Print for purpose

Raising money for Simon Community Scotland’s Connect Hub, we’ve released a run of prints featuring three typefaces we’ve designed. When you buy a print, you’ll get the typeface featured in that print for free – all while helping to support women experiencing homelessness.

Learn more below, but more importantly help us raise money for the Connect Hub by ordering the prints right here, right now.

Opened in 2024, Simon Community Scotland’s Connect Hub is a safe place for women based in Glasgow. Its entire design – from the facilities down to the decor – is designed by women experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, homelessness.

With development, wellbeing and connection at its core, the centre provides women with pathways to build skills and connections that help tackle the causes and consequences of homelessness. Here, women can access the right support, in the right way, at the right time.

Connect Hub needs funding to continue supporting the 200+ women who have already come through the door in the first year alone (find more amazing stats in their impact report).

That’s where you come in.

We’ve designed three prints using typefaces inspired by brutalist church architecture. The prints are a limited run, and are on sale for £20 each. When you buy a print, you’ll get the typeface used in that print for free. Free!

Held up as one of the best examples of ecclesiastical architecture in twentieth century Britain, St Bride’s stands like a fortress in East Kilbride. Designed to turn humble daylight into dramatic stage lanterns, the light cannons guide beams towards the pulpit – a juxtaposition of holy symbolism in a building largely void of religious adornment.

Named after a nun who was born to an unmarried mother, and later became one of the earliest patron saints of Ireland, this Brutalist, Grade A listed building is still used today.

The typeface is inspired predominantly by the narrow brick patterns on the outside of the church, as well as the thin ceiling slats that cut in natural light across the day.

One of the few post-war buildings in Scotland to have a Category A listing, St Peter’s Seminary was built around Victorian baronial mansion Kilmahew House. But its decline began before the space itself was even occupied. By 1966 – the year of completion – church congregations were declining, leading to a diminishing of people entering priesthood. Never truly full, the site suffered from a lack of maintenance and significant flooding.

Closing in 1980, the building became a drug rehabilitation centre for less than a decade. Despite attempts to convert and reuse it, challenges prevailed and the building has been left to rot.

Influenced by the building’s dramatic shapes, we took a similar approach to Gillespie Kidd & Coia’s by complementing sweeping curves with straight stark lines – and replicating the form of the arches repeated across the former church.

Featured regularly in works by illustrators, painters and printmakers, Our Lady of Good Counsel was built between 1964-65 and given the bronze regional medal of the RIBA and Civic Trust Award in 1966.

Glasgow’s only A-listed post-war church, this architectural landmark in Dennistoun is full of striking angles, with a tapered copper-clad roof and deep eaves. Under its wooden ceiling, the scale of the space is made more striking by the light filtered through the single-coloured stained glass windows.

The typeface derives its shape from the irregular-angled building and its architectural plans. Wide, and with a narrow weight, it’s designed to stand out and make a statement but remain functional – much like the church itself.

A Scottish architectural firm famous for their application of modernism in churches, Gillespie, Kidd & Coia was founded in 1927 – though they’re best known for their post-war period work.

The firm secured their first commission for the Roman Catholic Church in 1928, and worked with the church until the late 1970s – a decade prior to winding up the business. At the time, they were one of very few architectural practices trusted to design churches for the new towns spreading across Scotland.

Their work is still taught, discussed and explored today.

Buy two. Buy three! Click here to get yours, send us a pic of the print in its new home, share on socials with #printforpurpose and don’t forget to tag Simon Community Scotland.

Thank you!