Outside of London, The Hepworth Wakefield is the largest purpose-built museum in the UK. We were commissioned to work alongside David Chipperfield Architects on the graphic identity of the museum, offering us the opportunity to work on a total design and to create an environment – a kind of typographic architecture. Mindful that the building’s form, context and purpose demanded a bespoke typographic solution, we developed a new typeface that forms the cornerstone of the graphic scheme for the institution as a whole.

The bespoke typeface we designed for The Hepworth Wakefield echoes the angular forms of the building itself, which were in part derived from the pitched roofs of local dockside buildings. The design also references some of the structural qualities within Barbara Hepworth's work, such as the interlaced wires within Winged Figure (1963).

Typeface design by A Practice for Everyday Life. Type development and engineering by Emma Williams.