David Quay (1948) was born in London, England, and studied graphic design at the Ravensbourne College of Art & Design. After graduation he worked in various London design studios until he became a freelance designer in 1975, specialising in lettering, logotype and graphic design.

In 1987 he formed David Quay Design in London. Clients included Monotype, H. Berthold AG, and the International Typeface Corporation (ITC). In 1990 he co-founded The Foundry with Freda Sack to design, manufacture, and market PostScript fonts.

He was elected a Fellow of the International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) in 1992 and was joint chair of the ISTD from 1994–99. He is involved as an accessor on the ISTD yearly student assessment scheme and was on twice on the panel of international judges of the ISTD TypoGraphic Awards 92.

David Quay lectures extensively in typography and type design both in the UK and internationally. He has had a long association with the London School of Printing and has been a visiting lecturer at the Danmarks Designskole in Copenhagen, Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach and for three years Professor of typography and book design at the Fachhochschule Mainz. In 2000 he moved to Wiesbaden and in 2001 to Amsterdam. He taught typography and design at the Academie St. Joost, Hogeschool Brabant from 2001–2003. He now teaches one month a year at IDEP in Barcelona.