Anthony Burrill and Oswin Tickler showcase the “abstract nature of type” with creative code

A ‘forme’ is a tight arrangement of type set inside a locked chase for letterpress printing. Regulated by the constraints of its metal framework and underlying grid structure, the spacing, kerning and direction of its letter blocks are “strictly limited by the process”: a quality inherent to the long-established method that Anthony Burrill sees as one of the things that makes it so interesting. Like many traditional disciplines however, its interest can also lie in a deconstruction of set methods – a bending of the rules.

In a recent collaboration with designer and educator Oswin Tickler, the graphic artist has broken his traditional medium of letterpress type out of its strict grid with a creative coding system that produces prints with “a fluid complexity that would be difficult to attain using traditional methods.” He says: “As designers we are always looking for order within chaos and some sort of rational use of space with type. The coding system throws all those considerations away and produces work that has a unique look and feel.”

By configuring a way for old antique wood letter blocks to be arranged by code with the software HP Spark (a plugin for Adobe Indesign based on experimental work of Oswin’s from early 2020), each page of the pair’s new publication Combined Forms displays a unique artwork. Generated for a fixed number of movable letter forms, the programme’s code is written to “allow for certain aspects of the design to remain fixed, while others are variable”. For example, whilst the historic letterforms are always set at the same size across prints, the code determines their placement and angle of rotation. “So, each time the code runs, a new design based on these parameters is created,” Anthony says.

This randomised approach – combined with the pair’s chosen method of digital printing – created the potential for all 200 copies of the publication to be a one off, meaning that no two books in the print run are the same. With multiple versions of the code, all with slightly different settings, these abstracted artworks can be created in “infinite versions”, he tells us. Naturally, the best way to present the creations was in book form where the designers could “showcase the potential of the system to produce numerous original outcomes”.

On the trials and triumphs of crafting typographic compositions with code, Anthony shares: “This is new territory in terms of the way code is used in relation to print and there were a number of technical challenges that had to be overcome as the software generally works better with vector files [...] The joys, however, are the combination of different technologies, freeing them from the constraints of one process and exploring them through another. Also the surprise of the outcome, that despite setting parameters, the compositions are ones we wouldn’t come up with.”

Combined Forms was printed in an edition of 200 unique copies and is now available on Anthony Burrill’s online shop.