(b Montevideo, Uruguay, Feb 11, 1872; d Ditchling, Sussex, Nov 26, 1944).
British calligrapher, typographer and teacher. He went to Great Britain to study medicine at Edinburgh. Poor health forced him to abandon medicine, but he took up the study of calligraphy, influenced by his investigations of letter shapes in manuscripts in the British Museum, London. From 1899 until 1912 he taught writing and lettering at the London County Council School of Arts and Crafts; from 1901 he also taught at the Royal College of Art. From 1910 to 1930 he designed type for the Cranach Press of Graf Harry Kessler (1868–1937) in Weimar and from 1916 to 1929 worked on an alphabet of block letters, based on the proportions of Roman capitals, for London Transport designs and posters. Johnston was a leading member of the artistic community known from 1920 as the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic, was President of the Arts and Crafts Society (1933–6...