‘Typsettra’ hand-lettered wordmark – Dave Thomason, c1975

The thin tissue paper glued onto card would have had very little colour, appearing almost white, so any white touch up would not be noticeable. Over time both the tissue paper and the rubber cement would discolour, turning yellow and exposing the white gouache paint. Few lettering artists had as little touch up on their work as Thomason.

The wordmark was originally created as a promotional piece for Typsettra. The word was made into a ‘zinc’ block, type-high (0.918 inch), that was given to clients. Although it is highly unlikely that any of them would have actually used it for printing it nevertheless was a delightful reminder of the early days of type and printing.