Officina Briani is a small
design and letterpress printing studio in Raleigh, North
Carolina.
The studio is owned and operated by Brian Allen, a
craftsman dedicated to old-fashioned values of quality. He
has worked in the field of typography for 30 years,
variously as a typesetter, calligrapher, digital typeface
production worker and letterpress printer. He is
well-versed in the history and craft of letterforms, and,
with his technical skills, bridges the worlds of the
handmade and the digital.
Officina
Briani is Latin for
Workshop of Brian, and is in part an homage to
the fine press printer Giovanni Mardersteig and his
Officina
Bodoni in Verona, Italy. Mardersteig
was the designer of a favorite typeface – Dante. Brian also
has an interest in other crafts, such as cast and fused
glass.
Photograph by Bryan Rierson
Photography
This type is set in Delphin, 20
point Didot size (European point system), which is 0.928
inches type-high, as opposed to the British-American 0.918
inches.
Photograph by Brian
Allen