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Freda Sack (born 23rd September 1951, died 13th February 2019) was a British type designer who began her career at Letraset in 1972, joining as a photographic retoucher. Colleagues attest to her skill at cutting letters from rubylith at Letraset where she cut several of the in-house designs and some of her own. After a freelance period which including consulting for British Airways, and Vauxhall Motors, in 1989 she joined up with previous collaborator David Quay to co-found what, by their own account, may have been the first UK independent type foundry, called The Foundry, in 1989.

Freda Sack was a member of the International Society of Typographic Designers, its co-chair from 1995 to 1999, its chair from 2000 to 2004, and its president from 2006 to 2010. Later, she was made an honorary fellow.

Typefaces by Sack

This is a selection of more notable typefaces, not a comprehensive index.

While employed by Letraset:

• Paddington (1977)
• Victorian (1976) (with Colin Brignall)

After leaving Letraset but still published with Letraset:

• Ignatius (1987)
• Proteus (1983)
• Vermont (1987)
• Waldorf (1986)

Published by her own Foundry Types (now The Foundry Types) many of which are careful revivals of 20th century designs:

• Architype Renner (1993) (described by Bringhurst as “artistically the earliest version” of Futura)
• New Alphabet (1997)
• Gridnik (1997).

Also at Foundry Types, Sack created corporate (that is, not published) fonts for British Gas, NatWest Bank, the Science Museum, the World Wildlife Fund, and Lisbon Metro.

References

1. "A Celebration of the life of Freda Ann Slack".
2. ^ Faces from Letraset: The story of the Letraset collection. eLexicons Limited. 2016.
3. "Freda Sack obituary, Alphabettes".
4. "Freda Sack, The Foundry Types".
5. "Freda Sack Obituary, The Guardian".
6. The Elements of Typographic Style. Hartley & Marks. 1996.
7. "Freda Sack 1951–2019". Typographic. 71: 52 (insert). 2019.

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• British typographers and type designers