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Lettering, logos, fonts: Jim Parkinson did them all
“You don’t just sit down and letter,” Jim Parkinson once said. “It’s like if you’re going to be a good athlete, you don’t just go out on the field and do something heroic. You get in shape. You have to learn how to play the game.”
Born in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1941, he was first introduced to typography and penmanship by Abraham Lincoln Paulsen, spent several years at Hallmark greeting cards where he learned from Hermann Zapf, and trained at the California College of Arts and Crafts, graduating in 1963.
His iconic work includes logos for the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, Credence Clearwater Revival, Kansas, and The Doobie Brothers. He was a prominent figure in producing newspaper and magazine logos—including: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Virginian-Pilot, Esquire, Newsweek, Fast Company, Variety, and TV y Novelas, among many others.
A collection of logos by Jim Parkinson, who always preferred to work in analog formats, and whose mastery of the pen was unmatched.
His work has been described as a contemporary expression of the vernacular traditions of lettering and signpainting. In his free time, he produced a number of super-realistic paintings of neon signs, showing his love for this style.
Parkinson is perhaps best known for designing the long-running Rolling Stone logo. He started working on a custom typeface for the publication in 1975 and was assigned to design a compatible logo, which appeared in 1977. Over the next 30 years, he continued to iterate the logo. Its bold swashes and expansive dimensionality became one of the most recognizable symbols of Americana, as Jesse Ragan said on XYType.com.
“Jim Parkinson created an indispensable ingredient of the visual brand of Rolling Stone: the logo. It was considered a big change from the original when it was introduced in the magazine’s 10th anniversary issue. Tweaked many times since, the logo has stood for the magazine for almost 50 years,” said Roger Black.
While continuing type design and lettering work, Parkinson turned to fine art, painting neon signs, which are showcased on his website. His work should continue to have a treasured presence in American culture.
Fortune Teller. Reno, Nevada. Oil on canvas. “I went to art school hoping to become a painter. I graduated in 1963. It's been sixty years and I'm still fiddling around with it.”
Before there was Giza: Hand-drawn letters from Egiziano, the Nebiolo slab (c. 1895). This pasteup was shot down in the Rolling Stone camera room. The film negatives were stripped into a two-inch font for the Phototypositor machine.
Parkinson was known for his generosity, openness, and encouragement towards younger designers. He was resolutely down to earth in a remarkably impactful way.
He died on June 26 at the age of 83. Jim Parkinson is survived by his wife, book artist Dorothy Yule. A memoir from Letterform Archive is forthcoming, and a memorial is planned for this fall around his birthday on the 23rd of October.
Read more about Jim Parkinson
Parkinson’s website features a variety of his work, custom typefaces, lettering projects, and artwork.
A profile of Parkinson’s legacy, originally commissioned by TYPE and published in Print magazine after his death in 2025.
A tribute to the life and career of Jim Parkinson, detailing his accomplishments and love for type along with heartfelt reflections from his collaborators and leaders within SND.
A chronological look at the evolution of the Rolling Stone logo and a detailed explanation of each of the changes throughout the years.
Stephen Coles talks with Jim about his experience early in life and lettering philosophy in this Font Shop interview, Part 1. (Note, this was before FontShop was acquired by Monotype.)
Part 2 continues the conversation with Jim Parkinson, diving into his work on iconic logos and typefaces.
Roger Black (also on Fontcast) remembers hiring Jim Parkinson and the thought process behind the Rolling Stone typeface in this interview.
A 2008 interview with Jim Parkinson, exploring his approach to type design, working with Rolling Stone, and lettering history. (Before MyFonts was acquired by Monotype.)