Prawdziwe wyobrażenie trojga dzieci [...] (“The true image of three children”) was most probably written by Joannes Theobaldus Blasius, the printer’s name remains unknown. This short little book tells legends about a number of monstrosities born in Western Europe in the 16th century. It was believed that such human monsters were sent as a warning against God’s anger. The typography uses Eskapade and Eskapade Fraktur, a type collection that designer Alisa Nowak based on research into roman and blackletter forms, mainly fraktur letters, and thus more or less period-correct for this redesign. In addition, Eskapade Fraktur contains a very interesting and innovative Italic style based on the Cancellaresca script.

Prawdziwe wyobrażenie trojga dzieci [...] is part of the New Dimension of Old Typography series which consists of 10 redesigns of Polish books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The designs were produced as a part of a doctoral dissertation at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland).

Read more about the project on Fonts In Use, or find out more about the project and the author on my portfolio website and Facebook.

Original old print of Prawdziwe wyobrażenie trojga dzieci bardzo strasznych i dziwnych [...] from Joannes Theobaldus Blasius was published in Krakow, Poland in 1578

Wieszczba wyroczni (“Oracle's oracle”) is an expression of people’s interest in divination and mystical beliefs in the 18th century. It was published in Warsaw in 1798. Thhe typography uses Adriane Swash, which offers a beautiful range of flourish letters with sets of alternate glyphs. Using swash fonts in modern designs is a very fine way to add historical and decorative character to any design. The body text uses Adriane Text.

Wieszczba wyroczni is part of the New Dimension of Old Typography series which consists of 10 redesigns of Polish books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The designs were produced as a part of a doctoral dissertation at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland).

Read more about the project on Fonts In Use, or find out more about the project and the author on my portfolio website and Facebook.

Original edition of Wieszczba wyroczni czyli tablice kabalistyczne [...] from Ksawery Starzeński, printed by Michał Gröll in Warsaw in 1784.

O ziołach i o mocy jich (“About herbs and their power”) was the first Polish encyclopedia of natural history and medicine. It was published in 1534 by the well-known Cracow printer Florian Ungler. Selected fragment talks about the belief that birds body parts could be used to cure various diseases. Both Algo FY and Alegreya (used for body text) refer to typography used in the early 16th century books. Algo FY combines both roman and blackletter construction in a very modern and unique way.

O ziołach i o mocy jich is part of the New Dimension of Old Typography series which consists of 10 redesigns of Polish books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The designs were produced as a part of a doctoral dissertation at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland).

Read more about the project on Fonts In Use, or find out more about the project and the author on my portfolio website and Facebook.

Elementarz dla dzieci (“A primer for children”) was printed in 1879 in Warsaw by Jósef Unger. ABC books became very popular in 18th century. Due to widespread illiteracy in the 19th century they also became popular among adults. I picked Obsidian (H&Co) as it refers to historical steelplate engraved typefaces. It was produced as a set of two chromatic layers: Highlight and Background. Fonts can be individually colored and superimposed in register to create different effects. Essonnes (JTD Type) is used as a companion.

Elementarz dla dzieci is part of the New Dimension of Old Typography series which consists of 10 redesigns of Polish books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The designs were produced as a part of a doctoral dissertation at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland).

Read more about the project on Fonts In Use, or find out more about the project and the author on my portfolio website and Facebook.

Original old print of Elementarz dla dzieci was published in 1879 in Warsaw by Jozef Unger.

Nauka koło Pasiek is considered to be the first Polish beekeeping handbook. It was first published in Zamość in 1614. The typography uses a single weight of Garibaldi (designed by Henrique Beier) as a reference to the 1600s roman typography and its humanist type. A 20° axis, medium contrast, asymmetric serifs, and terminals related to the broad nib stroke give a historical touch to the design.

Nauka koło pasiek is part of the New Dimension of Old Typography series which consists of 10 redesigns of Polish books from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The designs were produced as a part of a doctoral dissertation at the Akademia Sztuk Pięknych w Gdańsku (Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, Poland).

The objective of the dissertation was to analyse selected issues related to the history of typography. The study examines the narrowed concept of typography. The designs were chosen and varied in such a manner as to track changes and contrasts appearing in the field of typography throughout history. Links between tradition and modernity are expressed in the intentional combining of different classical typographic techniques and styles while observing the current phenomena in the area of art and design.

One of the major objectives was to select such modern typefaces – designed in the last fifteen years – that refer to historical models. In addition they allow to use a range of visual elements known in the history of printing, such as decorative ornaments and ligatures, engraved or shaded letters, and typefaces with optical size variations.

The designs were an attempt to clarify and articulate own artistic language, arose from the desire to create typographic designs of noble, pure and simple, yet visually rich character. Despite the archaic or even primitive – for today's possibilities – methods, which were formerly available, old books were harmonious, balanced and incredibly carefully designed. Conscious looking back can help to maintain a high level of craftsmanship today.

The titles used in the series are important in the scientific and historic context, they focus on diverse topics and refer to various fields of human activity. They also provide some insight into the history of Polish printing. Antique books require appropriate preparation in the textual layer; linguistic modernization of Old Polish texts is necessary. Therefore, it was necessary to find ready transcriptions of selected titles and unify them, so as to maintain orthographic, stylistic and punctuation consistency throughout the entire work. Marcin Podlaski took it upon himself to standardize and proofread selected fragments of the works.

Ada Pawlikowska is a graphic designer, living and working in Gdansk, Poland. A graduate of the Faculty of Graphic Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, where she also currently teaches Typography in the Graphic Design department. Her main fields of expertise are typography and book design. With a keen interest in the aesthetics of traditional typesetting, her work probes the points of contact between old and contemporary book design and explores the impact of tradition on present-day typography.

New Dimension of Old Typography series is part of the Second Edition Project. More about the project and the author can be found at my portfolio website and Facebook.

Original old print of Nauka koło pasiek was published by Walenty Kącki and Jan Ostroróg in 1614 in Zamość, Poland.

Second Edition Project is an idea to redesign and republish selected books from the 16th to 19th century that have not been re-edited since their first edition. Read more about the project and its author.

The Medical Aspects of Death, and the Medical Aspects of the Human Mind by James Bower Harrison was first published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, London in 1852.

Second Edition Project is an idea to redesign and republish selected books from the 16th to 19th century that have not been re-edited since their first edition.

The Book of Wonderful Characters, Memoirs and anecdotes of remarkable and eccentric persons in all ages and countries was first published by J. C. Hotten, London in 1869.

Libraries around the world are systematically making digital archives of all the books ever written. Thanks to creating open cultural resources, we now have common and free access to various and unique artistic works. Long-forgotten masterpieces gain new life and new audiences. Second Edition books tell stories about ordinary, timeless every-day occurrences. At the same time, due to their archaic style, they gain new fun meaning, becoming an excellent entertainment for the reader. Visually, Second Edition is an attempt to create a unique graphic form, recognising and combining traditional and contemporary approaches to design and typography. The project is a design study about the importance of classical typesetting methods and modern approach to design. It’s a visual compromise showing how both ancient and contemporary design approaches can coexist beautifully.

Inspiration for creating these books came from the initiative of the Public Knowledge Foundation. Its website, www.publicdomainreview.org, showcases miscellaneous public domain works selected by curators. Books chosen for the project came from that particular collection. Second Edition books are created using the OCR method (Optical Character Recognition) through which the scans of all the pages are converted into text files. Unfortunately, the process is still far from perfect, and the files contain numerous spelling mistakes, some of which cannot be corrected automatically. Crafting each book is an arduous and time-consuming task, and I kindly ask readers for their understanding and lenience when and if spelling errors are encountered. All books are already out of copyright and are accessible as public domain

Ada Pawlikowska is a graphic designer, living and working in Gdansk, Poland. Ada is graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdansk, where she also currently teaches Typography in the Graphic Design department. Her main fields of expertise and interest are typography, print and editorial design.