“The most remarkable of [Edward Johnston’s recurrent childhood] dreams was one that he came to connect with the lifelong fascination exerted upon him by the mysterious recurrences in mathematical series. He dreamed that he climbed a great brass chain till he found himself in a scale pan. There he saw the Trinity throned in glory, surrounded by the Apostles. Their robes were of the most intense and brilliant colours, reds and blues and greens. The whose scene was one of the greatest splendour and yet, as he gazed at it, he had the felling that, wonderful as it was, this was not quite it, not the ultimate and final vision. With this thought he looked up and there was another great brass chain. Again he climbed and reached another scale pan and again there was the vision but even more brilliant than before. The colours filled him with delight yet still he knew that this was not quite what he sought. So he continued to climb up and up and each time the vision increased in brilliance until at last he reached a scale pan where the colours almost vanished in pure light and he knew that he had reached his goal.

Afterwards, when he began to be fascinated by the illuminations in early manuscripts he found again what seemed the very colors that he had seen in his dream, and recognized them with a thrill of joy.”

—Priscilla Johnston, from Edward Johnston, 1958. Priscilla was the daughter of the great calligrapher and type designer. (You may not know his name, but if you read English you have seen his type and felt his influence.)