Maltese typography goes to London
Maltese graphic and brand designer Hannah Grech Pirotta recently exhibited her final thesis project at the London College of Communication within the University of the Arts, London after completing a successful 15-month Master’s program in Graphic Branding and Identity.
As part of the project, Grech Pirotta developed the brand TYPE TANA, an archive and type foundry aimed at celebrating and preserving Maltese typography.
“In the current relentless wave of development, so much of our rich design history is being lost forever,” says the designer.
“Traditional shop signs, with unique and handmade characters, are being replaced by new developments, in the process of disappearing from our streets and consequently from the public eye.”
Grech Pirotta says that her project TYPE TANA seeks to immortalize the letters that are disappearing and give the characters the opportunity for a new life, while she claimed that “we often mourn the loss of some other commercial establishment that has been in -long while in the process ignoring the cost. in terms of design history’.
The project contains five types of personalized type that Grech Pirotta developed based on type signs from the streets of Malta. She hopes to continue to expand this repertoire of types, taking inspiration not only from shop front signs but from vintage marketing material, food packaging and ephemera.
So much of our rich design history is being lost forever
The exhibition piece of her thesis project featured a short series of type-specific letterpress posters on display, as well as a printed Risograph type sample brochure.
She says that the experience of using these traditional printing techniques was one of the highlights of her time at the London College of Communication, formerly known as the London College of Print.
“There is a lot of value that can be added to a project by doing it by hand. I learned that combining various printing techniques with digital design adds character to the project as well as creating a connection to the craftsmanship that created the typeface in the first place,” she says.
“TIP TANA was born to celebrate and protect the rich and colorful design heritage cultivated by our little island of Malta. By capturing an element of Maltese design, I hope that designers can find inspiration in what came before them, to help them create what comes next.”
Hannah Grech Pirotta was a beneficiary of the Malta Arts Scholarships Scheme and the Janatha Stubbs Foundation. You can see her work on www.hannahgrechpirotta.com and on Instagram at @hgp.design.
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