Degree Show project encourages rediscovery of city’s history
From the Castle and cobbles of the Royal Mile to its secret underground streets, Edinburgh’s heritage and history is known worldwide. But what could be learnt from looking a little closer?
An Edinburgh Napier graphic design student is encouraging people to explore Edinburgh through a new lens by taking a closer look at what has been a mainstay of its streets for generations – its typography.
Fourth year graphic design student Rosa Marshall has unveiled her final year project – Type Revival Edinburgh – this week at the University’s annual Degree Show at Merchiston campus.
With an aim of encouraging tourists and design enthusiasts to visit lesser-known parts of the city, Rosa has created two type trail publications, one each for the New Town and Old Town areas, that contain a map and guided tour of historic and traditionally crafted lettering which adorn streets and buildings in both areas.
The trails take in numerous stone inscriptions and ghost signs as well as present-day examples of signwriting. The publications delve into Edinburgh’s past and allows the user to learn more about wayfinding, street signs, shop signs, graveyard inscriptions and more from years gone by.
Users are also encouraged to take typographic rubbings as they move around the trail to truly appreciate the variety of letting styles and sizes that appear.
Rosa’s fascination with typography and lettering has grown throughout her time at University after initially being peaked during a work trip to Malawi last year.
She explains: “I work for a charity in Edinburgh and I was lucky enough to be able to visit Malawi in June last year. While I was there, I was struck by the prevalence of signwriting and hand lettering.
“I saw loads of examples of, at times, really intricate hand-made signage, each of which had an individual charm, and the idea for my major project was born.
“When I was back in Edinburgh, I started noticing examples throughout the Old Town and New Town and found that both areas are distinctively different from each other. I developed the idea of a zine that helps people who are interested in typography to firstly explore the area, and also to learn more about the history behind the streets, buildings and locations that these signs appear on and in.
“One of my favourite discoveries is a ghost sign on Lynedoch Place in the New Town that has been almost revealed behind layers of concrete as well as some of the medieval inscriptions from the 1590s in the Old Town – there really is so much variety and history to be told just from noticing things as you walk through both areas.
“It’s been a really fun project to work on. It’s got me outside and it’s got me really interested in typography. I’ve done some signwriting workshops as a result and I would really love to bring some sort of typography festival to Edinburgh in the future too.
“There’s so much more left to discover in Edinburgh and so many more stories to learn and share. I feel like I’m just getting started.”
You can learn more about Rosa’s project and others at Edinburgh Napier’s Degree Show which takes place at Merchiston campus from 24-30 May.