Postmill Typeface

Saxtead Green Post Mill towers above the Suffolk Countryside. Built around 1810, the mill was grinding corn until 1949. The structure and function of the mill has formed the basis of this experimental typeface that celebrates the history of this ‘fine specimen’ of a windmill. The typeface, ‘Postmill’, has been created by drawing from photographs taken at the windmill. Characters with stripes echo the wooden slats on the buck of the mill. The shuttered sails and blue fantail have also inspired many of the glyphs.

Given the complexity and variety of architectural forms of the mill there are several alternate characters for most letters. This also allows for many combinations of glyphs, echoing the intricate systems involved in the mill. The numerals are all striped to give some added structure to the typeface. The use of a perfect circle represents the buck of the windmill rotating around the central post. The type specimen is designed to be rotated when read to emulate the motion of the windmill.