Twist

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A set of twenty-six characters for the Twist typeface designed by Sonya Clark. The abstract, curvilinear Twist typeface letters resemble loosely to tightly coiled curls of hair. Each piece of letterpress metal type (or hot type) has a rectangular body (or shank) cast with a lead, tin, and antimony alloy. At the printing end of the body is the Twist character, which prints when inked and pressed into paper. On the shoulder of each piece of type, at a lower level than the Twist character, is a small, capitalized, corresponding Roman typeface letter which allows easy identification of the Twist character. The identification mark does not print. The body has a nick near the bottom on one narrow edge and a groove cut into the bottom surface of the foot. The type is nestled side-by-side within four horizontal recesses inside the accompanying presentation box (2023.77.2). The font is arranged in alphabetical order, with A-F (2023.77.

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