What wood type taught us about spacing

Old letters, set by hand, still make the best case for room to breathe.

Before there were fonts there were trays of wooden letters, cut by hand and set one at a time. Spending an afternoon with a tray of them changes how you look at type.

Space is part of the letter

With wood type you cannot cheat the gaps. Every space is a real piece of wood, so you think about it as much as the letters. We now start every wordmark by drawing the spaces first.

Slow on purpose

Setting a single line takes an hour. That hour is where most of our good decisions come from.

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