February 2022
November / December 2021
After four years in Iliffe Yard in Kennington, The New Typography Workshop is packing up & leaving London. It will be re-configured in 2022 in Bruton, Somerset. Classes will be re-designed & re-structured to accommodate a new approach, new ideas & a new environment.
Kelvyn Laurence Smith will continue to direct & run the classes & Alan Kitching will be making ongoing visits. We will continue to update you on developments.
October 2021
PENULTIMATE LONDON CLASS . . .
Friday 29 & Saturday 30 October /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
November 2021
DUE TO DEMAND / JUST ADDED
& DEFINITELY THE LAST LONDON CLASS EVER . . .
DUE TO DEMAND / JUST ADDED
& DEFINITELY THE LAST LONDON CLASS EVER . . .
Friday 12 & Saturday 13 November /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.11
SOLD OUT
September / October / November 2021
After four years in Iliffe Yard in Kennington, The New Typography Workshop is packing up & leaving London. It will be re-configured in 2022 in Bruton, Somerset. Classes will be re-designed & re-structured to accommodate a new approach, new ideas & a new environment.
Kelvyn Laurence Smith will continue to direct & run the classes & Alan Kitching will be making ongoing visits. We will continue to update you on developments.
So below are the last ever classes to be held at The New Typography Workshop in Iliffe Yard, Walworth & Kennington, London. Book your spot now, there are only a few places left . . .
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 September /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
COMPLETED
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
COMPLETED
Friday 29 & Saturday 30 October /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
one place left
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
DUE TO DEMAND / JUST ADDED
& DEFINITELY THE LAST LONDON CLASS EVER . . .
Friday 12 & Saturday 13 November /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.11
one place left
Summer/Autumn 2021
COURSES
Details & Dates
Friday 17 & Saturday 18 September /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
Friday 29 & Saturday 30 October /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
April 2021 /
Here are the dates for the year for The One & Two day workshops.
Spring/Summer/Autumn 2021
Details & Dates
Friday 18 June  /
The One-Day Course / 2021.6
The One-Day Course / 2021.6
Friday 18 & Saturday 19 June /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.6
The Two-Day Course / 2021.6
Friday 30 July  /
The One-Day Course / 2021.7
The One-Day Course / 2021.7
Friday 30 & Saturday 31 July /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.7
The Two-Day Course / 2021.7
Friday 20 August  /
The One-Day Course / 2021.8
The One-Day Course / 2021.8
Friday 20 &Â Saturday 21 August /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.8
The Two-Day Course / 2021.8
Friday 17 September /
The One-Day Course / 2021.9
The One-Day Course / 2021.9
Friday 17 &Â Saturday 18 September/
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
The Two-Day Course / 2021.9
Friday 29 October  /
The One-Day Course / 2021.10
The One-Day Course / 2021.10
Friday 29 & Saturday 30 October /
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
The Two-Day Course / 2021.10
February 2021 /
Due to the global pandemic Alan Kitching & I have not been able to run our Classes since March 2020.
We have been busy though & have collated all of the printed outcomes of our classes from the last three years & published in our â€Print Shop’.  All of the proceeds from sales goes to maintaining the school & the collection of unique wood letter & metal types. We are developing our long term plans & hope to be up & running again in the Spring 2021 & are offering a Gift Voucher & prospective classes twice a month until the Autumn. The specific dates for classes will be published as soon as restrictions are lifted.
December 2020 /
We have been having enquiries for next years classes // rather than publish dates at this uncertain time / we have produced some gift vouchers that can be used throughout 2021 // see ‘Gift Vouchers’ in the menu
November 2020 /
Throughout ‘lockdown 1&2’ we’ve been working on a specimen book of the  metal types held in cases at ‘The New Typography Workshop’ / conceived by the elusive Freddy Williams (the workshop assistant) / the single-sided A4 book contains all of the ‘Clerkenwell Collection’ / this collection was put together by Alan (& Derek Birdsall) in the late 1980’s & served to be the mainstay of the works produced at ‘The Typography Workshop’ in Clerkenwell Close from 1990 to 2005 when it moved to kennington // i joined Alan in January 1991 & worked as his assistant for four-or-so years & became very familiar with the types in this collection // we not going to show too much here but will publish more detailed information on the project over the winter . . . (KS)
As part of our Summer School 2020.10 (our only class this year) we invited the students to contribute to the ‘Specimen Sheet’ project / here you see designer & teacher Sarah O’Shea (nee Mansell) / & Goldsmith’s undergraduate Cleo Schneider printing the four-up sheets on the large Stephenson Blake press / They also began designing & setting the next phase of the project / Â a selection of wood letter from the collection of small cases seen in the picture below . . .
10 June 2020 / Coronavirus Update (distraction)
I made this short film about AK & The Typography Workshop as an introduction to a lecture Alan was giving in Portugal in 1995 / It was all shot on 8mm ‘super 8’ film by Mr Houghton & myself during the making of the ‘Printing in London’ Broadside in the Clerkenwell Workshop / Students & assistants include Tracey ‘Red’ Cleland & Ian ‘Royal College’ Gabb . . .
5 May 2020 / Coronavirus Update 2
all courses are postponed at the moment / but only until social & professional restrictions are lifted / but we do hope to be running classes as soon as possible to be honest / we are monitoring the situation very closely & will let you know dates for rescheduled classes & clarify which others will run
we are getting enquiries & bookings / & we have people booked on to ‘one & two-day classes & summer schools’ but we can’t confirm any dates at the moment /
hopefully
The Two-Day Course / 2020.6Â
Friday 26 & Saturday 27 June /
Two-Day Wood Letter WorkshopÂ
&
The Early Summer School 2020.7
Monday 20 – Friday 24 July 2020 /
Five-Day Workshop
will all go aheadÂ
if you would like to provisionally register for any course we think it prudent to take a modest 10% refundable deposit here rather than the full fee for each type of class / please email to discuss your needs / be safe / see you on the other side /
KS & AK
23 March 2020 / Coronavirus Update
We have postponed all classes for the foreseeable future / all Gift Vouchers & Credits from 2019 & 2020 can be used when we hopefully reopen soon / Gift Vouchers can still be bought here so you have something to look forward to! / if you are interested in/or would like to book a specific course we are taking a 10% refundable deposit to secure a place / please email to discuss your needs / be safe / see you on the other side /
KS & AK
February 2020 / Day 6
artists residency ‘public workshop’ on saturday 8 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
“. . . and the winner is” / a one day letterpress experiment celebrating ‘the academy awards’ . . .
February 2020 / Day 5
artists residency / monday 1 – friday 7 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
February 2020 / Day 4
artists residency / monday 1 – friday 7 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
February 2020 / Day 3
artists residency / monday 1 – friday 7 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
February 2020 / Day 2
artists residency / monday 1 – friday 7 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
February 2020 / Day 1
artists residency / monday 1 – friday 7 february 2020 /
at archetype press / the hoffmitz milken center for typography / pasadena
January/February 2020
maestro mr kitching & I are off to pasadena in california in early february / we have been asked to be â€artists in residence at the archetype press part of the the hoffmitz milken center for typography & artcenter college of design / from monday 1 – friday 7 february we will be making work at the press & discussing our outcome on the final afternoon / as stated above we will undertake a public workshop on the saturday . . .
The New Courses 2020
After two-years of The New Typography Workshop classes we have decided to make some fundamental changes to our structure . . .
We are continuing to run both one & two-day classes each month throughout the new year, but they will now be focused around working with either specifically metal type or wood letter. This will make the classes more focused on each material & the level of both creative & technical skill can examined. Both are quite different disciplines; both require a sharp mind & careful consideration.
One-Day classes will now happen on a Saturday & The Two-Day will still run on Friday & Saturday – beginning with The One-Day Wood Letter Course (2020.4) on Saturday 4 April – followed by The Two-Day Wood Letter Course (2020.4) on Friday 17 & Saturday 18 April. The First Metal Type class is The Two-Day Metal Type Course (2020.5) on Friday 29 & Saturday 30 May. (Fees remain at 2019 prices for the time being . . . ).
Due to their popularity & success – we have introduced a few extra summer schools. Still working on the seasonal theme – these 5-day courses run from monday to friday – 10 to 5 – with the ambitious objective of producing a substantial outcome such as a broadside or book. The first of these The Very Early Summer School 2020.5 runs from Monday 11 – Friday 15 May – followed by The Early Summer School 2020.7 from Monday 20 – Friday 25 July 2020.
October/November 2019.10/11
Students Nicola Dunbar (Australia) / Joana Paranhos (Portugal) / Kara Sims (New Zealand) & Adam Smith (United States) produced an extraordinarily beautiful series of compositions & spreads to create â€International Types – an (slightly larger than) A1 Octavo’ on â€The Very Late Summer School’ from Monday 28 October – Friday 01 November. The sheet was designed & hand-set across the last three of the five days as a series of double page spreads with content relevant to the counties the students originated from / it was printed in a very limited edition of 25 on a 120gsm Zerkall & printed in two colours – a dark Grey mix (Silver & Black) / & an â€old’ Red found in an ancient ink tin. The elusive Freddy Williams assisted on the early days of the course & the multi-talented Andy Altmann kindly gave up his precious time as the â€workshop consultant’ to crit & discuss the outcomes of the week.
October 2019.10
The fabulous Two-Day Course students / Nicky Barneby / Nicola Dunbar / Mark Starbuck / Nil Thyrion & Erica Wolfe-Murray / whipped the ‘Broadside 17 – 30 years of the New/Typography Workshop’ into some serious colourful shape . . .
October 2019
As the year draws to a close, we have added a ‘Very Late Summer School’ at the end of this month & a ‘Two-Day Course’ in November as the last classes of the year until April 2020. Anyone with outstanding ‘gift vouchers’ for 2019 will have to reschedule in 2020. We hope to publish available dates & final schedule for 2020 in sometime in November.
July 2019
Students / Noah Foley / Emma Jeffery & Linda Yoon produced an extraordinary collection of type specimens to create ‘Broadside 16 / Some Types from The New Typography Workshop’ on ‘The Early Summer School’ from Monday 22 – Friday 26 July. The A1 Broadside was designed set & printed across five days in a very limited edition of 25 on a 145gsm Heritage paper & printed in three colours / dark Grey (Silver & Black) / fluorescent Magenta & a ‘velvety’ Red mix. Freddy Williams worked his socks off as the workshop assistant & the fabulous Simon Esterson kindly gave up his precious time as the ‘workshop consultant’ to crit & discuss the outcomes of the week.
May 2019
Two One-Day workshops with Illustration students & staff from ArtCenter Pasadena US.
April 2019
Two-Day workshop 2019.4
The thoughtful team of Julia Blom / Mark Starbuck & Marina Wood / contructing the final form of ‘The Brief History of Type’
April 2019
One-Day workshop 2019.4
The fantastic (& happy) team of Rachel Holland / Esme Power & Anna Wanitschke working on the extremely productive ‘Brief History of Type’ ongoing project
March 2019
Two-Day workshop 2019.3
with students Matt Alchin / Dicky Milson & Valentina Moccia / with course consultant Rupert Basset & workshop assistant Freddy Williams
March 2019
ms julia bloom / designer / graduate of the LCC / & letterpress devotee / posted a lovely response to our chat last week for the letter exchange at the art workers guild in queen square london / thank you julia
13 March 2019
KS & AK are giving a modest presentation
for the Letter Exchange March lecture /
we’d love to see you there & hear your thoughts
Mr Smith & Mr Kitching
The New Typography Workshop /
Teaching Design & Typography through letterpress
Wednesday 13 March 18:30
at The Art Workers’ Guild /
Entrance on the door: members ÂŁ7, non-members ÂŁ10, students ÂŁ5
http://www.letterexchange.org
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk
October 2018
For their follow-up workshop on the subject of ’empowerment’ // Professors Gloria Kondrup & Simon Johnston of HMCT / (Hoffmitz Milken Centre for Typography) / Pasadena / invited more â€Typographic friends’ to explore this subject on an intense one-day letterpress workshop connected to â€Vox Pop LA’ – a series of lectures & discussions at St Bride throughout the year / Our visiting consultant Lucienne Roberts – who has just finished a â€Typographer-in-Residence’ at HMCT came to discuss the intriguing visual outcomes of the day . . .
October 2018
The Late Summer School
October 2018
Development work on our ‘new typography workshop’ broadside map of Walworth & Kennington . . .
October 2018
the two-day october workshop students / Mary Asiedu / Kathryn Forster & Rosey Trickett designing / setting & printing the ‘ornamental’ green spaces for ‘the new typography workshop’ broadside map of walworth & kennington . . .
October 2018
Development work on our ‘new typography workshop’ broadside map of Walworth & Kennington . . .
September 2018
We have been busy making some new work / underway is our new typography workshop map of Walworth & Kennington / here’s a preview of some of the activity . . .
Photographs by Emma Lewis
Tuesday 10 July 2018
Professors Gloria Kondrup & Simon Johnston of HMCT / (Hoffmitz Milken Centre for Typography) / Pasadena / invited ‘Typographic friends’ to explore the subject of ‘Persuasion’ on an intense one-day letterpress workshop connected to ‘Vox Pop LA’ – a series of lectures & discussions at St Bride throughout the year / Our visiting consultant Lucienne Roberts – who has just finished a ‘Typographer-in-Residence’ at HMCT came to discuss the intriguing visual outcomes of the day . . .
Photographs by Quentin Newark
Friday 8 June 2018
Formal launch of The New Typography Workshop
Photographs by Dave Chambers
June 2018
Printing the Manifesto Poster
June 2018
Invitations to the launch & ‘Open’ weekend
June 2018
Hogging the limelight in the Pullens ‘Open’ studios brochure /
a lovely article by Quentin Newark of Atelier Studio
500 Years on PaperÂ
Kelvyn Smith & Alan Kitching
(by Quentin Newark)
Their ambition is nothing less than a new art school. Based on something most art students rarely encounter – discipline. Because what at first seems to be an Aladdin’s Cave of alphabets, ink pots, wooden type, drying racks, and printing presses takes discipline to operate. Their manifesto offers both a promise and a challenge to today: “as an antidote to the immediate & often dispensable nature of modern technology, the slow articulation of the technical side of letterpress allows the designer to immerse themselves in the focus on craft & revel in the simple joys of making”. They plan to pass on their knowledge, and develop student’s skills with a programme of workshops.
Alan Kitching is a well-known innovator in graphic design, he has spent fifty years first learning the craft of letterpress and wood letter printing, and then using it in ever more inventive ways. His monograph “Alan Kitching: A Life in Letterpress” was published two years ago. Kelvyn is an experienced teacher, and has an highly varied portfolio of work – commissioned and self-motivated – that shows he is of a like-mind with Kitching; although letterpress is beset by restrictions in how it must be set up and handled, those restrictions can melt away to yield typography of the most imaginative and unexpected kind.
After all, much of the greatest innovation in typography to date – from the playful geometry of Hendrik Werkman to the precision of Jan Tschichold – was all made using exactly the same metal and wooden type, viscous inks, and heavy iron presses in this workshop. Indeed, Johannes Gutenberg’s workshop would have looked very similar, we are channelling history here, a living connection that runs backwards through five hundred years of typography.
I have done one of these workshops, with Alan Kitching, and discovered more in a day than a decade of reading books and fiddling on computers. The first revelation was that the type is physical, you have to lift, carefully position, lock, ink, pull, to get even one letter onto a piece of paper. The process itself leads to consideration, weighing, deciding, which is simply not there with a computer. The second revelation was about aesthetics; the old typefaces, the way letters looks made of metal, the aged wood, the smells, the coarse paper, the entire process is an aesthetic overload.
The website lists the range of courses to suit every level of capability from civilian to experienced, and the fonts and equipment available, sufficient to enable infinite variation. And they have amassed a long list of visiting consultants, that reads like a who’s who of current British design; Anthony Burrill and Hamish Muir of fabled design group Octavo to name but two. Any student or young or even older designer lucky enough to come and study here is going to leave stuffed with all kinds of knowledge; a firm grasp of typographic theory, lots of practical ideas, and creative inspiration to last their lifetime.
May 2018
The One-Day course 2018.5
May 2018
Printing the ‘Open’ poster
February 2018
Workshop preparation & organisation with help from
Charlie / Kimmie & Sandy
February 2018
Re-organising in the depths of a cold winter
February 2018
Moving back in . . .
January 2018
Our first visit after the new concrete floor is down
