Exploring castles, museums and manor houses, megaliths, moors, mountains and lakes, this lavishly illustrated travel guide covers the rich history of magic and the occult in Britain and Northern Ireland and its inextricable bond with the landscape.

In addition to covering numerous sites of folklore, occult practice and strange history, Occult Britain also points us to places that inspired or in some instances were used as filming locations for numerous cult /horror novels, films and TV shows.

Occult Britain delves into a world of witchcraft, ancient rituals, and occult ceremonies. From the ancient stone circles of the Cornish moors to the wealthy manor houses of Hampshire, from the windswept headlands of Northumbria to the golden streets of Oxford, from the turbulent Scottish borderlands to the rugged Causeway Coast, this guide ventures into hundreds of locations with magical links, exploring the works of authors and creators inspired by their strange, numinous beauty; the lives of the occultists, witches, and cunning folk who inhabited them; and the legends that persist.

316 pages, paperback, 13×18 cm, with fold-out maps.

Hellebore is a collection of writings and essays devoted to British folk horror and the themes that inspire it: folklore, myth, history, archaeology, psychogeography, witches, and the occult.

The first issue of the A5 limited-run magazine edited by Maria J. Pérez Cuervo was published on Samhain 2019 and is dedicated to the topic of human sacrifice. The cover art is Come Unto The Corn by Paul Watson. Additional artwork was provided by Eli John. Hellebore is being art directed by Nathaniel Hébert of Winter-Hébert, who comments:

The masthead was adapted from an Edwardian typeface, Herold AKA “Reklameschrift Herold”. For Hellebore, I gave the letterforms an art-nouveau facelift by way of the 70s.

Reklameschrift Herold was designed by Hermann Hoffmann and first cast by the Berthold type foundry in 1901. The series was later expanded by schmal (compressed), Kontur (outline), and fett (bold) styles. There are a number of digitizations as well as contemporary reinterpretations (see the typeface page for details). In Herold, all the weight is distributed around the top and bottom of the letters, giving it a squeezed, claustrophobic feel.

The Hellebore logo exclusively shows its high-waisted caps. The modifications make it look as if just emerged from a swamp. Hébert increased the flabbiness of Herold’s already wobbly contours, with more pronounced concaves. Most notably, the R became gaunt, exhibiting a smaller eye and a limpish leg.

Herold also appears for headlines, in unmodified (or less heavily modified) form. It’s paired with Berton Hasebe’s Portrait Condensed (Commercial Type, 2013). I’m not saying there’s something inherently eerie about Portrait, but the first documented Use was David Pearson’s cover for the Bonnier Pocket edition of The Shining.

The Ghastling is an anthology of gothic horror stories that pays homage to the penny dreadfuls of yesteryear.

The design in issue No 5 explores typefaces and ornamentation sourced from the years 1900–1901, capturing a post-William Morris world that had just begun to reflect his work, albeit in a mass-produced fashion that was anathema to the Arts and Crafts movement he helped to found. Chunky black text faces akin to the styles found in medieval chapbooks were en vogue at the time, and the Victorian baton was being handed to Edwardian kings.

Several typefaces from the era that had never been digitized were revived for this issue. Ghastling Old Style Italic is based on the Post Oldstyle Italic released by the American Type Foundry in c. 1901 and popularized in the Saturday Evening Post. This typeface was an amalgamation of two other faces devised on a similar plan: Plymouth, and Blanchard. These were modern adaptations of the chapbook style made popular by the works of William Morris, and was characterized by a crudeness of form and a boldness in line weight.

These styles were highly criticized at the time. Noted in A Treatise on Title-Pages by Theodore Low De Vinne: “These types are noticeable for their studied carelessness of shape, for wide fitting, and for a general disregard of the canons of propriety that have prevailed among punch-cutters for the last four hundred years […] It seems specially appropriate for any book intended to please the illiterate and credulous.”

The Bibliographical Society’s News Sheet issued this decree in 1899: “Every one who cared for William Morris must regret the extent to which his name and work are being used in the matter of printing. Tasteless imitations of his types and ornaments threaten us on every side, and no one seems able to start a new press or get some new type without taking Mr. Morris’s name in vain.”

These revived typefaces are true “ghosts” that have been given new life in modern context, nearly a century since they’ve last been used. Although they were vilified at the time, in the context of being vulgar imitations of meticulous craft, we can appreciate them now with a hundred years’ worth of distance and cultural perspective.

Ghastling Old Style Roman is based on Blanchard which was released by Inland Type Foundry, 1900-ish.

Ghastling Old Style Italic is based on the Post Oldstyle Italic released by the American Type Foundry in c. 1901.

A curious descender; alternate swash on the uppercase G.

This poster series was developed by Winter-Hebert as part of the visual identity for the London-based techno label Church.

Modernism has been derided as, "an inhuman submission to the dictates of machines." In this ongoing poster series, Church celebrates monotonous simplicfication of form by adopting an underlying grid derived from the square shape of its logo, and utilizes a visual language that explores the mundane vernacular of London city life in a stark, black-and-white palette.

For each poster, little vignettes of brick row houses and brutalist architecture are arranged within the rhythmic constraints of the Church grid. The typography used, references the staid legibility of Modernism in order to contrast against the Photoshop effect-laden designs so common in the electronic music genre.

From party to party; a retrospective of a year’s worth of posters designed for Church UK.

Visual identity designed for, Paradise City, USA, a contemporary menswear collection based in southern California.

The design for the Paradise City logo took inspiration from international maritime signal flags. The emblem comprises the P and C (“Papa” and “Charlie”) flags, merged together into one solid logoform.

The design for the Paradise City logo took inspiration from international maritime signal flags. The emblem is comprised of the "P" and "C" ("Papa" and "Charlie") flags, merged together into one solid logoform.

Poster designed to mark the third anniversary of London based techno label, Church.

Art prints, labels, totes and more, designed for The Provincial Trading Co, a fictional apothecary and supply shop from the rugged North (and further parts unknown). The designs were a chance to revel in a bit of tongue-in-cheek revisionist history with a macabre twist. 

http://society6.com/SparrowlingPress