Landing page photograph: John Baldessari holding Volume 3 of his Catalogue Raisonné, designed by Simon Johnston

Born in England, Simon Johnston was educated at Bath Academy of Art and at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel, Switzerland, where he studied with Armin Hofmann and Wolfgang Weingart. In London in the 1980s he co-founded renowned design studio 8vo and was instigator and co-editor of the typography journal Octavo. Relocating to California, his current design practice, Simon Johnston Design focuses on publications for galleries and museums. Clients include the Whitney Museum, Gagosian Gallery, Getty Museum, Steidl Verlag, Blum and Poe Gallery and Yale University Press. He has lectured in the US, Asia and Europe, and his work has received many awards and been exhibited internationally.

Simon is a professor in the Graphic Design Department at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, where he teaches typography and design. He has also served as Creative Director of Hoffmitz Milken Center for Typography since its founding in 2015. He divides his time between education, book design, and his own art/photography practice.

Johnston also runs a small publishing house verbeditions.com, which makes available prints and multiples by himself and others. A Walker Art Center blog interview and article on Verb Editions can be found here. Unit Editions interviewed Johnston upon the publication of Octavo Redux, a book chronicling and reproducing Octavo journal of typography, which Johnston co-founded in London in the 1980s. Read the interview here. An ArtCenter College of Design article about Johnston’s work can be found here.

All work designed by Simon Johnston except for 8vo studio works (1984-88) co-designed with Mark Holt and Hamish Muir, and the two ArtCenter view books designed with ArtCenter design office team Winnie Li, Eliana Dominguez, Seth Ferris, and Andrea Carrillo. All works are offset litho unless otherwise noted.