Alistair Johnson

Alastair Johnston is a notable American book designer, typographer and documentary photographer. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland 6 July 1950 and grew up in Northumberland, England. He immigrated to California in 1970 and became a letterpress printer, writer and teacher. He was a radio disc-jockey for ten years under the pseudonym of Doctor Rhythm. Johnston teaches "Typography and Typographic Design" at the University of California, Berkeley. He has travelled extensively, searching for and documenting vernacular uses of type, signage and lettering. He has been the co-owner and designer at Poltroon Press for over thirty years with Frances Butler - for which the Book Club of California held a retrospective exhibition in 2005, The Many...