The Letterform Archive Posters/Digital Type Talk

One of the perks of being a member of the Letterform Archive is that I get to attend occasional Zoom presentations on selections from their collection. This week the talk was on two subjects of interest:

Friday Night Flicks: Susie Gelbron/Words of a Letterpress Printer

Tonight’s flick is as much about language as about printing: both the language describing the world of the letterpress printer’s shop and the printed words that mark all the special moments in people’s lives.

 

 

What words would you use to mark a special event this weekend?

In the Middle of the Beginnings of Things

This post does a little catching up with multiple ongoing projects, beginning with the experimental kite I made the week before last.

Friday Night Flicks: Rob Clarke/Flick and Flourish

One doesn’t automatically think of calligraphy as the start of the letterpress process, but it sometimes can be. Tonight’s flick is a

… demonstration by Rob Clarke, the designer, calligrapher and letterpress printer at Flick and Flourish. Flick and Flourish create luxurious letterpress wedding stationery with hand drawn calligraphy in Lancashire.

 

 

Perhaps you’ll get an invitation this weekend that used this process. Or you might create your own calligraphic invitation, with or without the letterpress part.

A Pop-up Bouquet for Mother’s Day

Today’s post contains instructions for making a pop-up bowl of flowers. It was designed as a Mother’s Day card, but you can also make it for yourself — my gift to you for helping me reach 500,000 views as of Saturday morning.

Friday Night Flicks: Colleen Ellse

Tonight’s flick continues the current series on letterpress printers.

Colleen Ellse has a degree in graphic design, but found her true love of letterpress after being laid off during the last recession. Ellse believes that letterpress is the perfect combination of her two personalities – the free-spirited, creative designer, and the meticulous printer.

 

 

Perhaps you will spot something letterpress-printed this weekend.

Bonmots Surfins: A Set of Broadsides

The big project for the past week was the completion of my contribution to the #AreYouBookEnough_Typography Instagram challenge.

Friday Night Flicks: Sarah Nicholson/Derdlab Press

It is always a joy to see someone enthusiastic about work they are doing, and tonight’s flick certainly manifests the pleasure that Sarah Nicholson takes in letterpress printing.

 

 

Rumours that letterpress printing is a dead/dying art are greatly exaggerated. I just looked at local listings and there are at least five small businesses doing letterpress printing in my community of approximately 300,00 people. Perhaps you can find one in your locality this weekend.

Playing with Typography

One of my projects for the past week has been experimenting with typography.

Friday Night Flicks: Incline Press

Tonight’s flick shows some wood engravings by designer Enid Marx and Graham Moss of Incline Press printing one of her designs.

 

 

That flick is really just a teaser for a half hour video that shows the complete set-up of an Arab Platen Press. You might find time to watch it this weekend.

Although demonstrated on an Arab, all these tips and instructions are equally applicable to any make of platen press, such as an Adana, a Model no 3-6, a Cropper, or a Chandler and Price. Introduced to the world in the 1870s, Josiah Wade’s Anglo-American Arab was still in production over a hundred years later. Based on the US Gordon clam shell platen, it incorporates several important innovations, all of which makes the Arab a pleasure to use. Properly used, it is capable of fine printing from business cards to complex book work. This film, recorded and edited by Brian Clarke (Balscote Press) shows a practical demonstration by Graham Moss in the workshop at Incline Press. Given extempore, there is some reference to the history of the machine, but the emphasis is on running it properly.

 

 

Moss was forced to sell his Arab to cover “a drop in income occasioned by Graham’s partner Kathy Whalen’s terminal cancer. All artisans and craftworkers know that a steady and reliable income is very difficult to maintain at the best of times, and this was the worst of times.” Moss now has the opportunity to buy back the press and is trying to raise £3,000 above the deposit he has already paid. If you would like to help bring the Arab Platen Press back home, you can find a fundraiser page here.

[Update: In 24 hours Graham has received the funds he needs to buy back the Arab and move it home. You might want to check out his work here.]