Qwerty 1

writing and design Stephen Banham | publisher Letterbox

A reaction against the artless desktop publishing period of the early 1990s, the first issue of the Qwerty series is based on hand-generated typography and includes interviews with Noel Pennington from Design Bite and the freelance designer Peter Long.

The diminutive A7 format of Qwerty (measuring a mere 74 x 105mms) was the only way to economically get 24 pages out of a small sheet printed in two colours. From its humble beginnings (it was designed during breaks in the nightshift of the Sunday Age newspaper office) Qwerty now represents a unique period in Melbourne design culture.