In December 2020, a series of posters celebrating the holiday season and the Commercial Classics library appeared across London. They were designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio and were recorded by the photographer, Derek Man.

Since Commercial Type started nearly a decade ago, we have always wanted to show our historical side and utilize our fascination with the old long defunct foundries. Commercial Classics is about making new faces from old sources for today’s users.

Just off Fleet Street in the City of London is St Bride Foundation, home to St Bride Library, one of the finest collections of books and artefacts related to printing and the graphic arts.

We would like to thank many people who have made all of this possible.

The history of typefaces can be at times a rather sketchy affair: When was a certain style first introduced? Which foundry created it first?

Type is a digital product, but well into the second half of the twentieth century it was a physical product. Though by this time it was a mainly mechanised process, for most of its existence typefounding had been an industry dominated by hand processes like punchcutting. But how was it done?