visualchemist

Back in March, I attended the first official meeting for the Seattle Freelance Designer Co-Op. Being new to Seattle, it was the perfect opportunity to meet local creatives and take the temperature of the current design/freelance market in the Pacific Northwest. Several creative events had been held by the Co-Op since that first meeting, but today’s studio tour was one meet up I didn’t want to pass up. Today, I had the pleasure of meeting Becki Mullins of West Seattle’s Myrtle Alley Press. She opened up her letterpress studio to Co-Op members and we were given a tour of her space. This is where her magic happens.

Her studio walls were covered with a growing collection of letterpress prints including some original Hatch prints. It was awesome to hear her story and goals for her shop. She did a quick demo on her 8×12 C&P NS named “Jack,” and her Vandercook 219 OS “Ray,” (formerly owned by the late Chris Stern of Stern & Faye, Printers). Co-Op members were welcome to crank out a type poster to take home. With my days in Seattle coming to a close, it was great to have the opportunity to visit another local letterpress studio. Long live letterpress!

Okay, that title sounds a little more dramatic than it needs to be. Well sadly, and happily, I just found out that my husband is going to temporarily be relocated to the Seattle area for a few months. That means I get to tag along, but it also means having to part with my presses for a few months. But not only do I have to part with my presses, I also have to say goodbye to my semester-long letterpress class that I have been taking with Rachelle Chuang, of the International Print Museum. Boohoo. Just when we were getting to know each other. =( I like her!

For my last session, I was joined by one of my old college instructors, Wendy Emery, who also happens to be a permanent fixture at the Print Museum. I was actually late to my last session because Wendy and I went to check out my next acquisition… a Challenge Advance 19″ guilloine table-top antique paper cutter! Woohoo! I’ll share more about that later… perhaps when I return from my trip.

I thought I’d share (part of) a class project. Disclaimer: It’s been years since I last carved into linoleum AND my prints weren’t coming out as solid as I would’ve liked. Maybe it’s an old piece of warped linoleum? Eh, better luck next time.

*And for those of you paying attention, yes, the “T” in that first shot would totally have shifted. I snapped the photo before the lock up was ready to go!

VINTAGE PRINT BLOCK

The other day, I purchased a vintage print block with a really awesome deer graphic. I couldn’t wait to see how it printed. Though it looked worn down in the photos, I thought I’d try it out and see what happens. It really did look like it had been around for quite a while, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. You just never know with these things. Maybe it’s got a little more mileage left in it, maybe not. I took the chance, not wanting to pass up a really great piece, and besides, I thought it would go perfect with some thank you cards I had in mind.

CENTURY GOTHIC

Puns are silly fun, and some can even be quite clever. I enjoy them, or anything that has to do with a play on words. When I saw this deer, I immediately knew I wanted to create a “Thank You, Deer” card. For my type, I used Century Gothic for its clean and modern characteristics. Setting this short sentence in my composing stick took less than 5 minutes. It was playing around with the tracking and kerning that took forever.

LOCKED UP DEER

Here he is, all inked up and ready to be cleaned. As you can see, I didn’t really set up my composing stick properly. To correctly center my type, I should have put equal amounts of spacing on both ends of the line.

THANK YOU DEER

To correct this, when locking up my deer, the reglets needed to be adjusted to place him centered just above my uncentered type. So really, this is a lesson on what NOT to do. What I should have done was take that extra minute to set my type up properly.

Here is the final product. I’m not thrilled with how it came out, but for a second project, again, it’s not terrible. I’ll have to do another run of these cards when I have the time.

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. =)