VISUALCHEMIST

FUTURA WOOD TYPE

For my first “official” post, I decided to share my experience in letterpress printing. Anyone that really knows me, knows of my love for typography and attention to detail. Thanks to my friends at Permanent Ink, Lee Jay and Lilibeth, I enrolled in a letterpress workshop where I got my hands dirty in the oldest and slowest method of printing.

48 PT COOPER JOB CASE

I truly appreciate the history and nostalgia of letterpress, a process rich in history and tradition. As a designer, I was excited to learn the craft. I love the tactile quality of letterpress and am inspired by movable type. Entering the workshop for the first time made me feel like a kid in a candy store, all wide-eyed and goofy.

WOOD TYPE

As I picked through the workshop cases (or type drawers), I was transported back to Susan Merritt’s Beginning Graphic Design class, eons ago. I remember learning how to count characters in a paragraph using nothing but a pica ruler and learning terminology that was used back when the “Oregon Trail” was a way of life. All of it now so relevant. It made me appreciate learning the fundamentals of typography so much more. Back then, Adobe Photoshop 3.0 and Illustrator 5.5 were the latest in graphic software. FreeHand was alive and kicking and was still owned by Aldus, and InDesign was still to be invented.

MY COMPOSING STICK

Here I was, faced with my first real letterpress project. I found a case of 24pt “Cowboy” type and knew this was the one I wanted to use. On my instructors suggestion, I paired it with 18pt Bulmer.
I decided to print “We’re Moooooooving” cards, complete with a cute little cow dingbat.

I found type setting to be quite therapeutic. Seeing how fast and effortless it was to compose the larger fonts, I decided to take on the more ambitious task of setting a line of 6pt dingbat stars. I quickly learned the difficulty in setting small type, which made me appreciate this stuff even more. Once my type was composed, it was time to surround my type block with furniture and lock it up in the chase. I didn’t realize how heavy the whole set up was going to be until I lifted the chase and walked it over to the 8×12 Chandler & Price press for the first time.

YEE HAW, ORANGE COW!

Feeding paper into the press was a little intimidating at first. Your hands will get smashed if you aren’t careful or if you are prone to daydreaming, as I can be. Once things got going, the repetitive motion and sound of the press actually put me in a zone. I lost a few sheets in mid-panic of losing my finger tips, but that’s all part of the learning process. Here is my inked chase, ready to be cleaned up and disassembled.

VOILA! MY FIRST PIECE!

I was a little disappointed to find that one of my 6pt stars had been worn down by time and another had fallen out completely. It was too late to make adjustments on press so I had to run this set. Lesson learned: irregularities in lead type may not be obvious until you pull your first proof. However, all is not lost. Though it did not come out absolutely perfect, I don’t think it came out too bad for my first piece. I could always go in and redraw the missing star if I really wanted to. One of these days, we actually will kick up our heels and move and I’ll be able to dust these cards off and drop them in the mail. If one of these cards happens to land in your mailbox, consider it a limited edition collectors piece. =)