Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum announces its collaboration with internationally known type designer Erik Spiekermann. Hamilton will be cutting the Spiekermann-designed font, “HARD” as part of its annual Wayzgoose type conference, Nov. 8-10, 2013.

“I’m excited to see Hamilton cut this font using traditional methods,” says Spiekermann. “With Hamilton’s vintage pantographs and former type-cutting employees, this will be a chance to see history in the remaking.” The design of Spiekermann’s font saves time compared with other wood-cut type as it does not include sharp angles that would normally necessitate extra trimming.

“It’s a really clever design,” says museum director Jim Moran. “We certainly have retirees who can handle type-trimming but Erik’s design will significantly reduce production time.” Traditionally, pantographs incorporate a circular bit that routs away the non-printing section of the type and additional trimming is required to get into the tight corners of a given letter.

Working with retired Hamilton type-cutter, Norbert Brylski, and his daughter Georgianne, Hamilton will be demonstrating the 150-year-old process at its annual Wayzgoose conference. Now in its fifth year, the conference boasts more than 200 attendees and speakers from across the U.S.

The conference will be the museum’s first public event since closing last December. Museum staff and volunteers coordinated the packing and moving of 27 semi-trailers of printing history. The recently converted 85,000-square-foot building is nearly ready to reopen. Design author Steven Heller’s article about the move appeared in September’s The Atlantic.

“We couldn’t have done this without the help of our volunteers and donors,” says Hamilton’s assistant director, Stephanie Carpenter. “A handful of amazing companies have stepped up to support us as Wayzgoose sponsors this year including Appleton Coated, Mark Simonson Fonts, Monotype Corporation, P22 Type Foundry, and Studio on Fire of Minneapolis. We couldn’t have done it without them.”

While the Two Rivers Historical Society was able to purchase the building outright, it still faces in excess of $150,000 for facility updates. Contributions of time and money to support the museum’s move may be made online.

Hamilton Wood Type began producing type in 1880 and within 20 years became the largest provider in the United States. Today, volunteers of the Two Rivers Historical Society preserve this legacy and host educational demonstrations, field trips, workshops and offer opportunities with this vast wood type collection. The museum also illustrates antique printing technologies including the production of hot metal type, hand-operated printing presses, tools of the craft and rare type specimen catalogs.

Follow Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum on Twitter at @hamiltonwoodtyp, on Facebook, on Flickr or on YouTube, or visit www.woodtype.org.

Filed under: Appleton Coated, CLIENT NEWS, Events, Type-Paper-Print