Blueprint Printing

Beatrice Warde was a believer in the power of the printed word to defend freedom, Warde wrote and designed the famous Monotype broadsheet This is a printing office (1932), using Eric Gill’s Perpetua typeface. Rejected the avant-garde in typography as introspective, believing that classical typography proved a ‘clearly polished window’ through which ideas could be communicated. The Crystal Goblet: Sixteen Essays on Typography (1955) is an anthology of her writings.

This is a Printing Office.

Crossroads of civilization.

Refuge of all the arts against the ravages of time.

Armoury of fearless truth against whispering rumour.

Incessant trumpet of trade.

From this place words may fly abroad, not to perish on waves of sound, not to vary by the writer’s hand but fixed in time, having been verified by proof.

Friend, you stand on sacred ground.

This is a Printing Office.
by Beatrice Warde