Ned Drew's self-initiated project began as a simple response to his dissatisfaction with the current design of U.S. currency. It grew, however, into an elaborate and multifaceted investigation incorporating various typographic and image studies as well as letterpress printing. Ultimately this process led to the creation of the typeface Ludd—an allusion to Ned Ludd, the symbolic leader of the Luddites, an early-nineteenth-century movement that protested the social and economic changes spurred by the new technology of the Industrial Revolution. Far from decrying technology in design, however, Drew's eponym invokes an attempt to balance the tension between the digital and letterpress technology that influenced the typeface's creation.

02.05.23