HWT Artz is the newest wood type to be cut at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. It was designed by venerable type designer Erik Spiekermann for his own print studio (P98a in Berlin), specifically to be cut into large size wood type. The digital version is being offered to the general public with proceeds of sales to benefit the museum’s ongoing operations.
HWT Artz evokes bold early 20th century European poster lettering. The design itself is intended to minimize hand-finishing and thus production time with rounded corners rather than sharp interior corners that would normally have to be hand-finished. In keeping with the tradition of naming new Hamilton designs after key figures from the living history of Hamilton (and following Spiekermann’s tradition of four letter font names), Artz is named after Dave Artz- Hamilton Manufacturing retiree and master type trimmer.
