Typography and metalwork have a long entwined history, from engraving, etching, and moveable metal type.
We’ve always been drawn to the beauty of engraved metalwork, especially objects with a commemorative or personal meaning. We’ll often look at vintage engraved pieces and imagine the lives of the people that owned them.
Today, there are endless choices of typefaces, but we prefer to look for letter styles that hearken back to type that was engraved or punched out of metal. One of our favorite typefaces is based on the flowing Script of George Bickham, a 18th century British engraver. Often we'll design other pieces with a variation of a traditional typeface by John Baskerville, another 18th century designer, originally cut into metal punches by John Hardy. These two typefaces go so well together, presumably because they're from the same era.
We also love playful, handwritten typefaces, and elegant modern letters with a vintage feel, depending on what sort of object we’re engraving. Of course, using a typeface that fits the height and scale of the object and adjusting the letter spacing are all concerns to create a design where the type and the object coexist and compliment each other.
Engraving makes it personal and meaningful. Order a custom piece for an exceptional gift!