Castan Typeface

We created a bespoke headline typeface for howies’s website that embodies the ethos of their clothing and business. The font design – curved at the top, angular and less finished at the base – draws inspiration from the process of hand-cut letterforms. Each character was hand-carved from the boughs of windfallen Chestnut trees, which also gives the type its name – Chestnut trees are called Castans in Welsh. After exhaustive wire brushing and burning to raise the grain, impressions were taken from each character before these were married to the original font rendering.