I watched a lot of cartoons and movies. I draw incessantly and carry a sketchbook everywhere. I work in animation and self-publish my books. There are monsters in the streets, don't wear red. Mad bulls and monsters hate that color. I still watch cartoons.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Ode to Letterpress



I have a personal soft spot for the old letterpress books that used to rule the printing world. Now, they are specialty printers that cost specialty rates. I love that we have seized the means of production--to a certain extent--in this digital age from the book gate keepers of printers thus making us all potential authors with books to fire off to the world, but here we see that we can now view this industrial age craft separate from it's guild.

This Quicktime micro-documentary report by Chuck Kramer from TypeCulture b is a great look at how letterpress works and why it’s special. Beautiful type examples abound.

The interviewed press proprietor has a great perspective on the impending death of letterpress: “It’s OK — I’m only responsible for my watch. I’m thankful every day that I get to do this.”



by Ryan Singer, Signal vs Noise>whatdoiknow.org

2 Comments:

Blogger Uncle Phil said...

I never thought much about the letterpress,until a close friend started working with an illustrator that uses one. http://www.ross-macdonald.com/ There's some really nice work on his site, and has a really cool children's book with great handset type. Its called "Achoo! Bang! Crash! The Noisy Alphabet". You can find it on amazon, definetely worth checking out.

-Phil

3:08 PM

 
Blogger Ronnie said...

Thanks, Unclepheel, for that link. Very nice work there.

Ronnie

8:46 AM

 

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