What do letters tell us about their life? In Estonia, there has never been a type foundry dedicated to designing and producing typefaces. For the most part, fonts were purchased by the printing houses from German or Russian manufacturers. In the 19th century, wood type and the large-format posters they printed became popular. However, little official documentation exists about this history. Since autumn 2023, TYPA has been researching the wood type in its collection to uncover their origins and stories.
This creative research sets out, firstly, to analyse the historic wood type collection at TYPA and trace its origins and historical use, and secondly, to understand the role of wooden type and letterpress in modern lettering and graphic design.
Exhibition “Newfound Type” delves into the unique wood types in the TYPA collection, tracing their history and showcasing historic posters they were used on. The Newfound Type project has developed its own modular type, that was printed on the CNC-Machine, by combining traditional printing methods and historical research with modern technology.
Both historic wood types and the newly created designs will be on display, along with a series of workshops and talks.
This research has been supported by the Estonian Ministry of Culture.
Newfound Type project team:
Maria Muuk (Graphic designer and head researcher)
Aimur Takk (Graphic and type designer, Tüpokompanii)
Charlotte Biszewski (TYPA project lead)
Danila Rygovskiy (TYPA treasurer)
Jörgen Loot (TYPA technical lead)
Merilin Metsamaa (TYPA letterpress printer)
