ABP 2015 Bengali typeface. Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata, India.
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2017) Murty Bangla typeface. Harvard University Press.
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2017) Murty Kannada typeface. Harvard University Press.
• Ross, F. (2017) Fonts for classical texts in a digital age. [Project] (Collection)

2016

• Kshetrimayum, N. and Ross, F. (2016) ABP extra bold Bengali typeface. Ananda Bazar Patrika, Kolkata.
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2016) Murty Sanskrit typeface. Harvard University Press.

2015

• Ross, F. (2015) Aspects of typographic communication: notes on South Asian typeforms. In: Makinson, J. (ed.) Honoris Causa: Essays in Honour of Aveek Sarkar. Allen Lane, UK, pp. 47-77. ISBN 9780241248676
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2015) Murty Gurmukhi typeface. Harvard University Press.
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2015) Murty Hindi typeface. Harvard University Press.
• Hudson, J. and Ross, F. (2015) Murty Telugu typeface. Harvard University Press.
• Ross, F. (2015) The Murty Classical Library of India – a collaborative design project for Harvard University Press. In: Kudrnovska, L. (ed.) 365 Typo. Étapes, Paris, pp. 258-259. ISBN 9791095254003

2014

• Ross, F. and Singh, V. (2014) Making news: type technologies in transition in newspapers across the world. [Show/Exhibition]

2013

• Ross, F. (2013) Digital typeface design and font development for twenty-first century Bangla language processing. In: Karim, M. A., Kaykobad, M. and Murshed, M. (eds.) Technical Challenges and Design Issues in Bangla Language Processing. IGI Global, Pennsylvania U.S.A., pp. 1-15. doi: https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-3970-6.ch001

2012

• Ross, F. and Singh, V. (2012) From hot-metal to OpenType – the type design process for world scripts. [Show/Exhibition]
• Ross, F., Luna, P., Shaw, G. and Berry, J. (2012) Non-Latin scripts: from metal to digital type. St Bride Library, London, UK, pp160. ISBN 9780950416182
• Ross, F. (2012) Non-Latin scripts: key issues in type design. In: Ross, F. and Singh, V. (eds.) Non-Latin scripts: from metal to digital type. St Bride Library, London, UK, pp. 125-153.
• Ross, F., Holloway, T., Kshetrimayum, N. and Hudson, J. (2012) Sarkar Bengali typeface. Anandabazar Patrika, Kolkata, India.

2011

• Ross, F. and Savoie, A. (2011) World Scripts, Selected Material from the Non-Latin Type Collection, the University of Reading. [Show/Exhibition]

2010

• Ross, F. (2010) Indian type. In: Suarez, S.J., M. F. and Woudhuysen, H. R. (eds.) The Oxford Companion to the Book. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780198606536 doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001

2009

• Ross, F. G., Holloway, T. and Hudson, J. (2009) Adobe Devanagari typeface. Adobe Inc, USA.
• Ross, F. (2009) The printed Bengali character and its evolution. Shishu Sahitya Samsad, Kolkata, India, pp251. ISBN 9788179551849

2008

• Ross, F. (2008) The Linotype Non-Latin Collection, University of Reading. In: Banham, R. and Ross, F. (eds.) Non-Latin typefaces: at St Bride Library, London and Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading. St Bride Library, London, UK, pp. 32-62.
• Banham, R. and Ross, F. (2008) Non-Latin typefaces at St Bride Library, London and Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, University of Reading. St Bride Library, London, pp64. ISBN 0950416150

2006

• Ross, F. (2006) A design for Sri Lanka. Building Letters, 3. pp. 20-23.

2005

• Ross, F. (2005) Beyond Latin: a glimpse into the subject of Arabic and Indic lettershapes and digital typeforms. Circular, 13.

2003

• Ross, F. and Shaw, G. (2003) An unexpected legacy and its contribution to early Indian typography. In: Randle, J. and Berry, J. (eds.) Type and typography: highlights from Matrix. Mark Batty Publisher, New Jersey, pp. 169-181. ISBN 9780971568761

2002

• Ross, F. (2002) Non-Latin typesetting in the digital age. In: Sassoon, R. (ed.) Computers and Typography. Intellect Books, Bristol, UK, pp. 42-53. ISBN 1-84150-049-6
• Ross, F. (2002) An approach to non-Latin type design. In: Berry, J.D. (ed.) Language, culture, type: international type design in the age of unicode. ATypI, New York, NY, pp. 67-75. ISBN 9781932026016

1999

• Ross, F. (1999) The Printed Bengali character and its evolution. Curzon Press, Richmond, pp244. ISBN 0-7007-1135 X (First edition)

1998

• Ross, F. (1998) Translating non-Latin scripts into type. Typography Papers, 3. pp. 75-86.

1993

• Ross, F. (1993) The Bengali Types of Vincent Figgins. Matrix (13). pp. 205-212.

1989

• Ross, F. (1989) From metal type to digital letterforms – a straightforward transition for Indian scripts? Matrix (9). pp. 129-136.

This list was generated on Fri Feb 21 18:54:27 2020 UTC.

 

Qualifications

Certificate in Sanskrit, University of Tubingen; German BA Hons, University of Kent at Canterbury; Postgraduate Diploma Sanskrit with Pali, School of Oriental and African Studies; PhD Indian Palaeography, SOAS, London University.

Fellow of the Higher Education Authority, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society.