Workshops

Creative letterpress / Art Institite of Philadelphia
no prerequisite

7 working hours plus a light lunch & snacks

This workshop is not open to anyone outside of a specific group of students and faculty from the Art Institute of Philadelphia who have been pre-enrolled. This workshop does not serve as a prerequisite for the technical workshops required for Lead Graffiti press rentals.

When working with student groups we try to give both an overall view of letterpress and the printing options that are most likely desired by graphic designers.

We work to provide a combined experience of working with wood & metal type composition, along with photopolymer, on either or both of our Vandercook SP-15 (handcranked) and Vandercook Universal III (automatic paper feed) flat-bed presses. Vandercooks are generally the most desired presses by designers both for their ease of use as well as the size of the printing area.

The project we will be working on is a group project that results in a book, generally in the form shown below.

Our SP-15 is a flatbed press with a printing area of 14" x 18" and a maximum sheet size of 14.75" x 20". It is handcranked so you get a nice hands-on feel while you are printing. It is also quite fast as you can print about 240 sheets an hour. The Universal III prints an 18" x 24" image area on a maximum sheet size of 18.75" x 28" that operates at the push of a button. This press is excellent because of its registration accuracy which is very important for work that requires double printing (which we often find necessary) to achieve a solid density of ink.

We will show a variety of samples from our portfolio as well as work from a variety of other letterpress shops that we've collected including YeeHaw, Amos Kennedy, F2, Hammerpress, and Hatch Show Print among others. We will also show examples of historial printing from the 1400s (called incanabula if printed before 1501) to the present.

All necessary materials will be supplied. Wear comfortable shoes and work clothing.

Topics covered

• studio, paper cutter & press safety
• working with wood & metal types
• using photopolymer plates, woodcuts & linocuts
• using furniture, quoins & lockup bar
• paper (finishes, grain) & ink (oil based, rubber based)
• inking using form rollers & hand rolling
• press makeready & packing the cylinder
• printing, registration & image quality
• press clean up
• redistributing type

Typical projects

• posters & poetry broadsides
• invitations & greeting cards
• keepsakes
• menus & programs
• books
• envelopes
• handbills
• group projects

Workshop calendar

Three designers from Wieden + Kennedy /NY rented our studio
for a weekend for a creative workshop to produce this tryptic
printed on old magazine pages for the Manifest Equality exhibition
in Los Angeles in March 2010.

This 18" x 24" poster was produced in a Creative Letterpress
workshop with the board of directors of AIGA / Philadelphia
and printed in an edition of 50.

The poster above was created by a group of 14 students from the
Delaware College of Art & Design from a quote from Eric Gill's
Essay on Typography. The poster lists the students (who set their
name / typeface on our Intertype) along with the name of the typeface
they used so there is a nice bit of metal typographic history
included for future reference.

This booklet was produced by 6 Philadelphia University students.
Each student designed and printed a spread which was bound into the booklet.

This booklet was produced without glue or sewing by 6 Philadelphia
designers who took a workshop with Lead Graffiti sponsored by
AIGA / Philadelphia. This one happened to be on Valentine's Day.
We had copperplates made of about 10 "V"s for them to choose from.
Each person brought a quote about love which they interpreted in metal type.
They produced one finished booklet and then took home the printed materials
and supplies to make another two.