Paying tribute to the stylistic diversity of the 19th century, the Pyte Foundry offered a weekly free-font every Monday of the year 2016. With its spontaneous manufacture and limited availability, these throw-ups served as a critical playground reflecting on the desire production mechanisms intrinsic to the inaccessibility of historical material.

The Pyte Legacy Library comprises a more considered and curated selection of these Display weirdos, completely overhauled and expanded from their initial versions.

The constant strive for innovation in the 1800s led to designs showing an immense degree of imagination. Nonchalantly referring this vibrant period — moving between revival, tribute and parody — the Pyte Legacy Library digitally reintroduces some of these typographic eccentricities without indulging in unnecessary nostalgia. The aim here is not so much historical accuracy, but rather to revive the spirit of the era following the Industrial Revolution often neglected by the purist narrative of typographic history.

By conducting an iterative, modular approach akin to the evolutionary production methods of the type foundries and manufacturers of the time, reenacts the mentality of the time not only in its aesthetics but also in the making, distribution and mythologization.

An overview of the 2016 Back Catalogue is available here; individual typefaces that are (not yet?) part of the Legacy Library can be requested for trial and licensing via mail@thepytefoundry.net.