The printed ephemera of the early to mid-nineteenth century is visually rich and mixes together a range of diverse type styles. In an article on 'Type mixtures' [Typography 3, Shenval Press, 1937], Jan Tschichold advocates the mixing of type styles as a means of enhancing typographic layout. I could see parallels with the printed ephemera of 100 years earlier, but now through the skilled eyes of Tschichold as a modernist. The early nineteenth century saw the emergence of the Fatface, Egyptian and Sans serif type styles. These three styles formed the base of the Trilogy type designs and allow me to explore what a trilogy in type could mean.

With the Egyptian type I wanted to capture the fullness and vitality of the original forms from the nineteenth century. There was a wave of Egyptian revivals in the 1930s but I find these too rigid and monotonously geometric. Having observed though, the many idiosyncrasies typical of the nineteenth century examples, I was aware that I needed to introduce some modernity to my designs. I kept the strong colour and evenness of line found in the best original specimens, but used deep cuts at junction points to brighten forms and alleviate some of their inherent heavy awkwardness.

Click here for additional information about the Trilogy Egyptian typeface.