The William Morris Society was founded in 1955 to make the life, work and ideas of William Morris (1834-96) better known. To coincide with its 50th Anniversary, Pentagram has created a new identity that unifies the society’s communications, which had previously included four separate logos with eleven variations.

The new identity introduces one logo that is made up of a bird emblem and the society’s name. The emblem is hand-drawn and derived from Morris’s bird print which is owned by the society.

The emblem is particularly fitting for the society’s outputs, which include journals and newsletters. It evokes the visual language of the publisher’s colophon and is an expression of Morris’s artistic and literary sensibility. The colour palette places similar importance on Morris’s work and is inspired by his illuminated manuscripts. Alongside the primary colours of red and black, secondary colours have been drawn from his Jasmine print, which is also part of the society’s archive. — Pentagram

The bird emblem is paired with a wordmark based on Garda Nova 3 by Feliciano Type Foundry. Garda Nova – a revisited version of Garda Titling – is a set of titling caps in three styles (serif, chiseled and monolinear, each in three weights). The monolinear No. 3 is a low-contrast sans serif with a British feel and used in this context it certainly evokes the spirit of British early 20th century sans serifs like Johnson and Gill Sans. In both online and offline communication, all copy is set with Monotype’s version of Baskerville.

Eccentric Books has started the publication of a book series of all the fantasy novels written by William Morris. Morris wrote these books during the last decade of his life and published most of them himself at Kelmscott Press. Although little known today, these books are the beginning of British fantasy and they have been a strong influence on authors like J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

The design of the books tries to capture Morris’s spirit of the original Kelmscott editions and transfer it to the 21st century and to a very different production method. We have maintained the traditional layout with the wide margins, the use of a dark contemporary Venetian typeface, almost everywhere in one size, and the use of decorative elements.

Two books have already been published — The House of the Wolfings and The Roots of the Mountains.

“Specimen pamphlet of handmade paper printed on the original Kelmscott Press. Watermarked with the three leaves and flowers between W and M. of William Morris, dated approximately 1890–91.” — Wayside Mews Collectables

From the specimen:

This paper … is probably some of the last made for the Kelmscott Press, founded by William Morris and hand made paper of Joseph Batchelor and Sons, at Little Chart in Kent. … The type used is Kelmscott Troy, cast from the original matrices, and this specimen has been printed on a Victoria platen press at the Rampant Lions Press, Cambridge, 1974.

In 2001, Richard Kegler of P22 has created a set of digital typefaces based on Morris’ work, including Morris Troy.