Borrowed Type
A few years ago, my lovely friend, book artist and letterpress printer Angie Butler offered me long term loan of some 12pt Engravers lead type. I explored the type with a view to printing an album cover on my press but didn’t have enough characters to complete the song titles. I opted for the polymer plate instead which was a much more efficient use of time and gave me more flexibility designing the album.
I am currently working on an EP “Autumn" for my other project, Red Deer Sleeping. The songs are based on poems by Amy Lowell, Christina Rossetti, Adelaide Crapsey and R.L.Stevenson. There are only five songs on this EP and the Engravers type have been hibernating in their wooden trays for long enough. It's time to wake them up and re-introduce them to the press and have a go at typesetting the song titles.
And your point is...?
3 trays of Engravers type. 3 different sizes cast in 12pt.
Again I didn’t have enough type to complete the songs at the same size so as I ran out of one size I added a different size in it’s place. Any missing type, I replaced with 12pt Times. So the result is a sporadic mix of small, medium and large Engravers 12pt type with a dash of Times! This is something I may have steered clear of if I was making a design on the computer but sometimes limitations can bring surprising and possibly more interesting results. We’ll see!
Thank you Angie for the loan of the type! : ))