Matthew Butterick
Birth nameMatthew James Butterick[1]
Birth dateNovember 15, 1970 (age 55)
Birth placeAnn Arbor, Michigan, U.S.[1]
OccupationWriter, Typographer, Computer Programmer
SpouseJessica Coffin Butterick[2][3]
EducationHarvard University (BA)
University of California, Los Angeles (JD)

Matthew Coffin Butterick (born November 15, 1970)[1][4] is an American typographer, lawyer, writer, and computer programmer. He received the 2012 Golden Pen Award from the Legal Writing Institute for his book Typography for Lawyers,[5] which started as a website in 2008[6] based on his experience as a practicing attorney.[7] He has worked for The Font Bureau and founded his own website design company, Atomic Vision (purchased by Red Hat in 1999).[8] Expanding Typography for Lawyers, Butterick published Practical Typography as a "web-based book" in July 2013.[9]

Butterick graduated with a BA in visual and environmental studies from Harvard University.[8] He later earned a JD at the University of California, Los Angeles and was admitted to the State Bar of California in 2007.[10]

As of November 2023, Butterick is serving as co-counsel in multiple class action lawsuits against AI companies GitHub and OpenAI (for GitHub Copilot), Stability AI (for Stable Diffusion), Midjourney, and DeviantArt.[11]

Typefaces

Butterick's typeface designs include:

For Font Bureau

  • Wessex (1993), transitional text serif inspired by Bulmer and Caledonia
  • Herald Gothic (1993), a bevelled sans-serif
  • Berlin Sans (1994, part), a flared sans-serif based on Bernhard Negro
  • Hermes (1995), a blocky sans-serif loosely inspired by Berthold Block
  • Alix, a typewriter font

Self-released

  • Equity, an updating of the 1930s body text serif design Ehrhardt.[12] Features weights designed to suit different types of paper and printers and correctly letter-spaced small caps characters.[13]
  • Concourse, loosely inspired by Dwiggins’ geometric sans-serif design Metro. Features stylistic alternates and small caps.[14]
  • Triplicate, a monospaced slab serif design inspired by typewriter fonts such as the default face used in the IBM Selectric. Essentially a further development of Alix, with more variants including a proportional version and a style designed specifically for displaying code.
  • Advocate, a caps-only slab and sans serif design. Reminiscent of mid-century American college sports team lettering, corporate logos and Bank Gothic. Somewhat resembles an expansion of Herald Gothic.
  • Heliotrope, an attempt to merge the characteristics of serif and sans serif fonts into a single typeface. It draws loose inspiration from typefaces such as Optima and Albertus.

References

  1. ^ Butrick, Richard Porter (December 1979). Butrick, Butterick, Buttrick In The U.S.A., 1635-1978. Butrick. ISBN 9780960254804.
  2. ^ "Jessica Coffin Butterick # 255763 - Attorney Licensee Search". members.calbar.ca.gov. Archived March 29, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 29, 2020.
  3. ^ "Matthew Butterick: Reversing the Tide of Declining Expectations". unitscale.com. Archived May 14, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 26, 2023.
  4. ^ "Matthew Coffin Butterick # 250953 - Attorney Licensee Search". members.calbar.ca.gov. Archived December 3, 2020 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
  5. ^ Legal Writing Institute. "Golden Pen Award". Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  6. ^ Elnar, Rachel (September 29, 2013). "Matthew Butterick Gives Us Practicality". Rag Right. TypeEd. Archived April 2, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  7. ^ Greenwood, Arin (May 1, 2011). "Artist-Turned-Lawyer Highlights Typographic Detail in Legal Docs". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Archived April 2, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  8. ^ Heller, Steven (March 17, 2010). "Typographer at Law: An Interview with Matthew Butterick". American Institute of Graphic Artistis. Archived 2015-11-15 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  9. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "The economics of a web-based book: year one". Practical Typography. Archived March 12, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  10. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "About Matthew Butterick". Practical Typography. Archived March 15, 2015 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 12, 2015.
  11. ^ Knibbs, Kate (November 22, 2023). "Meet the Lawyer Leading the Human Resistance Against AI". Wired. Archived November 28, 2023 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 28, 2023.
  12. ^ Porchez, Jean François. "Equity review". Typographica. Archived November 1, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
  13. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "Equity: specimen & manual". MBType. Archived August 28, 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 7 August 2015.
  14. ^ "Concourse specimen". Concoursefont.com. Matthew Butterick. Archived April 5, 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 8 April 2016.

Further reading