collaboration, consume, museums, news, typography

Target Partners with Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum on Graphic Gear

By Stephanie Murg on July 11, 2011 9:33 AM

In a collaboration that is just our type, Target has teamed with Wisconsin’s Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum—dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type—on a collection of graphic gear. The t-shirts, hoodies, leggings, sweatshirts, sweatpants, and totes feature images from the museum’s Globe Printing Plate collection. Part of Target’s Vintage Varsity line, the items arrived in select Target stores yesterday and will be available for purchase online beginning July 17.

The idea for a partnership was sparked when a Target designer caught a screening of Typeface, Justine Nagan‘s 2009 documentary about the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. Members of the megaretailer’s design team later visited the institution to select antique woodblocks (Hamilton is home to 1.5 million pieces of wood type) ripe for Americana-infused apparel. They worked closely with museum staff to create more than 100 different hand-pressed prints before toying with scale, layering, and color. Look for the collection and the museum to be spotlighted in Target’s “Cool Never Fades” campaign, which will celebrate “timeless locations” such as Nashville’s Fry Recording Studio and Gruene Dance Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. Meanwhile, type nuts can wear their Target togs to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, this November, when Hamilton holds its annual “Wayzgoose” type conference. Confirmed speakers include Tracy Honn of Silver Buckle Press, Stan Nelson, and Matthew Carter, who designed Carter Latin—his first wood typeface—especially for the museum.