HWT Geometric
A digital font for Hamilton Wood Type Printing Museum
This late 19th century design conjures up early 20th century Dutch DeStijl lettering with a mostly strict adherence to right angles and minimal stroke modulation. Geometric began its life as a metal typeface from the Central Type Foundry, circa 1884. Soon after, this design was officially licensed to Morgan & Wilcox and was shown in their 1890 catalog in Regular, Light and Condensed Light variations. After acquiring Morgans & Wilcox, Hamilton Manufacturing offered Geometric Light Face Condensed as their own No. 3020 and the Geometric Light Face as No. 3021. Special Thanks to David Shields for background research.
No actual wood type was found to work from for this set, but several original and reproduction specimen books provided enough information to fill out a full charcater set for all 6 styles. The specimen above is from the 1890 Morgans & Wilcox Wood Type Catalog, but additional speciemens were found from the Newberry Library Chicago, The Cary Graphic Arts Library at RIT, and the Hamilton Wood Type Museum itself. More insight on this set from James Grieshaber’s blog.
HWT Geometric has been expanded digitally to include a Regular Condensed version. A heavier wood type specimen was found from an unknown manufacturer and digitized as it was found, resulting in the HWT Geometric Shopworn and Shopworn Inked variations. These digital versions all include a full Western and Central European character set of over 380 glyphs.
Avaialble for sale at P22 Type Foundry with proceeds going to support the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.
