177187639
Published: 24th December, 2011
Last edited: 4th January, 2012
Created: 22nd December, 2011
Typeface based on the work of Victorian Designer and Architect E. W. Godwin (1833-1886) born in Stokes Croft, Bristol. He was influential in the Aesthetic movement that created "the look" of Victorian Britain. He began his career working in the strongly polychromatic "Ruskinian Gothic" style of mid-Victorian Britain, inspired by The Stones of Venice, then moved on to provide designs in the "Anglo-Japanese taste" of the Aesthetic Movement and Whistler's circle in the 1870s. A friend of Oscar Wilde, James Whistler and William Burges he was also the father of revered actress Dame Ellen Terrys illegitimate child. Godwin's influence can be detected in the Arts and Crafts Movement. To judge from his sketchbooks at the Victoria and Albert Museum, one might have expected an eclectic historicist, but Godwin, by no means a tame reproducer of antiquarian Gothic designs, was among the first to extend the European design repertory to include the arts of Japan, which had been opened to the Western world in 1853. His work is undergoing a revival since he was jokingly adopted as the patron saint of Stokes Croft by community action group the Peoples Republic of Stokes Croft. The group aim to to put some of his finest architectural achievements in the city back to good use as many of them despite being buildings of some historical significance lie empty and unused. His design work is being reincorporated into the urban landscape through the community organisation's programme of public art and his style has recently been adopted by a number of Street Artists including Dones and Felix Braun so his work is undergoing some kind of a revival.The glyphs are all based on the patterns from his sketchbooks.
