The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine is the fourth largest Christian church building in the world, begun in 1892 and never finished, with a 124-foot nave that draws tourists, worshippers, and New Yorkers alike. More than a Gothic monument, St. John’s hosts concerts, art exhibits, and community events, serves 25,000 meals a year, and brings together people of wide-ranging faiths in 30 services a week.

I led the creative direction and design for A Cathedral for the 21st Century, an oral history compiled from over 175 voices, drawing on new interviews and decades of archived material. The book celebrates the Cathedral through the stories and photographs of the historic people and events that have taken place within its walls.

Central to the design is Divine, a custom typeface redrawn from a 1928 blackletter by Frederic Goudy, itself based on the type in Gutenberg’s 42-line Bible. Divine has long been a vital part of the St. John’s brand and became the typographic anchor for the book.