All Things Considered

More type
Posted by Simon Lewin

Another recent acquisition - a wonderful 2" Playbill typeface to add to our growing collection of type.

"The playbill typeface was designed in the 19th century as a display type for the semi-literate communities of the American west. Display types were first originated in the 18th century as part of a growing demand for large sized typefaces that could be read, or at least recognised, from a distance.

Typically, these letterforms were used on shop fronts and in letterpress poster design. So, they are entirely associated, in historical terms, with the emergence of organised commercial entertainments. This playbill typeface has a compressed form that, allowing more letters per line, is implicitly associated with the solid western value of thrift." Paul Rennie - The Guardian - October 2008

So, we have even more type, presses, plenty of ideas and a workshop. Now all we need is some more time.

Posted by Simon Lewin on March 24th, 2009