Ornamental Condensed is a 12-line complete typeface design made with 18-point metal ornaments. Beginning with sketching, I then set out to design a full typeface design in lowercase; added figures and punctuation; and then moved on to all caps, all made with a variety of 18-point metal ornaments that I had in the collection. Initially, I made Type Specimen prints of the lowercase alone, and the caps alone. But along the way, I proofed the two type specimen sheets together (as a kind of make-ready)--et voila! Ornamental Condensed Type Specimen (Mixed Tape) version was created. Happy accident.

Letterpress

Frank Baseman