The Department of Typography & Graphic Communication grew out of the Typography Unit, established by Michael Twyman first within, then outwith, the Fine Art Department at the University of Reading in the 1960s. In 1974 ‘the Unit’ was turned into ‘the Department’. At that time it could claim to be the only place in the UK (and elsewhere) in which to do typography at university level. Despite the subsequent proliferation of typography courses and universities, it remains a remarkable centre of typographic teaching and research.