Universal Principles of Typography

“Deserves a place on every technical communicator’s bookcase…Stocks writes about typography in such a cheerful tone and conversational style as to make the material not only accessible, but also riveting.”

–Michael Opsteegh, Cal State Long Beach

“A future classic.”

–Creative Bloq

“Nothing short of a typographic Swiss Army knife that any designer would be wise to keep on hand.”

–I Love Typography

“A complete and comprehensive course of instruction in typography, as well as being thoroughly ‘reader friendly’ in organization and presentation, Universal Principles of Typography: 100 Key Concepts for Choosing and Using Type is especially and unreservedly recommended.”

–Midwest Book Review

“Fascinating and somewhat specialized, with appeal for curious DIY web admins, seasoned typographers, graphic artists, and design professionals.”

–Library Journal

Elliot Jay Stocks is a designer and musician, based just outside Bristol, UK. After founding the typography magazine 8 Faces in 2010, Elliot joined Typekit (now known as Adobe Fonts) as Creative Director, and helped lead the service’s transition into desktop fonts and the Creative Cloud ecosystem. He then went on to take several Creative Director roles, all while co-running the lifestyle magazine Lagom with his wife. In 2021, Elliot collaborated with Google to launch the typography education resource Google Fonts Knowledge. He is the author of Universal Principles of Typography (Rockport Publishers, 2024).

Over his nearly two-decade career as a designer, Elliot’s work has been profiled in publications such as Communication Arts, Creative Review, Computer Arts, and Page, and he has long been a familiar face at design and tech conferences around the world. Past highlights include TYPO, An Event Apart, South by Southwest, and The Type Directors Club NYC. Today, Elliot focuses exclusively on typographic projects, as well as publishing the newsletter Typographic & Sporadic, and hosting the podcast Hello, Type Friends! He also makes electronic music as Other Form, and releases on several independent labels across Europe.

Ellen Lupton is a writer, curator, educator, and designer. She is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City. New projects include the books Health Design Thinking and Extra Bold, a feminist career guide for designers. Lupton is founding director of the Graphic Design MFA Program at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) in Baltimore, where she has authored numerous books on design processes, including Thinking with Type, Graphic Design Thinking, Graphic Design: The New Basics, and Type on Screen. Her book Design Is Storytelling was published by Cooper Hewitt in 2017. She received the AIGA Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in 2007. Recent exhibitions include Face Values: Understanding Artificial Intelligence and Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master. The Senses: Design Beyond Vision, Beauty-Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, How Posters Work, and Beautiful Users. She was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts Sciences in 2019.