typeface

Printmaking was something I never did while in school but have always liked.  I love the integration of typography with printmaking, specifically letterpress.   I’ve been to a few lectures about letterpress studios such as Hatch Show Print and a local Baltimore poster company called Globe Poster.  Both were interesting and each studio had their own sense of character to them.

I think an interesting part of letter press is that the block they use could be many, many years old.  Preserved well, you could use a block for 50 years.   I think that it’s really interesting – mixing history and the contemporary.

I came across this film the other day – It’s called Typeface and is a documentary about the convergence of modern design with traditional technique via the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in rural Wisconsin.  From the website:

The Hamilton Wood Type Museum in rural Two Rivers, Wisconsin, a struggling industrial town on Lake Michigan about an 90 minutes north of Milwaukee, houses over 1.5 million wood letterforms. Currently, these letters are not behind glass or partitions, but are instead organized and available for the layperson or artist to consider, hold, and if they attend a workshop, use for printing. The Museum occupies a portion of the original Hamilton Company type factory building, residing there free of charge to heighten Two Rivers’ cultural status.

I know I’ll be seeing Typeface when it comes out!

(image via the website)

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