Engineering the Word

Dear Collector’s Set backers

I’m writing to update you on production of Engineering the Word, the special letterpress book that you kindly supported in the reward to accompany the Type Archived publication.

The aim of Engineering the Word is to demonstrate what the tools and processes shown in Type Archived can achieve and I’m pleased to say that the limited edition of 100 books is being produced by talented craftspeople entirely in the UK.

Alan Kitching’s wonderful dust jacket artwork was printed and signed earlier this the year in anticipation of wrapping the finished books. More recently Nick Gill of Effra Typefoundry has been busy casting the type for the book’s seven texts, each set in a different Monotype face, one of which was also written by him. Other contributing authors are TA associates Sallie Morris, Phil Cleaver, Bob Richardson, Howard Bratter, Russell Maret and myself. As the heavy packages of type have been arriving in London, I have been making up the pages for printing and we are about to be on press with Phil Abel and Robert Hetherington at Hand & Eye, following which sheets will be passed to Ludlow Bindery for sewing and casing.

As may be expected from the many painstaking manual stages that a project like this has to go through, the planned timings have slipped a bit. So it’s with regret that I need to inform you that completion of Engineering the Word will come after that of the Type Archived books, delivery of which is expected in November.

I will of course update you as soon as an expected completion date becomes clear. In the meantime, I’m very grateful for your patience and, if you’re interested to see glimpses of the process, please check the Type Archive social media pages.

If you have any concerns regarding your pledge, please do not hesitate to contact the Volume team at hello@vol.co.

Richard Ardagh