Collections

An understanding of printing practices and design issues from the past can inform and enrich our designing today. The lettering, printing and design collections in the Department are extensive and diverse and form a unique resource for undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research. Whenever possible we use the collections to give students an opportunity to see and handle original material but they are also an important resource for individual study and have provided many topics for dissertations.

Lettering

Lettering of almost every period, scale, style and material is represented in the collections: from Egyptian hieroglyphs to the latest digital technology; printed, drawn, cut, moulded, woven and sown, painted and hand-written letterforms. There is a photographic library of classical and renaissance inscriptions from Rome and Florence; street and shop lettering, tombstones from Britain and Europe and much more.

Printing

The three principle printing processes of relief, intaglio and planographic printing are explained and demonstrated through a comprehensive range of historical presses, tools and equipment. Printing surfaces such as wood- and copper-engraving blocks and plates, lithographic stones, and type and typecasting are well represented and we have extensive examples of printing artefacts that can be studied under the magnifying lens.

There is a functioning printing workshop providing an opportunity for students to try out these printing processes for themselves using historical equipment. We have material covering the many typesetting technologies – including a working monotype machine. The Department also houses one of the most comprehensive collections of type-specimens in the country.

Design

Archives from major individual designers and design companies are an important part of the collections and we have material relating to Hans Schmoller, Ernest Hoch, George Mackie, Banks and Miles and many others. An internationally significant archive is the Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection holding material relating to the Isotype movement (c. 1925–70) which, in addition to pioneering methods for assembling, configuring, and disseminating information through pictorial means, pursued numerous other innovative activities associated with visual communication.

Centre for Ephemera Studies

The Centre for Ephemera Studies is part of the Department. The Centre specialises in the study of everyday printed objects – the sort of material which usually gets thrown away but was such a major part of the printing trade and reflects so well everyday life in the past. The collection consists of over 20,000 item of printing.

The University Library

The University Library also has internationally important collections and archives relating to typography – for example the archives of many of the country's leading publishers, advertising and packaging of Huntley & Palmers, illustrated children's books and material from the Great Exhibition.