Collection: Diecast

Diecast is scanned directly from photographs of street-name signs from London’s suburban sprawl, faithfully preserving the original rough and uneven finish. Cast in iron and painted black on a white ground, the raised letters were set within a border that also included the postcode at the right-hand end. This was often cut off during the Second World War to confuse any invading Germans, though a few rare examples do survive intact. This font is the intermediate design between the chunky Victorian style of Mulgrave and the Ministry of Transport sans, digitised as Ministry. Although they date from between 1910 and 1933, these signs show the beginnings of several features Ministry later incorporated, notably the thinner strokes and the more modern forms of the G, M, R and S. The letter widths are approaching a monospace - the L, F and E are relatively wide compared to the W and M, a feature that may have something to do with the casting process. These idiosyncracies were all ironed out when the first version of the MOT alphabet was produced.