When the first letters were cut into metal during the Renaissance, how did their designers approach the task to adapt the existing writing habits into an efficient and aesthetic type system for reproducibility? We can retrace some of their ­intentions by reading historical sources and comparing specimen. No. 3 Series is the outcome of ­revisiting this transition from writing with the pen to movable type. It is influenced by writing and cursive ­writing and imagines deviations from the ­traditions we know.

The principle behind the shapes of the a, d, p and q of the lowercase alphabet is the rotation of an italic letter written with a broad nib pen. Italic handwriting usually has a slope which in this case is reduced to zero, but the underlying ­theo­retical strokes are preserved.