Local publisher Fastfoot Press have recently released A Lancaster Alphabet: Letterforms from the Stones of the City, which offers a take on Lancaster’s architecture that may have offer readers a new perspective on buildings you might simply walk past every day without a second glance.
The book is a study of Lancaster’s hidden architectural lettering that uses these often neglected and largely unseen elements to explore the social history of the urban environment. The 26 letters of the alphabet span almost 1800 years of Lancaster’s history, with each letter and its location providing insights into the development of Lancaster’s industry and socio-political development, as well as discussion of the design features of the letters themselves and reproductions of historical documents.
Printed on Fedrigoni stocks, perfect bound and stitched with a dust cover, the work was part of a two year study of architectural lettering in the the city and includes photographs of each of the twenty-six letterforms a guide map to their location, and a glossary of architectural and design terms.
• More details can be found at: www.fastfootpress.co.uk/publications/lancasteralphabet.html
• And copies are available online at: http://fastfootpress.bigcartel.com