Rietlanden Women’s Office

The Palace of Typographic Masonry is an (imaginary) institute for the splendour and variety of visual languages. The Ornamental Portal informs the ornamental attitude of Rietlanden Women’s Office, the collective that designed this folding sheet for Von Wersin’s Kitchen. On the backside ‘The Redemptive Qualities Of Ornament’, a text by Dirk Vis, is printed. This iris printed sheet is send in a specific envelope depicting and describing the updated collection of Von Wersin's Kitchen.

Handwerk revives Berthold Wolpe’s early type design, originally called Wolpe Kursiv and cut in metal by Paul Koch in 1932. It first appeared in a 1936 craft symbol book featuring unique blackletter capitals. Due to persecution as a Jewish designer under the Nazi regime, Wolpe’s work faced delays and alterations and was finally released in 1952 in a modified form. Handwerk captures the original hand-lettered feel and includes stylistic sets that reference both the 1952 release and the original blackletter capitals, providing a historical perspective on Wolpe’s type design.

This Handwerk specimen is edited by Hammer (David Schatz & Sereina Rothenberger) with Philipp Herrmann and designed by Rietlanden Women’s Office. It accompanies the release of the same name font on www.outofthedark.swiss.