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Posts Tagged ‘letterpress’
Story Cards
As a follow up to the business cards I designed for Jelly Helm Studio, here are some additional cards that show a little bit about how the studio approaches things. All of the cards were letter pressed on cream colored Neenah Classic Crest #165 cover.
Good questions.
The cards were printed at Brown Printing, where they were very helpful in trying out an unusual combination of printing techniques: first embossing (raising) the paper in a tree shape, and then letter pressing text (pushing the paper down) on top of the tree shape. For all that pushing and pulling of paper with the text being pressed into both the tree and non-tree area, it turned out pretty well.
A very advanced "who, what, where, when, how" diagram.
My favorite of the three cards is this reproduction of a diagram by Joseph Campbell. Wikipedia says “…his work is vast, covering many aspects of the human experience”. No small task to fit onto a 1.75×3 inch card, even with some rejiggering on our end so the large original diagram translated well to a tiny version of itself.
This should get you through most situations.
On the Road with Moveable Type
Back in May I helped my letterpress friend Kyle Durrie with her project Moveable Type. She was getting ready to take her custom built van on the road and teach letterpress classes out of it, so I made her a logo and website. Now, I and many others are enjoying the fruits of her travels as she criss crosses this big country. Check out her blog for some great road trip pictures…one of my favorites being this pig statue.
A Ligature
Only a few letters go together well enough to create a ligature, but when they find each other it’s beautiful. Thanks to Wikipedia for this fi letterpress ligature (or as Michael accurately commented below, an si ligature).
Moveable Type: Cross Country Adventures in Letterpress Printing
The genesis of this project started quite a ways back, in ’05 or ’06 when Kyle Durrie took a letterpress class from me at the IPRC. I teach there frequently, so I see many students come and go with varying levels of interest in letterpressing. Many dabble a bit but never fully embrace the craft of it, which requires patience, skill and more patience. Kyle, however, decided to make it her mainstay and formed Power and Light Press.
A few years later we both became members of Em Space, a printing and book arts group. There I got to know her a bit better, her effervescent nature and gusto for everything letterpress. So I wasn’t surprised when she put up this Kickstarter video for her latest idea: building a mobile print shop and touring the US teaching letterpress.
The project got funded and I was thrilled to imagine Kyle in her trusty letterpress van on the open road, nothing but her and some moveable type. Wanting to get in on the action, I offered up my computer skills so she could have a logo and website to help make her adventure an even bigger success.
Kyle gave me some inspiration to start with, from which I made this hand drawn 3D type reminiscent of both old building signage and of those interchangeable letters that Gutenberg thought were a good idea. Turns out he was right.
Damn, that's some hot type.
A couple of alternate logotype treatments.
Matthew Johnson also volunteered to help out by setting up a wordpress site that Kyle could update with the latest events from the road. Follow along on her adventures, see when she might stop by your town, or request a visit from one of Portland’s leading ladies of letterpress at www.type-truck.com!
The Printing Press is Your Friend
![[image of a campbell newspaper letterpress machine] THE PRESS: The printing press is one of the best friends we have. By its use, we are in easy possession of a great deal of useful knowledge, that we could not otherwise obtain without great labor and expense. It makes good books and newspapers so numerous and cheap, that every body who wishes can have them. Have you ever seen a printing press? If you never have, ask your parents to please take you to a printing office to see one. It is a very curious machine.](http://bureauofbetterment.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/the-printing-press-is-our-friend.jpg "the-printing-press-is-our-friend")
Found Via Keegan Wenkman at Serial Machinist, from Kyle Van Horn’s collection.
Drypoint and Chine Collé Printmaking
I took a class at Em Space recently which was taught by two master printmakers from Japan. Ritsuko Ozeki and Takahiko Hayashi were both visiting from Tokyo because their work is on display at the Froelick Gallery thru November, and they agreed to give a three hour workshop on drypoint and chine collé.
Examples of work by Ritsuko Ozeki and Takahiko Hayashi
Let me tell you, it was one of the funnest printmaking classes I’ve taken! Twelve students were all able to create an etching on plexiglass using a variety of sharp tools, and then make a print of it using fancy japanese paper samples the teachers brought with them.
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Proverbs Revisited Poster
As part of a letterpress print exchange centered around Poor Richard’s Almanack, I made this poster to trade with other printers in Portland. “Opposites Attract” takes some of the Almanack’s most commonly recognized proverbs and reinterprets them with math symbols, drawing inspiration from Franklin’s interest in both the literary and scientific fields. Proverbs revisited…
Proverbs: love and be loved • two wrongs don’t make a right • do as I say; not as I do • birds of a feather flock together • the pen is mightier than the sword • six of one…half dozen of the other.
An edition of 10 is available for sale – if you’d like one send me 40 bucks and I’ll put it in the mail. Printed on Cougar 80# cover, size is 12×18 with an image area of 8.5×15.5 so you can either trim to the print area or hang as is with a white paper border.
Letterpress Wayzgoose & Steamroller Smackdown
I picked up this postcard at Em Space and thought you all might be interested.
Letterpress at the IPRC
Every month or so I teach beginning letterpress at the IPRC, a non-profit center for self-publishers and printers. Now that I finally have a camera I was able to take a few photos. This class was especially unique because a couple from Australia had signed up for the class during their 4 day visit to Portland.
Registration Print Process
Em Space, the local book arts center I’m involved with, put on their first anniversary show recently and asked members to submit a small printed piece so we could send a Petite Print Suite collection as a thank-you to people who had helped the organization in its first year. The theme was “print terminology” and I chose registration (basically, lining up two or more colors when printing, usually using a guide such as a X or dots to align colors). Little did I know that registration would be the least of my worries when producing 100 copies of the bar-4 card.
I chose to do a linoleum cut because 1) I am frugal, 2) I thought it would be easy, and 3) I had waited too long to get a plate made. I settled on my design and started carving away…
Carve your linoleum block backwards. It should take you two tries or less.
My linoleum had a dead spot in it, right around where Oregon should be.
To compensate for the dead spot (I like Oregon, it shouldn’t get the shaft because of some printing problems) I used torn newsprint to build up the area underneath the blank spot, so when the paper made contact with the linoleum block the surface receiving ink would be even, thus giving Oregon and the Western US its full due.
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Em Space Anniversary Celebration
A book arts center that I am part of is celebrating their one year anniversary this month – you should come check it out!
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Opening Night and Celebration:
Saturday, April 17th
7pm – Midnight407 SE Ivon Street
Portland, OR 97202—
Join the Em Space Book Arts Center as we celebrate our one-year anniversary and the opening of our second annual member show. The evening’s festivities will include a raffle, silent auction, a printing demonstration on one of our presses, and delicious refreshments. Show runs from April 17th – May 30th. (Fan Em Space on Facebook)
