May 10th, 2010
When Gutenberg was working on perfecting his printing process in the 1450s the major source of power was water (well, that and draft animals). In mills across the world water power was used for, among other things, the grinding of grain and the beating of pulp for the making of paper. In 2010 French Paper is still using a water powered mill to create perfection in the form of their delicious whip cream 140 pound cover stock.
This is the paper that the gang at Charles S. Anderson Design Company chose to work with when French, CSA and Nomadic Press teamed up to produce this poster showcasing the interconnectivity of all of our skill sets.
Think about it. If CSA had no paper or printers to work with then what would be the point of their coming to work every day. If French existed in a world void of printers and designers then why crank up the macerators at the beginning of the week. If I never had a design to print or the paper to print it on then I would not be a printer and would probably be up to no good.
Together we complete each the other and thrive on the creativity of the work of those in related fields.
A great deal of that creativity (and a fair amount of basic hard work) went into completing this piece. Starting with the making of the paper and the imagining of the design, and culminating with the letterpress printing of the finished poster. Now that it is all said and done one might consider it water under the bridge.
Or, better yet, water through the hydroelectric generators. Power to you French. Thanks CSA.
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April 15th, 2010
In the 1920s and 1930s there was a movement which, in retrospect, has been called the Harlem Renaissance. Having its origin in the Harlem neighborhood in New York City the movement has had far reaching effects.
While the movement focused on an examination of esthetics, with an eye open toward identifying a Black sensibility in arts and crafts that was distinctly separate from that of the current White culture, some of the great works of art of the 20th century were created. During this period painting, music and literature underwent dramatic changes.
Publishing was not immune from the enthusiastic energy of change. Many of the most powerful works of African American writing were produced during this period and the printers of the time were not without their say. A number of works were produced using black paper and printed with white ink.
This was, perhaps, an idea that was technically ahead of its time.
Although lithographic printing using paper plates was invented in 1914, the bulk of printed matter was still produced using the relief (or letterpress) process. With the letterpress process it is difficult to print effectively with either white ink on black paper or to print a flood of black ink with the type dropped out.
Perhaps this is an experiment that is worth investigating again. With the sophistication of offset printing and the advent of direct-to-print computer processes, as well as the invention of the digital book, a firmer technical foundation exists today to play with the relationship between black and white on the printed page.
Weather the paper or the ink is black or white, the strength one takes from the contrast between the two is undeniable. This business card designed by (and for) Kristin Krantz is fine example of the dynamic that is highlighted by the simple use of these two , I would say, primary colors.
Posted in Business Systems, Cards, Musings, Printing Projects, Type | No Comments »
April 7th, 2010
As the elevated rumbles by overhead I step into the shade of the rail structure, its steel lattice flaking rust and decades of grey-green paint, and then down a half a story into the flower shop. A bell over the door sparkles audibly and welcomes me in.
The air in the garden level shop is moist and richly scented from shelves of freshly cut flowers. The windows onto the street are rippled with age but clean and bright.
The florist, who’s family’s shop has served generations from this slim brownstone in this close-knit neighborhood, smiles as she recognizes me.
Oh, wait. Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis? My mistake. (But can’t you just feel the long history of this brand new shop in Brad Surcey’s evocative card design.)
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March 22nd, 2010
Ok, usually I try to discourage people from including in their designs flood prints or large coverages of ink.
This is because it can tun out badly.
This business card, though, turned out just fine. For some reason the lighter shades of blue seem to work for this sort of thing better than, say dark brown.
I like the way that the thinner line of black presses deeper into the card than the larger areas of blue.
I will still try to discourage you from having me print work with large coverage areas, but sometimes . . .
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March 12th, 2010
Here is a piece that I printed back in about 1898 after first carting our new Chandler and Price platen press up the hill to the print shop from the railway station. The color palate was all the rage that year and the cut was an electrotype block which I purchased from Messrs. Badoureau and Jones of Fleet Street in London.
The press performed well on its first outing and, even then, I could anticipate many decades of serviceable work coming henceforth from its jaws.
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March 4th, 2010
A long time ago, The Nomadic Press was hired to produce a letterpress book. The project called for the use of hand set metal type, wood engraved illustrations and hand binding techniques. But the tricky part was the use of marbleized paper for the end sheets.
Because the edition number was fairly large, it turned out that it was nearly impossible to get a quantity of marbled sheets made to spec.
So I learned to marble paper.
I gotta’ tell you that there are many things in this world that have been intentionally invented by people who have combined chemicals and processes with an eye open to a specific end result. Paper marbleing is not one of them. Ox gall (the bile of an ox) is used to spread pigments onto the surface of a mixture of water and carragheenan (a seaweed derivative used widely today to thicken milkshakes). The pigments are then spotted, swirled and combed into complex patterns before being transfered to sheets of paper that have been coated with alum.
Whew.
The first time that somebody did all this had to be some sort of freakish accident. Now it is simply beautiful.
Tags: Books, End sheets, Paper marbleing
Posted in Books, Miscellany | 1 Comment »
March 2nd, 2010
Ah Spring, or nearly so, and a young man’s fancy turns to, well, love.
Here is the latest letterpress invitation to be printed at the Nomadic Press. Produced for Wali and Kalisha, and designed by the groom himself, this oversized tri-fold piece is a 2 over 0 example of how to bring an invitation up to the size of the affection.
In designing and overseeing the production of the invitations to his own wedding, Wali finds that he has become a member of an elite group of men. In 20-some-odd-years of printing invitations at the Nomadic Press Wali is one of only 6 or so men who have been the go-to person, from the beginning of an wedding invitation project right on through to its end.
And this, I believe, bodes well for their marriage.
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February 25th, 2010
Hot type is a retronym. When metal type was the only game in town it was just called type, but as more and different means of transferring ink to paper came into being a qualifier needed to be retroactively added. Hot type. Type that was once molten. Type that was once hot.
Foundry type, linotype, monotype are all forms of type that have been cast from molten metal. They are little pieces of sculpture carefully cast according to the strictly monitored vision of an artist.
Eric Gill (who’s art probably sits, in a derivative form, on your computer right now) was a sculptor. He worked in multiple mediums. He worked in stone, in a large scale, and cut beautiful life-like pieces from inanimate rock. He also used the same sorts of reductive processes when he engraved sensuous images of passionate lovers into boxwood and maple. And those images he printed alongside of his type.
His type, too, is sculpture. Cut to size from steel punches and then struck into brass matrixes, Gill’s letterforms were cast in the millions. Like the human figure, we know what a letter should look like and we can recognize a lovely figure when we see it. Gill’s type forms have stood the tests of time and, even more than Michelangelo’s David, are visited daily by multitudes.
Eric Gill once said that “letters are things not pictures of things” and, like his other sculptures, his letter forms are things. They are beautiful things. They are sexy things.
In their original form they are hot.
So perhaps hot type is not such a retronym after all.
Posted in Miscellany, Musings, Type | No Comments »
February 18th, 2010
In Edwin Abbot’s 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, a story is told of characters who live in only one or two dimensions. The three dimensional world that we live in is, for them, almost impossible to imagine.
Most Graphic design for print is conceived of in a flatlander’s world. Side to side, up and down but no back and forth.
When designing for the letterpress printing process one must cast off the restrictive thinking of two dimensional existence and embrace the third dimension. The impression, which is one of the endearing qualities of relief printing is the third dimension.
The piece shown here is a nice example of three dimensional graphic design.
Printed on (into?) a sheet of 190 pound blotter paper, the first and lightest impression is of crosses inked with a transparent ink. The second, deeper impression, is of a separate group of crosses blind stamped into the paper (which is to say that they have been printed with no ink, just impression). The third impression, the type, presses even deeper into the paper. Finally, there is a single cross which is die cut out so that it passes completely through the paper.
Abbot’s flatlanders would be horrified.
Luckily there are graphic designers who are able to think beyond the surface and take their designs to a deeper level.
Posted in Business Systems, Musings, Printing Projects | No Comments »
February 15th, 2010
Kent, A.K.A. Dad. The large printing presses crank loudly as my dad stands by them and takes control. He pulls the paper out and hands it to me. I feel the indent in the words that sink into the paper, the solid red color that soaks into the thick paper.
That’s my dad; he printed this.
I remember the time when my dad stood behind me on the press and he let me control the press. The most fun thing of all is making stuff with him. We would build and build, then, we would have a problem. We would share our ideas. Then boom, we would come to a conclusion, and fix our problem.
His belief is to carry on hats and letterpress printing. He has favorite hats and hats he doesn’t like. but I’m pretty sure that by the end of the year he wears all his hats at least at one point.
Printing, he is great at it. No matter what, he loves his job. Plus, he comes homealmost every night with a great story to tell.
That’s my dad.
(This piece was written by my 12 year old son as a birthday gift for me.)
Posted in Musings | 1 Comment »
