Two words: introspective, contemplative.

Odd question to post on an internet forum.

You've been a member of Typophile for two hours. This is your first post.

Most of us are observant. Enough said.

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Charles, it's an entirely reasonable –if slippery– question.

But: are we talking about typographers, or type designers? Very different animals.

hhp

What Hrant said. Get the terminology right.

>I'm writing an article on personal charatersitics/personality traits which are common with typographers and good leaders

Their ability to spell characteristics? ;-)

As part of my studies I'm writing an article on personal charatersitics/personality traits which are common with typographers and good leaders (emphasis added)

Hmm. Can't think of any typographers who were also leaders, at least, if you count only corporation of over 50 employees or civil groupings larger than villages.

Wouldn't it follow that any shared personality traits would be accidental? As you might find with any arbitrary paring, such as typographers and serial killers?

BTW, if you check Wikipedia on 'type designers,' you'll find that in recent usage, 'type designers' prefer to be compared architects rather than to typographers. I can't imagine why, since the largest and most common architectural works these days are strip malls (retail parks in the U.K.)... Perhaps apt, though, with the ending of the sign-painter era... http://typophile.com/node/114821

Odd assignment...

I've heard type designers being compared to architects, but they must be talking about display fonts, if you get my drift... :-) To me the closest other profession to text face design is... shoe-making!

hhp

I don’t think it’s possible to shake out many specialist typographers these days—everybody does it.
(With a nod to Charles Ellertson, who calls himself a “comp”, not a typographer.)

When you're writing something "inspirational" for "leaders", falsifiable observations of reality (such as an ad hoc psychological profile of typography professionals) are only going to get in the way. A purely metaphorical premise is safer. Write about what they can learn from typefaces. "The spaces between things are as important as the things themselves," that kind of stuff. You could probably even derive something genuinely meaningful about clarity of communication.

Actually, due to his long career, Nick Shinn, is both a type designer and typographer.

Not too many who have been both a *serious* art director and type designer, though.

Thanks for the comments, especially Ceruleans' which were helpful.
Combined lack of sleep and typing on the go resulted in a muddled original posting. Apologies for spelling and my somewhat naive question. I just joined the forum and asked for help as I realised I'm out of my depth.... It's been really educational reading the other postings. I have huge respect for typographers though!

they are often ill of characteritis.