Description:

‘The New Lace Age’ was created in response to the 2025 ISTD brief ‘Milestones’. It explores the digitalisation of the lace making industry and how lace shifted from a slow, respected, handmade craft to an automated, coded, and increasingly overlooked material. Centred around the year 1814, the project reflects on the invention of the Leavers Lace machine by John Leavers, a moment that marked a significant turning point in both the production and cultural perception of lace.

The visual and conceptual foundation of the project is inspired by Jacquard punch cards, which were used as a predetermined code in early lace machines and later influenced the development of computing. This system of mechanical pattern-making informed the overall structure, typography, and interactive elements across both the book and poster artefacts.
The core artefact is a hand-bound, French folded book. Each page contains printed lace textures hidden inside the folds, only visible through individually punched holes. This physical design approach encourages slowness, curiosity, and interaction, mirroring the lost tactility of traditional lace. The use of hole punching, hand stitching, folding, and layering creates a reading experience that is tactile and intentionally interrupted. These moments of discovery reinforce the idea that lace deserves to be noticed, touched, and valued again.

Typography has been carefully selected to reflect the contrast between heritage and modernity. A classic serif is paired with Bitcount, a digital monospaced typeface resembling the structure of lace punch cards. Colour choices remain simple and purposeful, with cream referencing the delicacy of traditional lace, and electric blue representing its transformation through digital processes. A contemporary zigzag-style stab binding, sewn in white thread, subtly references traditional textile techniques while reinforcing the coded aesthetic of the project.

The book also includes two profile tip-ins of key figures who represent different sides of the industry’s evolution: Marie Antoinette, a historical patron of lace whose decline mirrored that of the craft, and John Leavers, whose invention changed lace’s future. A timeline and fold-out poster are included in an envelope, mapping significant stylistic and industrial milestones in the history of lace.

The poster system extends the project’s core ideas, designed using laser-cut card, layering, and grid-based structures, the posters function as both graphic and sculptural artefacts. They maintain the same coded typographic language and material qualities, acting as a bold, physical continuation of the book’s quieter moments.

By combining research-led storytelling with physical, crafted execution, ‘The New Lace Age’ invites reflection on the cultural and material loss caused by digital acceleration. Through a focus on tactility and coded structure, the project asks viewers to reconsider what is preserved, what is hidden, and what is worth rediscovering in contemporary design.