Today is a big day for me. One of the biggest of days. I’m delighted to announce that Mark Boulton Design has been acquired by Monotype. You can read the full press release here, but before you do, I’d like to take you back a few years…

Eight years ago, Emma and I were driving down from visiting my parents near Manchester. It was a sunny, blustery day in June 2006.

During this time, we both worked for the BBC – Emma in Audience Research, and me in, what was then called, New Media. As a lot of designers do, I was working some freelance work on the side. A couple of weeks prior to that car trip, however, I’d been offered a freelance project that was too good to turn down, but it was big. Bigger than a few hours a night when I got home from the day job. On that car trip, we decided that one of those jobs had to go: my freelance work, or the job at the BBC. I chose the latter, and the very next day, handed in my resignation at the BBC. It was time to head out alone.

Eight years later and it’s time for another change.

Running a design studio has been a fabulously rewarding experience. I’ve worked with some talented people on some great projects for wonderful clients. But, all through this time, there has been a niggling problem, one that I’ve talked about at a couple of design conferences this year. When we’re hired by a company to work on their project, just by the nature of the engagement, we’re not as close to the problem as we need to be. We’re not in-house. We’re not experiencing them day by day. And, quite often, we’re not in the position to help fix the problems in the organisation as we uncover them. Having the opportunity to be closer to the problem really excites me, and that’s why this change is such an important decision for me at this time in my career.

We know the web is going through an interesting time right now. This is not so much being felt by us in the industry, but by the myriad of companies who publish content that are struggling to cope with the changes and demands their readership and customers put on their services. Being close to that problem excites me, and that’s just what this opportunity with Monotype represents. We’re going to be working with some of smartest people I’ve met on a broad range of tools and services that cross the boundaries of two fields of design I hold dear: web design and typography. What could be better than that?

Five Simple Steps will also be closing its doors. For five years, Emma and I have been accidental publishers and, together with the team here, and some talented authors, have produced many practical and influential books. Those books aren’t going away, though. As of today, Five Simple Steps is ceasing to trade, but is giving those books back to the authors to distribute as they see fit. We’re also freely distributing our ePub template and process, to help people self-publish just like I did five years ago. And, today, I’m also giving away my book, Designing for the Web. You can freely download it in PDF, ePub and Kindle (.mobi) formats.

Our responsive grid application, Gridset, is currently being considered as how it can sit alongside Monotype’s Typecast product. Since both services launched, I’ve lost count of the amount of people who use the two together and asked us to integrate somehow.

The last eight years has been quite a ride, but as I said, it’s time for a change. And, for me, a great change at that. The team here at Mark Boulton Design will still be working with me. We’ll still be contributing to the community the best way we can. I’ll still be harping on about something or other on Twitter.

Today marks the closing of one chapter and the beginning of another. It’s the part in any story that I love the most, because, to my mind, it’s the best bit.