Tobias Frere-Jones’ Type Specimens

Typography fans will find plenty to drool over in this new postcard set, which brings together 50 type specimens from designer Tobias Frere-Jones’ personal collection.

Taken from Tobias Frere-Jones’ extraordinary personal collection of type specimen books, the postcards offer a journey through history via type. And, on a more banal level, will also make quite nice greetings cards for friends too.

The postcards are presented in an elegant box, and ordered by thumb tabs into four geographically-themed sections: the United States, Great Britain, France and Germany.

Tobias Frere-Jones Type Specimens
Tobias Frere-Jones Type Specimens

“From shelf after shelf of possibilities, I chose a dozen examples each from four countries,” explains Frere-Jones. “I tried to pick designs that were distinct to that place and a part of its history, without careening into stereotypes. It was genuinely difficult to choose only a dozen examples from each place, when the histories are so rich. There are so many stories to be found and ‘read’ here.”

Tobias Frere-Jones Type Specimens
Tobias Frere-Jones Type Specimens

Fifty Type Specimens from the Collection of Tobias Frere-Jones is published by Princeton Architectural Press, priced £23.99; papress.com