At 9PM my giveaway closed and I’ve used a random number generator to find a winner:
Soofiya, a Graphic Design student at Ravensbourne is the new owner of my print:
She’s even promised to send me a photo of it on her wall when she receives it – I can’t wait 
Thanks to everyone who entered and helped to spread the word for me.
Filed under Blogging
So I’m posting this A LOT later than I had planned – the event was like 3 weeks ago! So sorry, but better late than never, hey? It’s worth the wait anyway…
So on Friday 9th November, Jack & I ventured to London for a day of letterpress talks. The event was brought to my attention by my tutor, Barrie, and I’m so glad that it was – it was such a great day!
I’d not actually been into St Brides before as last time I tried to visit, it was closed for refurbishment (I think) so I was very excited to finally be going inside (like the geek that I am)!
The day began with Thomas Gravemaker, of who I didn’t really hear that much from as we were sat quite far back (and then a tall girl sat infront of me too so I couldn’t see – c’est la vie!) but what I did hear and see looked great…
… a young Thomas in the print room:
He told some great stories about how he met John Ryder, the author of his printing Bible, after selling all of his type to move to Rome. Thomas said they developed a friendship and used to go to Pizza Express together – got to love Pizza Express! It would appear that Pizza Express holds opportunities as well as pizzas, as Thomas typeset a poem by a waiter that served him:
Thomas also shared with us a story about the Haas type which he was given from the last remaining Haas shop which was sadly closing:
Thomas gladly accepted all of the type from Haas and in return, keeps their wine cellar full – A sad, but lovely anecdote I thought!
The next speaker was Ian Gabb, print technician at the Royal College of Art.
He spoke about his battle with computers – ‘they’re not user friendly’ and how students have become reliant on computers by simply just printing their work out without checking line breaks etc. He showed some lovely typographic work which was influenced by his time in Italy:
The next speaker… didn’t speak. Host, Catherine Dixon, presented on behalf of Argentinian designer Federico Cimatti:
There was a great story about how Federico’s work was used by David Carson as part of a cover for Wallpaper magazine (pretty awesome!) and even though David Carson ripped his work up to create the cover, Federico was still really excited to meet him:
… and the cover looked great! Catherine played a video of Federico working in his print studio to finish:
You can view more of Federico’s work here, which includes some of the stationery that he does to make a living and fund his more political work.
The next talk was about Desmond Jeffrey, presented by Charlotte from Spike Island and Jono from City Edition.
I wasn’t familiar with Desmond’s work, but Jono’s passion for the work was apparent, which he explained stemmed from seeing Desmond talk in 2009 and then going on to write his dissertation on the work.
Desmond’s work is typographically simple and so effective:
Charlotte & Jono explained that a lot of Desmond’s work was politically influenced and that if he didn’t agree with the values of a client, he wouldn’t work with them. He saw printing as a political act – putting his opinions down on paper.
Desmond saw letterpress to be vital as a means of expression, as so much thought and time goes into typesetting the words and message.
Next up, all the way from Barcelona, a trio of designers from studio L’automatica:
They first showed the newspaper which they designed for use at the Occupy movement in May 2011 – Ara Es Hora = Now is the time. 5,000 were given out and people help up the papers, using the pages as banners to show their feelings:
They then spoke about Faran, the owner of a dying print shop in their local area.
Faran had been working as a printer with his Dad since he was 14 but sadly it had got to the point where he couldn’t pay the bills. He approached L’Automatica to say that he was shutting his print shop down and ask them if they would like to buy his equipment, or it would all be sold as scrap! It’s terrible to think that all that printing history could be melted down, but L’automatica had a plan…!
A group of 9 people made the decision to save the print shop and keep Faran working. They have spent a year being Faran’s apprentices; learning about all of the printing machines and processes.
They use the print shop to collaborate with artists and also run workshops:
What an amazing story – I was really touched. You can see more from L’automatica here.
Jack & I went for lunch at Leon:
I love it in there – great food and branding! There was just enough time to have a quick look at the posters which were being auctioned off at the end of the day…
… before the talks started again. You’ll just have to wait for my next post to see what happened next!
Filed under Graphic Design, Printmaking, Typography
The past couple of weeks have been non-stop with this group magazine project. I know that I always say I’m busy, but this project is the busiest yet.
This is the first ‘real’ group project we’ve had and it’s definitely been an eye opener. Working as a group takes a lot of planning, discussion, compromise and is just generally tiring. We’re aiming to impress too, so putting a lot of extra effort in… On Friday, Team Divide went up to Greestone to step away from our screens and get our hands messy (and then did the even messier photoshoot on Sat. Got to love the mess!).
Lucy squeegy-ing pink…
… oooh! Emma & Sunjay setting up…
… Team Divide were like a machine – prints coming out of our ears! Amber’s classy b&w design…
Emma preps one of our screens – Emma & I devised a plan to print our work together, but I messed it up (sorry Em)…
… whilst everyone else is still hard at work.
Mixing our orange…
… and the first test print! About 2 hours, 20 stress fits and 50 washes of our screens later, the drying rack was full!
We were running out of time, so to help them along their way, I got the hairdryer out. Emma & I look after our prints 
I love screen printing, but I just wish it wasn’t so stressful! I’m not one of those people who crave perfection with it as I like the unique aspects and that every print is different but I always end up stressing out and that’s when things go wrong. Looking back, I really don’t know how I got through the Limited Edition project doing my 4 colour stencil prints – CRAZY!
Anyway, more on this stuff soon I feel like I’m being very mysterious but I’m just keeping you all in suspense for the big reveal next week! This deadline has come around so quickly – eek!
At the weekend, I ventured further up North to Leeds for a weekend of printing fun.
Held in Leeds Gallery at Munro House, this was the first ever Leeds Print Festival and hopefully not the last! With a print exhibition running from Fri 27th to Tues 31st, a print fair on Saturday and a talks from Generation Press, Si Scott and Anthony Burrill on Sunday, there was a lot going on(so I’ve split the weekend into 2 posts)!
At the print fair on Saturday there was around 10 stalls selling all sorts of printed goodies; from posters to cards and zines to notebooks. There was so much to look at that Jack and I went back about 3 times before eventually deciding on what to buy!
Jack browsing some of the books on sale in front of some striking prints by Anthony Burrill…
And I spotted someone familiar hiding behind a print…
… none other than Lestaret, my tutor from college. It’s a small world! Chris very kindly gave me this beautiful print (he had promised me one a while ago) and you can find other prints available to buy here.
It’s a linocut print and if you like the look of it, you can find out a bit more here.
I even got to do a bit of printing myself thanks to Gridula:
I printed this using an 8×5 Adana press – very cute! I also got a yellow pencil…
… on a badge
So that was my Saturday – great fun! I could have spent so much money, but my student budget wouldn’t really cover it so I was well behaved and super excited for Sunday. Look out for the next post to see what happened at the talks from Generation Press, Si Scott and Anthony Burrill.
Filed under Me, Printmaking, Typography
I’ve been a bit quiet this month, I know, but I am back as loud as ever with something exciting!
So it’s the last day of 2011 and I’m looking forward to 2012 more than ever now. No, not because of the 2012 Olympics haha But this:
Yes, I’m excited for the Leeds Print Festival! At Leeds Gallery from the 27th to 31st January 2012 and ‘celebrating traditional and contemporary print process through type and image’, the festival will exhibit artist’s and designer’s work from around the world as well as boasting an exciting talks line up! On Sunday 29th: Generation Press…
… Si Scott…
… and Anthony Burrill (whose work I looked at in my recent print project, Limited Edition)…
…will all be talking and I will be listening – can’t wait! All 3 for just £20 and did I mention a hand printed, personalised ticket – what a bargain! Get yours from here, sooner rather than later!
Aside from all of the great artists and designers attending, a fantastique reason to attend is this man. The reason I started to blog and the main source of my enthusiasm for Graphic Design, my tutor from college will be exhibiting and selling some of his own printed goodies. He’s a Yorkshire man, so pretty friendly and very excitable about all things letterpress!
So if you’re ‘up North’ (as they say) or can make it there, then I guarantee this will be a print-geek convention of good sorts! If you decide to go, let me know…
Filed under Cool Stuff, Graphic Design, Me, Printmaking, Typography
