The team behind the largest letterpress printing press of its kind in the world has published a new book titled TOGETHER, bringing together works created in collaboration with communities across Yorkshire and beyond.
At the heart of the project is the Guinness World Record-holding People Powered Press. Built by JKN OilTools in 2018 for Split’s award-winning These Northern Types project, the press was conceived to take letterpress into unprecedented territory. Not just in scale, but in participation.
Since its launch, the People Powered Press has worked with more than 120 groups and over 4,000 individuals from a wide range of communities. The result is a growing body of monumental letterpress murals that amplify local voices and celebrate collective creativity.
Central to the project is Brico, a type design system made from just four wooden block shapes. Conceived by Split’s Oli Bentley in collaboration with Anthony Burrill and Thomas Mayo, Brico offers near endless possibilities of letterforms, weights and styles. It was designed specifically for the scale of the People Powered Press and, crucially, to allow anyone to take part in the joy of type design and print.
Participants begin by contributing words and phrases during creative writing workshops. These texts are then designed by Oli Bentley and hand-printed at large scale by the participants themselves, working alongside the People Powered Press team. The process is tactile, collaborative and direct.
The Brico system continues to evolve as part of the wider ambition of the People Powered Press to amplify local words and spread words worth spreading. In May 2025, the project received two prestigious D&AD Pencils for Type Design & Lettering and Environmental Typography. From more than 11,500 global entries, the People Powered Press was awarded both a Wood Pencil and a Graphite Pencil, marking a significant moment for community-driven typography.
“I’m in awe of the People Powered Press. It’s an incredible feat of engineering and ambition, taking the process of letterpress and leading it into a new and exciting territory.” – Anthony Burrill
The murals themselves have appeared in a wide variety of locations. From city centre hoardings and shopping centres in Bradford and Keighley to beloved cultural spaces such as Salts Mill in Saltaire and Temple Newsam in Leeds, the work brings large-scale letterpress into public view.
Alongside the murals, scores of new poems created during the workshops have been published in zines, pasted onto hoardings and exhibited independently. A small selection of this poetry features within TOGETHER, offering a printed record of the voices that power the press.
Importantly, 100 percent of sales from TOGETHER will go towards supporting the ongoing community engagement work of the People Powered Press.
The project demonstrates what can happen when typography is opened up, scaled up and handed over. Letterpress becomes more than a historic process. It becomes a shared platform.
TOGETHER is available from Split’s website
See more of the People Powered Press’ work
On film:
The People Powered Press at Hot Bed Press, Salford, 2025
‘People Powered’ by Michael McCabe
Want to know more about our membership? Give us an email at members@peopleofprint.com.
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