The Metal Box Factory in Southwark, London is the historic the home of Barclay & Fry Ltd – ‘printers, stationers and tin box makers’. Since the building was converted in to work spaces, it is now also home to Make it Clear’s studio.

Given our own love for print, this creative coupling inspired us to design two posters based around this heritage. The first came from uncovering a series of early bank notes printed by Barclay & Fry Ltd, housed in the British Museum. Combined with the lyrics of a famous Abba song (because why not?), ‘Must Be Funny’ was born.

The second poster grew from our eye for typography and the discovery of several brass tins printed by the aforementioned partners. We went on a search for 26 letters in and around the building to form a unique ‘Alphabet City’. These were lovingly arranged and screen printed with metallic gold ink onto a range of G.F Smith Colorplan papers.

Art Direction, Design & Print: Robbie Steer
Design & Print: Billy Fenton
Location: @colchmkrspc
Technician: katiekennedy.co.uk

Barclay & Fry banknotes © The Trustees of the British Museum