Show RCA 2014 Identity Draws on Historic Woodblock Typefaces
This year’s Royal College of Art graduate show visual identity draws on historic woodblock typefaces from the College’s Letterpress studio.
In keeping with the College’s commitment to fostering emerging talent, RCA alumni Giulia Garbin and Jack Llewellyn (MA Visual Communication, 2013) have created this year’s visual identity, reworking six historic woodblock typefaces, used by generations of designers at the RCA, to create typefaces for each of the College’s schools: Architecture, Communication, Design, Fine Art, Humanities and Material.
Working with RCA Letterpress and Lithography technician Ian Gabb, the pair produced multiple printed variations of each of the six typefaces, capturing the tactility and non-uniformity of the analogue printing process, and restoring or redrawing missing or damaged characters.
These were then scanned and layered to create an identity that links past and present with skill, style and eloquence, for use across print and digital collateral. A digitised typeface changes relative to its environment. For the main body typeface, the designers chose New Rail Alphabet, designed by RCA tutor Henrik Kubel and former acting programme director of Graphic Design, Margaret Calvert.
‘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,’ Garbin and Llewellyn said.Â
‘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,’ they added.