Jon Melton
Consultant - Graphic Designer - Typographer - Type Designer - Academic
Jon Melton is a traditionally trained graphic designer and typographer; graduating from art school in 1984, he furthered his professional training in industry as an advertising art director and designer, and throughout his career he has worked on a diverse range of design projects that includes furniture, interior and architectural feature design. He headed his own design practice working for both regional and London based clients, and was appointed as a visiting lecturer at the Cambridge School of Art in 1996, until accepting a fractional post as course leader for BA (Hons) Graphic Design in 2001. In this time Jon has informed typographic design and industrial practice within the art school and helped to establish the course's reputation for excellence and innovation in contemporary graphic communication.
Jon completed his Masters Degree in Typographic Design in 2007, being awarded a distinction for his postgraduate research into the categorising and conceptualising of display and ornamented types of the 19th century. He received inspirational lectures on the course from Jeremy Tankard, Andrew Byrom, Dale Tomlinson and Simon Loxley - and expert instruction and tuition in type design and the drawing of letterforms from Tom Perkins, Gaynor Goffe, Eric Marland, Nick Shinn.
Through investigative practice he generates type faces that explore the potential of historically inspired letterforms within contemporary contexts.
He is a senior lecturer at the art school that is situated within Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. Where his academic and practiced based research concentrates upon 18th and 19th Century type evolution; and through his new and revival types and historical research he seeks to explore missed opportunities and forgotten avenues of type design. This work is leading towards publication in this largely discounted and ignored period in typographic history.
He has delivered papers at both the The Plus/UKType and St Bride Library conferences, and was the academic curator for the national Abram Games and Type Tart exhibitions at The Ruskin Gallery in Cambridge. Some examples of his recent conference papers, written and published work can be viewed or downloaded at the foot of this page.
His other research interests lie in Georgian applied arts, furniture, interiors and architecture - all of which inform his work and research. Jon continues to offer design consultancy to industry, which has included working closely with traditional craftsmen within commissions for the reinstatement of period home structural features and applied detailing.
'Soane- a classical architype', Paper, DIY Design, St Bride Library Conference 2010
'Bifurcated Bodoni - the missing link', Paper, The Plus Moving Type Conference 2007
'Join the Fat Club',
Computer Arts Project, Issue 111
'Is that an ascender or ...', Create It, Issue 2, published by The District
'Games at the Ruskin', Abram Games Exhibition, Ruskin Gallery Cambridge 2009