At Creative Company, I believe great design is built on strong foundations, and typography is one of the most important. As Senior Designer here and Senior Lecturer and Co-Course Leader for Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Suffolk, I get to bring my passion for letterforms and visual communication into both client work and design education, and found the two feed each other.
I’ve always been drawn to the power of letterforms, and to how their message and meaning can subconsciously affect the way people interact with them. Typography is all around us. We use typefaces differently depending on the environment, and there’s a conscious decision behind every choice.
As a designer, I understand how a typeface can draw people in, influence a mood, and speak to a particular audience. Most people just click the drop-down menu on their computer and pick whatever looks fine, without a second thought, but every one of those typefaces was designed and refined for a purpose. Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert’s typeface Transport, possibly the most familiar typeface in Britain, used across UK road signage, is a testament to the power of good design, implemented in 1965 and still in use today.
Recently, my colleagues and the Graphic Design students at the University of Suffolk collaborated with local typography collective The Local Type to explore Ipswich’s rich visual history. History often feels distant, tucked away in archives, museums and textbooks. Yet traces of the past surround us every day. From weathered shop signs and faded factory lettering to old logos and carved stone inscriptions, these overlooked details offer a glimpse into the stories that shaped our towns and cities. Our students researched, documented and analysed letterforms found throughout the town, uncovering the stories behind them and examining what they reveal about Ipswich’s cultural, industrial and social heritage. The result is “A Brief History of Type: Ipswich,” a unique exhibition currently on display at the Hold, home to Suffolk Archives.
The exhibition features a 26-piece alphabet, with each screen-printed poster representing a different letter discovered somewhere in Ipswich. Some letters were found on historic buildings, others on business signage, logos, artefacts and archival materials. Alongside every poster is research into the letter’s origin, context and historical significance, revealing not just how things looked, but what they represented at a particular moment in time.
I love that my work lets me move between industry and education, and I don’t see them as separate. Staying active in the industry keeps me sharp and connected to graphic design’s current thinking, and I get to bring all of that straight back into the studio with my students. Being able to hand that knowledge and those principles on to the next generation of graphic designers is one of the most rewarding parts of what I do.
