As a flickering side project, Dumbria stood defiantly against my impatience for more than ten years. My enthusiasm came in waves, repeatedly interrupted by indecision. Yet its sculptural momentum endured, drawing me back into the design process time and again.

Even before beginning the project in earnest, I had designed a logo for a local record label whose character was similarly subcultural, pointed, and provocative. The attraction to subtle peculiarities was already there and in Dumbria, it found a field of resonance.

The starting point was a large specimen book published by Sachs & Co.¹1 Sachs & Co was a German typefoundry operating in Manheim, Germany in 19-20th centuries., whose foreword is dated 1902. The first time I leafed through it, in the German National Library, I was almost dizzy with fascination. Some of the samples are reproduced at enormous sizes, printed on calendered paper and pulled with remarkable clarity, complete with the faint show-through of ink on the reverse side. In short, it is a graphic treasure of immeasurable value.

The actual source²2 Grosse Holztypen-Probe […], Erste Mannheimer Holztypenfabrik Sachs & Co., Manheim 1902., however, was strikingly fragmentary: Classe D., No. 1291, Dumbria—only a handful of glyphs are shown, merely half a page. There was therefore ample room for interpretation, appropriation, and imagination. At first, I was still unsure how closely I wanted to work with the source material, partly because forgotten-shapes was still approaching its launch. Throughout the process, I kept experimenting with different directions, including, at times, a very radical departure from the original.

About halfway through, I stumbled into the Hyena³3 NaN Hyena was released in 2021-2022 with Nan digital type foundry.. It became a space where I could pursue a lot of ideas without having to relate them to anything else. That, in turn, relieved some of the pressure on Dumbria—although I continued to try out rounded versions every now and then.

Alternates provide an opportunity to emphasize the display attitude of PoW Dumbria. In that perspective, square dots can be used to fit the squarisness of thight composition. For big sizes ans creating contrast, thin alternate diacritics and symbols can also create an interesting visual contrast.

The real pleasure emerged with the heavy weight. It is there, where space becomes scarce, that the character sharpens into something almost absurd. At the same time, these exaggerated elements create a formal feedback that informs and strengthens the lighter weight. To my mind, the design’s variable potential unfolds particularly well across the family.

In my view, the compact display proportions are well suited to large-scale applications: cultural posters, festivals, institutions, covers, programmes, and editorial design. It is within these contexts that Dumbria can fully express its peculiar mixture of historical reference and contemporary visual intensity.

All images are property of their respective authors:
•Photographies of Wood type specimen, Sachs & Co., Mannheim, 1902 by Reymund Schröder.