Michael Twyman

Michael Twyman (born 1934) is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading. He joined the university staff in 1959. He established a BA (Hons) course in Typography & Graphic Communication which eventually grew into its own department in 1974. According to Prof. Twyman both the program and the department were the first of their kind in the world. He retired from full time teaching in 1998 but still teaches postgraduate students and is also the Director of the Centre for Ephemera Studies.

Twyman is often cited for his works on history of printing and ephemera, especially lithography. In addition, he is well known for his writings on the theory of graphic languages. He also finished and edited Maurice Rickards' book Encyclopedia of Ephemera (British Library, London, 2000).

Selected works

• (1970) Printing 1770–1970: an illustrated history of its development and uses in England. Eyre & Spottiswoode, London.
• (1979) A Schema for the Study of Graphic Language. In The Processing of Visible Language, (Eds, Kolers, P.A., Wrolstad, M.E. & Bouma, H.) Plenum, New York
• (1982) The Graphic Presentation of Language, Information Design Journal 3(1), 2-22.
• (1985) Using Pictorial Language: A Discussion of the Dimensions of the Problem. In Designing Usable Texts, (Eds, Thomas Duffy & Robert Walker) , Academic Press, Orlando.
• (1990) Early Lithographed Books : a study of the design and production of improper books in the age of the hand press. Farrand, London.
• (1996) Early Lithographed Music : a study based on the H. Baron collection. Farrand, London.
• (1998) The British Library Guide to Printing: history and techniques. British Library, London.
• (2000) Breaking the Mould : the first hundred years of lithography. British Library, London.

Sources

• Staff pages of the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication Accessed April 13 2007.
• Interview with Michael Twyman at www.letterspace.com Accessed April 13 2007.
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