Martin J. Weber, Typographer, Art Director, Inventor Dies at 102

By Mark Kaufman
As usual, thank god for Steven Heller. When I started out in this business close to 30 years ago, long before the advent of the laptop that I am writing this on, the art of typography, especially special effects lettering was a mysterious craft. If you wanted your headlines, expanded, compressed, or rendered in perspective, you had to send it out to a typographer where chain smoking craftsmen would magically create amazing galleys for you to cut out and paste up on your layout boards with rubber cement. Little did I know that this wonder of the graphic arts trade was the invention of one Martin J. Weber who died last week at the age of 102. In addition to inventing and patenting the typographic device he was an amazing designer and art director, working for CBS, ABC, NBC, Monsanto and Esso, and developed posterization, a technique prevalent in the late 1960s which has made a comeback today thanks to Photoshop and the screen print/rock poster revolution. Thank you Martin J. Weber.