A brand new identity

For the past few months we've been busy getting oily and dirty bringing our presses back to working condition, but our little letterpress studio wouldn't be complete without an identity. So in-between the nuts and bolts and oil, we've been hard at work crafting our brand. We decided early on that although it would need to live in a digital world, the identity should be created from a purely analogue approach. So out came our wood type, and after some development we decided to use a combination of S&B Old Style Italic and De Little 296 for the logotype. A trip to Amberley then saw us tweaking and printing the design on the rather impressive S&B cylinder proofing press. Next stop was digitising the print ready for use on- and off-line.

The logotype hand type-set, locked up and being tweaked and spaced

The prints drying

Digitising and amending the logotype

Sketches for the symbol design.

Whilst the logotype was being crafted, we were busy obsessively sketching and scribbling down ideas for a brand symbol —a modern 'imprint' for our press. After much development, we finally settled on a graphic monogram that plays with the idea of negative space — the 'counters' of the characters — to create a simple, single colour mark that could be used across all applications and would lend itself to embossing and a range of print finishes. 

Finally the logotype is ready to go.

The final symbol. Our monogram and imprint.

The result is simple and clean, a modern take on the traditional approach we aim to uphold. A logotype created and produced from woodtype and bespoke symbol that perfectly captured what we hope our little press will be all about. 

The symbol is designed to work over a range of brand colours.