The Flickr Vestatypeface Image Generatr

One of the very many information leaflets issued by the London Underground group in the late 1920s and early 1930s that conform to a generic design 'pattern' and often, like this, printed at the noted Curwen Press in Plaistow. This is for the loan of free lantern slides that allowed the borrower to use slide sets and notes to give one of five lectures as shown on the cover.

The leaflet also gives details of how to obtain the lecture sets, collection and return. The very Curwen 'feel' to this item includes the decorative border and the use of Vesta typeface for titling; there's no sign of the 'corporate' Johnston here as is often the case in such 'jobbing' items commissioned by the company. Undated it has a 1932 print code and a later issue, from 1934, by London Transport, included a fine vignette possibly by Bawden.

More many years the Southern Railway issued this charming little magazine free to its First Class season holders and it takes a usual format of two or three short articles on 'matters concerning' the railway and its latest advances. At the time there were, despite the straightened times, quite a few thinsg happening on the SR whose more affluent region of activity was more bouyant than the other of the Big Four whose traffic was more impacted by the decline in heavy industry and attendant freight. At the time the Southern was busy on some of its major electrifications and the introduction of various Pullman services. The company's advertising was arguably more staid than the LNER's but it had high standards of production and graphic design. Much of the work in "Over the Points" is of exemplary production, set and printed at the Curwen Press, who at the time were amongst the foremost printers around, and the look and feel of the periodical oozes Curwen's attention to detail. The vast majority of the line illustrations were undertaken by Victor Reinganum, in a very abstract style, typical of his work. Annoyingly this edition is 'unsigned' and so the artist can only be conjectured.

Dryad Handicrafts produced many handbooks on arts and crafts and indeed are still around, in a later form, today. Founded in Leicester by Harry H Peach the company championed the importance of handicrafts and was massively important in the educational field, providing information and equipment by mail order. This is the title page to 'Lettering for Schools', published in c1928 - using 'Vesta' typeface . The booklet was itself printed to a high standard, coming from the famous Kynoch Press in Birmingham, the company in-house printers of ICI who undertook outside contracts and were very highly regarded printers in their own right.

Silvo is still made as a liquid silver polish - and as it notes it was regarded as 'safe' - no acid nor mercury. It was also the case that polishing cutlery and silverware was more prevalent then. The word "Silvo" appears to be in Vesta typeface.

The advert appears in Wine & Food, the quarterly magazine edited by Andre Simon in the 1930s and that was printed by the exemplary Curwen Press, in Plaistow, London - and, in the quality of the printing and layout, it shows.

It is so straightforward & simple - the titling in 'Vesta' and with a simple border.

The layout of this little brochure shows many of the hallmarks of the Curwen Press - the borders, and the use of Vesta typeface for the titling. The contents are reprints of a series of press adverts that appeared in newspapers in 1929 and commissioned from Gwen Raverat in the form of woodcuts - one for each of six rivers in the then more rural areas served by the Underground Group, it's trains, buses and coach services.

The quality of even simple leaflets issued by the Underground Group in the 1920s and '30s is something to behold. This 4 page pamphlet has a cover featuring the Underground "roundel" man, designed by Julius Klinger and very of its period. It also has typically Curwen borders and uses 'Vesta' typeface for the title.

Klinger (1876 - ?1942) was a noted Austrian designer and typographer who was murdered by the National Socialist regime.