Above: a classic London Roman fanlight we restored that got me really appreciating the fine considerations that went into these fine examples of painted ‘Serif’ letters. These considerations fill every corner of our lettering practice today and now inspiring our special NGS Font Foundry reference library.
NGS TRAJAN TYPEFACE
Truecut and Stone-cut
Our Researched and Hand crafted
Heritage typefaces.
Zurich, Pompeii, Rome and London
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These letters above are designed for our own bespoke practice entirely by hand.
A pot full of joy to paint too, they are set up in terms of shape and weight to flow smoothly off the quill – while sitting perfectly in context architecturally, into any print format, media and api screen setting.
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Our craftsmanship is used by many fine stores and venues across London.
If you desire truecut bespoke London typeface, designed by hand then reach out and chat to us about your project.
Lettering genius of
William Sharpington
Lettering master William Sharpington’s carved plaque. Nr Liverpool St., London and bumping into him again at No 4 Canary Wharf, BMA Boardroom.
Our restored version of Sharpington Roman for Wartski of St James’s are a testament to his genius.
Over the years we have cataloged a collection of drawings made directly from ghost signs and vintage pieces around London that exude the real character of London signs. Today NGS are compiling these into a series of styles you can pick straight off our peg or ascribe to your plot.
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Browse this page and see if there is something here that would serve as a starting point for us to embellish in some special way for your unique logo and brand design.
Birthing the NGS Soho Font
As a kid I’d sit with my dad sharpening his pencils as he drew up type in our hometown Zurich.. inspiring me then and still enriching my journey today.. SB
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NGS typefaces include:
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NGS Supertype ‘Johnston Highbury’
NGS Johnston Edinburgh
MGS Madrid Sans Serif
Pirlo Wharf Bold
Soho Bold
Baldini Script
Helvatia Original
NGS Trajan
NGS Baskerville
NGS Bembo Demi
NGS Gill Sans truecut
Brick Lane Condensed
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CASE: Edward Johnston
NGS Restoration type.
Restoration Type
NGS JOHNSTON Highbury Demi
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Nick Garrett
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NGS has restored a collection of fonts that we have worked with over the past 36 years as London’s finest signsmiths.
These include an original version of Johnston, a Standard writer’s extended bold block and a classic honours board Roman.
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First off the design deck is the Johnston restored version here at Crown Cycles.
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Nick Garrett Typographer Signwriter – London
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Refined, crisp… always beautiful. It is not by chance then that we are releasing a series of London Vintage fonts from the works of my founding family of lettering masters the Bakers’ of Fulham and now NGS tradition.
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RESTORED FONT: NGS JOHNSTON Highbury
Absolutely No Ordinary Type
found here…
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I have studied and painted the Johnston sans serif for 30 years and have been generally unhappy with the modified fonts released to date because they are simply lacking the calligraphic heart and poetics of the originals.
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In the Clerkenwell and Islington area of London there can still be found original pieces from the master’s hand in St. Pauls Road.
NGS Johnston comes in only the single weight as per the originator’s wishes.
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DESIGN PROCESS
Discovered while NGS were commissioned to restore a historic fascia (above) in Highbury London in May 2014. A trace was made of the letter forms painted scanned and loaded into Adobe Photoshop.
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These were then vectorised and set up in Fontlab 5.
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Certain characteristic such as the crossover W character and the more precise drafting of the G, Y, lower case g and S characters confirmed this was an original sign made from Edward Johnston’s drawn versions in 1905. NGS Johnston aims to retain all key poetics of the original forms.
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Lower case s and e were re-tuned along with refinements to all upper/lowercase and numeral glyphs. Every character has been considered.
Johnston is an incredibly important typeface and we believe the revival in the craft of lettering has set the stage for a series of properly refined drafts.
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We have Johnston Flare as a new version which uses a traditional wedge serif in accordance with the designs mapped out in 1905.
NGS PIRLO Wharf Bold
A traditional chunky sans serif block letter found in original turn of 19th century writing styles.
NGS Italia – ‘Bella Figura’ Letters
‘BODONI PARMENSE’
Designed for ‘Choosing Keeping’ store, London.
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This truecut edition fashioned from Bodoni’s first sketches and styled with that distinctive Parmigiano workshop look.
I am a London sign writer specialising in gold leaf and all quality works.
Trained in Zurich as Swiss Type designer and Screen printer I now hand paint London more beautiful.
