<p>Changing the direction of his career was not a decision that Matt took lightly: “The decision to return to education as a mature student was a big one. I moved across the country from Essex to Devon, which was quite scary. But as a mature student I had a different work ethic to a lot of my peers, and tended to engage with my work quite intensely. Being surrounded by people younger than me taught me that I didn’t have to work quite so manically. In turn, I like to think I taught some of the other students in my group some useful things, like the inevitability of deadlines!”</p>

<p dir="ltr">Matt initially thought that his career would lead him towards furniture making. His talents saw him gain a place at <a href="https://princes-foundation.org/snowdon-summer-school" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Snowdon Summer School</a>, to learn furniture making from master craftsmen. Surrounded by Chippendale tables and cabinets, Matt saw other students produce pieces using marquetry (the art of applying pieces of veneer to form designs) in traditional patterns, where he interpreted the brief in a different way: “My design was inspired by looking at the carpet and noticing the pattern didn’t quite match up!”.</p> <p dir="ltr">This appreciation of imperfections became a theme that led Matt’s work towards typography. The discovery of a damaged, forgotten typeface in a workshop led him to consider how he might restore it. “I recognised that the marks and imperfections told a story”, Matt said. His use of modern technologies like 3D-printing, together with legacy techniques, led to a fascination with democratising heritage processes such as letterpress and typesetting.</p> <p dir="ltr">Matt was in the middle of developing his letterpress equipment when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, during his BA. “I realised pretty quickly that I wouldn’t have access to all these tools in the workshop, that channelled me into using the tools I had at home, like a simple jigsaw. It forced me to consider the tools other people had around them. I realised how inaccessible these heritage techniques were to others. Without use they die out. It made me ask myself how can I make them accessible to a wider audience?”</p> <p dir="ltr">The culmination of this work saw Matt successfully create his own letterpress printing press, including the instructions to build it, distilled into an email. “Theoretically I can send this to anyone, anywhere in the world and they will be able to build it. It makes it available to all”. One of the first people Matt sent it to was printmaker Anthony Burrill. “I have always admired his work and to have him respond to me was such a fantastic boost, I couldn’t believe I was having a Zoom conversation with him whilst sat in my shed!”<br /></p>