Anthony Froshaug gravestone
Contributed by Florian Hardwig on Mar 28th, 2013. Artwork published in
circa 1987
.
Anthony Froshaug (1920–84) was an English typographer and teacher. His grave is located at the East section of the Highgate Cemetery in London, just as those by Karl Marx, Douglas Adams and Malcolm McLaren.
“Not often does type work well on gravestones, but this version of Gill Sans is appropriate.” — Paul Barnes
2 Comments on “Anthony Froshaug gravestone”
The gravestone was cut by Françoise Berserik in 1986–1987, and was placed in the cemetery in 1987. FB is a typographer and especially a book designer, as well as a letter-cutter. She is Dutch; lives and works in The Hague. The idea to base the letters on Gill Sans came out of discussions between her and the Froshaug family. This was Froshaug’s preferred typeface. I think the stone proves that printing type can be adopted on gravestones, if sensitively and manually done. And Gill was, after all, a letter-cutter himself. The asymmetric configuration of the text follows Froshaug’s habits, and the dimension of the visible stone follow the proportions of the ISO paper sizes. The stone is (in Dutch) Belgische blauwe hardsteen.
Thank you very much for sharing this information! Much appreciated. I have added Françoise’s name to the design credits, and adjusted the date.