Mathematically Designed, Digitally Native
Introducing Kut, a monoline, geometric display face with a distinctly sci-fi, technical feel.
Available in both standard and heavy weights with solid or open inlays.
Built from straight lines, evenly radial curves, and diagonal facets rather than full curves. Where a round form would normally be (C, G, O, S, a, e), the corners are cut or chamfered, giving a faceted, almost vector-polygon look.
The lowercase follows these rules: the a, d, g, p, q have squared-off bowls with clipped corners, and the y has a flat, open, “u-with-a-tail” shape.
Available soon as an open type font.
An adaptation of Albrecht Dürer’s modular blackletter from 1525
This is a project I am currently working on.
I started by creating a digital version of Albrecht Dürer’s modular blackletter alphabet, following his directions from his 1525 treatise. Then, I adapted these letters into a modular system consisting of six, 2.5x3 inch blocks for each letter. I cut these modules on my CNC on end grain rock maple, and i am currently printing all 26 letters on my Vandercook No. 3.
These prints will then be overlaid with drawings from the same book, reproduced in pencil by my drawing machine.
Edition of 10 (I hope)
clockwise from top left:
- wood type print with digital overlay of what will be pencil drawing (by machine);
- Vector of letter ‘z’
- MWT of the letter u, on the bed of my Vandercook No. 3
- Vector of letter ‘a’
Visual. Form. Play.
Created directly on the bed of a Vandercook letterpress, these wood type compositions are meant to be enjoyed simply as playful visual form.
Monoprints
Super Lenta is a new, chromatic, modular wood type font for letterpress printing.
Inspired by Joan Trochut’s Super Tipo Veloz (Super Fast Type, produced in 1942 by Fundición Tipográfica Iranzo in Barcelona, Spain), Super Lenta (trans: Super Slow) type was designed in Illustrator®, cut into 2.75 × 2.75 × 0.9175-inch end-grain, rock maple blocks on a CNC router, letterpress printed in fluorescent orange and blue inks, hand-bound as a book, and released in 2017. Each letter consists of four modules for each color. Letterforms are 5.5x5.5 inches.
Book Produced in an Edition of 5
Splits is a modular wood type font.
It is inspired by pieces of wood type Tricia and I discovered at Hamilton Wood Type Museum and Printing Museum, where each letter was so large is needed to be split across two pieces of wood. Each letter consists of four modules for each of the two colors.
Letterpress Monoprints
in collaboration with Tricia Treacy
Ashley grew up taking things apart to see how they worked.
This innate curiosity and self-determination led him to his first career in commercial graphic/web design during the early years of the internet. Since then, his love of typography, technology, and creative process has manifested in many ways. He applies his engineering mindset to understanding human creativity, language, and meaning through researching, designing, printing, and teaching typography.
Over the last thirty years, Ashley has experimented with various technologies, including physical computing, electro-mechanics, robotics, and many types of software. He has used these technologies to create experiences for people, including drawing machines, a portable CNC router for custom wood type workshops, and other gallery-based artworks.
Today, in addition to continuing his research, design, production, and printing of his own wood forms on the letterpress, he applies user-centered design methods and his technical skills to create assistive devices for children with disabilities.
Ashley is a professor in the Department of Art and Design at the University of Delaware, where he helps young creatives learn the fundamentals of typography and design through an understanding of the psychology of meaning and the relationship between typography, production, and society over time. He challenges students to embrace their unique points of view and establish their own way of contributing to the world.
He has recently established his own letterpress studio, Ol’ Possum Press, at his home, as well as an experimental type studio, 6aType, in Newark, Delaware. He continues to share his creative research, teaching strategies, and scholarship at national and international venues.
work contact:
Ashley John Pigford
Professor of Creative Practice
Department of Art and Design
University of Delaware
Recitation Hall
22 E. Main St. Rm 104
design@udel.edu
Ashley John Pigford
designer, educator, typographer, printer, maker
ashley@6atype.com