This blog documents the journey of Alexander Cooper and Rose Gridneff as they prepare to deliver a paper at the 'Case for Letterpress' session at the College Art Association Annual Conference, February 2010. Each college presenting are contributing staff and student work for a touring exhibition to give an overview of the different roles letterpress plays in design education. Participating students from the BA in Graphic Media Design at London College of Communication are: Kate Burn Jacqueline Ford Natasha Pia Podgoretsky Johanna Woolhead Alexander Cooper graduated from London College of Printing in 2003 with a BA (Honours) in Typo/Graphic Design. He has run the letterpress workshop at what is now LCC for the past six years, teaching students from across the School of Graphic Design and external groups including University of Delaware, Art Center College and Kingston University. Research focuses on the interaction between content and process, through pushing the boundaries of letterpress whilst respecting its traditions. Other interests include the graphical language of political protest and ephemera. Rose Gridneff graduated from London College of Communication in 2005 with a BA (Honours) in Book Arts. Since graduating she has taught on a regular basis at London College of Communication, Southampton Solent University and is currently tutor on the BA in Graphic Design at the University of Brighton. Research interests include the role of letterpress in design education, craft and interaction within print. Alexander and Rose are currently setting up a letterpress co-operative with James Allen and Elliot Hammer.
Quimby's- a bookstore stuffed to the brim, where self-published zines and comics sit happily alongside the latest design, culture and music publications.
After our session on Thursday, we met April Sheridan and Daniel Mellis from The Center for Book & Paper Arts at Columbia College who were kind enough to invite us for a visit.
The facilities were amazing, with a whole workspace dedicated to papermaking alongside Bookbinding and Letterpress workshops. The collection of wood type which had been donated to the college was impressive and included some two-colour poster type like nothing we have ever seen.
The Center has a Heidelberg Offset Litho which it uses to publish the Journal of Artists Books, dedicated to providing a "forum for critical and creative engagement with artists' books".
We are pleased that the Center's "Printer's Ball" will be exhibiting some of the LCC Letterpress/Moving Image work later this year.
Many thanks to April Sheridan, Daniel Mellis, Steve Woodall, and all those who took the time to make it a memorable visit.
We arrived at 8.15am to an empty conference room, amidst the hoards of people already weaving through the maze of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. The first person we met was Dawn Hachenski McCusker of James Madison University in Virginia, the self-proclaimed "DIY element" of the session who is currently developing a Letterpress and Book Arts Programme from her own garage. The majority of the panel arrived shortly afterwards, with the exception of Ashley Pigford from Delaware (the only participant who we knew...) whose flight had been grounded due to the snow.
The room began to fill and as the first presenter, James Boyd-Brent (University of Minnesota) took to the podium, there were people stood at the back and sat on the floor around the room. James's paper, "Putting the Digits back into the Digital" discussed the disembodiment of today's Graphic Design students, and spoke of the importance of "being embodied as a designer". Their letterpress workshop was a new addition to the facilities but already he had experienced a change amongst student perspectives who were making connections and combining letterpress with other mediums. He was keen to place emphasis away from the nostalgic and instead explore how letterpress as process can be used to enhance the student's learning experience.
We were relieved to be up next, and after a couple of technical glitches (thanks Jeff for helping us out...) were soon underway with our presentation, providing a history to the Letterpress workshop at LCC and the showing current work alongside work from the archive.
Dawn's paper, "The Twentieth Century did not invent Graphic Design" (she had apparently bottled out of naming it "Adobe did not invent Graphic Design") drew parallels between the Arts & Crafts movement and the current resurgence of Letterpress within design education. She went on to discuss the passion, time and patience that had gone into ensuring that classes could be taught from her own home. One comment that particularly resonated was the involvement that use of letterpress requires from students, requiring that they be active and present to engage with the process. She spoke of the importance of this studio environment that is in danger of being lost, when students plugged into earphones and working alone on a laptop.
"Tough Love for Heavy Metal" was delivered by Catherine Ruggie Saunders and Martha Chiplis from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and documented the 5 moves across the city that the workshop has made since 1984. They spoke of the rich printing history of the city that gave birth to Cooper Black and Vandercook Printing Presses.
The Q&A session differed from those in the UK in that members of the audience were forthcoming in asking questions and offering opinions. One interesting point made was that all panellists seemed very defensive of their practice. It appeared that the "endangered subjects" argument has crossed the Atlantic with many of these areas under threat as they are expensive to run and can be viewed as outdated. Someone referenced the detrimental often held belief that graphic design students do not need much space. Another conversation focused on the importance of the transferrable skills that can be gained from the process, from being a more considered designer to gaining a better appreciation of space as you are physically moving type. We believe this to be crucial as the vast majority of students will not go on to use the process again.
The many differences between the UK and US models of design education were very apparent. The 24 hour access of such facilities in the US seemed to enhance the sense of community and ownership amongst students. The work is also incredibly different- most Letterpress workshops seem to be housed within Book Arts programmes whereas the work from LCC is clearly from a design perspective. This has enhanced our belief that Letterpress is not a skill to be learnt but merely a tool, that can be applied in many different contexts.
Thanks to Jeff Pulaski and Dennis Ichiyama for initiating the debate.
On Wednesday, we took the red line out to Belmont to visit Kartemquin Films, the social documentary film company behind Typeface (Director Justine Nagan, 2009).
Typeface documents the history and development of Hamilton Wood Type Museum in the town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, as it continues to thrive despite all odds. We saw the film at its London screening at St Bride Library back in January, and were inspired by the dedication and determination of those working there, not least the eighty-something ex-employee who was still cutting wood type on the Pantograph. We had hoped to visit during this trip but unfortunately the weather put a hold on that.
It was great to meet Justine and her colleagues and discuss another potential screening in London... watch this space.
Chicago Publishers Gallery at the Chicago Cultural Center
"From the largest university publisher in the U.S. to experimental ‘micro-presses’ to authors of every stripe, Chicago’s literary entrepreneurs are motivated by a do-it-yourself spirit and a fierce independence. Visitors are invited to explore the Chicago Publishers Gallery in order to get a sense of the many exciting publications that are being written and published in Chicago today". www.chicagopublishersgallery.com
It seems that the self-publishing explosion has not been confined to London, with the popularity of immediate methods of production such Risograph printing apparent, not just in the handout we were given at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The Chicago Publishers Gallery provides a unique space in which mainstream publications sit alongside hand-drawn comics. Unfortunately the DIY ethos underpinning many of these publications was not reflected in some of the displays, with books in locked cabinets giving them a preciousness that made them less accessible.
I was imagining what it would be to be able to escape one's self, considering that inevitably as I write this, as I consider the impossibility, I make it implausible.
We are the pregnant body resulting from the choices we make be them through leaps of faith or deterring in fear of the direction we may find ourselves.
The possibility of making a mistake or misguided path often gives rise as being the reason that manipulates an insecurity of failing or not being capable, into an anxiety that prevents us from rationally following through to realisation.
The maze I am constructing disorientates so that on both a perceptual and cerebral level, through plays on visual aesthetic it becomes a tangible pun simulating our finding of pleasure in the illusion of form, being visually deceived and made to feel lost. Losing yourself is typically stigmatised into being an obscenity; that it is naughty, crazy or stunts our growth, however here I am wanting to relay it as a liberating process, of testing and elimination and how in surrendering to this idea we gain access to a platform upon which we can examine EVERY available choice open.
The process of construction torturous in its requirement of patience and reflection, implores you to consider rationally the break down of a reference map into each constituent part that only at the end comes together as a whole through the decisions in design, made. There have been hours spent inundated to the point of frustration by its complexity that I'd enter a complete state of flux where stopping seemed illogical and all I had was the will that I would do this. Letterpress through metaphorical simulation of the longevity and nature to the process reciprocates the breakdown of the design concept tying the psychological process of realisation into the being of limited edition design.
Natasha Pia is currently in her final year of the BA GMD Design for Interaction and Moving Image.
Jackie Ford's project places the traditional method of letterpress into the format of television. The light to dark tonal values of the border patterns simulate the spectrum of sound, focusing specifically on white noise and static, where randomized photons are fired at the television screen accompanied by jumbled sound signals. As digital takes over, the image of static on an analog television will disappear and so this project stands as an effigy to the past of technology.
Jackie is currently in her final year of the BA in Design for Illustration.
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