20. Mark Westaway – Gumboots Graphics

Printmaking | Type and Font Design

Mark designs digital fonts for graphic design and type solutions. Private commissions, business projects and public art showcase his type. He explores new shapes that challenge the conventions of the Latin alphabet and using the screenprinting process, he especially likes to create fine art edition prints.

The studio has a digital workflow for font production and graphic design plus a traditional (read ‘old style’) screen printing/darkroom set up.

“For me, type legibility has more to do with brain and memory function than with clarity of letterforms. We have amazing ‘character recognition’ and can still read scripts, blocks, scribbles and partials. Sometimes, these new shapes make striking graphic images or icons and word art. Screen printing these images satisfies my 50-year long love affair with pushing ink through mesh. I am completely subservient to this very basic process and surrender to its control over the outcome, regardless of my intent!

I have always smudged the line between fine art and graphic design. It’s all just art."

— Mark Westaway