Source & Method

The crests used by the studio are drawn from historical engraving archives, including Fairburn’s Book of Crests (1859).

These were not made for modern use. They exist as printed matter — worn, inconsistent, and often degraded through reproduction. Each crest has been individually restored. This involves redrawing the form in full, line by line, to recover clarity, weight, and structure while preserving the character of the original engraving.

Nothing is invented. Nothing is embellished.

The work of restoration is not visible in the final image, but it determines everything that follows.

The work is one of attention and restraint.

Once restored, each crest is placed within a system. Forms are grouped, held in relation, and given orientation through a line, a short sentence that does not explain, but accompanies. These lines are not historical. They are written in the studio. They are not descriptions, but points of recognition. From this, compositions are made.

A crest is not altered, but selected. A composition is not designed, but arranged.

Each commission draws from this archive and is prepared as a finished work:

• Restored from a historical source

• Composed in the studio

• Issued as a personal record

This is not generative work.

It is not automated.

Each piece is handled, considered, and brought into form through a fixed set of materials.

The archive is finite.

What matters is not how much is available, but what is chosen.