Oak Knoll

Limited to 24 unnumbered copies. The folder included within the Limited Edition contains a set of seven black and white 330mm x 250mm letterpress prints and one two-colour 500mm x 330mm letterpress print. These are formed from the rare and original 1930-60s metal printing blocks made from Bertholds hand drawn artworks. The blocks themselves were lent by Deborah Wolpe & Francis Atterbury and printed by Pat Randle for impress-publishing.com. As authentic recreations of Wolpes original work, these prints physically capture and display his attention to detail as well as his typographic and illustrative expertise.

This book is a celebration of Berthold Wolpe and brings to life his story through anecdotes from friends and family giving us graphic insight into what it was like to know this larger than life character. Bertholds work has been reproduced extensively, especially many of the 1,500 front-cover book designs he created at Faber & Faber. However what has not been shown before is all his lettering, hand drawn on scraps of paper with white correcting paint refining the hand drawn black lettering. They show the process of creating the energetic and strong letter forms which he made his own.

These artworks open up a bygone era of design and will hopefully inspire young designers to close their laptops and get messy with paper and ink, producing work which carries their own DNA and not that of the computer.