Farset Feirste – A Typeface for Belfast

Opening: Thursday 2 May 7.00pm

Belfast’s historic tiled street signage is immediately familiar to the city’s residents and visitors alike as a representation of the city’s unique character. Originally hand-made with poured clays as white capitals on black tiles during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the signs were first commissioned by the Belfast Corporation for use on major thoroughfares.

The exhibition traces how John McMillan, Emeritus Professor of Graphic Design at Ulster University and a Belfast resident, took the lettering and developed it into a functioning typeface then translated this into a corresponding gaelic typeform that would afford bilingual usage and a shared ownership by our citizens.