Ancient & Modern was a gallery on Whitecross Street, the site of one of London’s oldest street markets, close to where the remains of William Blake are buried in Bunhill Fields Cemetery, and the site of William Caslon’s type foundry, which first opened in 1737. The gallery adopted a research-led curatorial approach to its exhibitions, and its directors were keen to closely connect the art they displayed with the local history of the surrounding area.
In homage to its location, we used Caslon to form the gallery’s logotype, paired with a contemporary monospace typeface to emphasise the interplay of old and new. The invitations we designed for the gallery over the course of several exhibitions differ wildly in format and material, often making use of historic imagery of the area juxtaposed with a contemporary approach to type, layout and physicality.
Caslon was also one of the first typefaces used by the Church of England for its publication Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).
