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London's New North Press is on a mission to bring letterpress into the 21st century. To combine the oldest form of print technology with the very latest innovations, the Hoxton-based studio turned to Scott Williams and Henrik Kubel of A2-Type to design a letterpress font that could be 3D printed. 'It was really important to us that the design was something that challenged the notion of what letterpress could be and tested what 3D printing was capable of,' says Richard Ardagh, a New North Press partner. 'When Scott and Henrik presented their design of the letter forms being a wireframe, I knew we were in new territory that felt exciting.' The A23D font was fabricated by specialist model makers Chalk Studios and is now a working part of New North Press' library of type. The project has been documented by Adrian Harrison, whose film – a shortened version of which is previewed here - will premiere at the Victoria & Albert Museum on 13 September as part of London Design Festival's Graphic Weekend.
Victoria & Albert Museum, Seminar Room 1, Learning Centre Screening times: 12:00, 14:30, 16:00 & 17:00
Creating a 3D-printed letterpress font was a way to 'feed new energy into the craft and really look to the future of letterpress,' says Richard Ardagh
New North Press worked with Chalk Studios to 3D print the A23D font
A2-Type have created a font in which the letter forms are wireframes. 'We chose to go with something that referenced the production method by being 3D looking,' explains Ardagh.
The fonts were created by polyjet 3D printing, which builds up layers of liquid photo polymer, cured by a UV light
The font's first use is the specimen posters, designed by A2-Type
Each of the four posters comes in an edition of 50
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