RCA grad show identities created from woodblock typefaces
Giulia Garbin and Jack Llewellyn have designed the identity for the Royal College of Art’s 2014 graduate shows programme by using woodblock typefaces from the College’s Letterpress studio.
The designers worked with the RCA’s Letterpress and Lithography technician Ian Gabb to produce six different typefaces, with each one representing a different faculty.
Alongside Gabb, the team of designers restored and redrew missing or damaged characters so that the words ‘Show RCA-2014’ could be completed in each font.
The RCA says the identity system ‘captures the tactility and non-uniformity of the analogue printing process.’
Each of the six digitised fonts represents the college’s schools – Architecture, Communication, Design, Fine Art, Humanities and Material.
For the main body typeface, the designers chose New Rail Alphabet, designed by RCA tutor Henrik Kubel and former acting course director of graphic design, Margaret Calvert.
Garbin and Llewellyn said, ‘Our aim was to create something simple, bold and vibrant, but subtly constructed around an in-depth system inspired by the dynamic relationship between the students, the College and its history.
‘The technical challenge was designing visual elements based in analogue processes, which we could keep consistent and appropriate across a variety of media without losing the quality of the physical originals.’
Each of the font themes established for the six faculties will be expanded and continued in further applpications in the run-up to the shows.
Letterpres – Yes!
Woodblock Type – Yes!
End Result – Yuk!
I like it!
Well done reviving old tools from the past. It’s great that students at a College in the forefront of art and design like the RCA are still keen on finding new ways to use old techniques.