...on the twelve day of Christmas

Just a short note to wish you all a very happy holiday and of course an excellent New Year 2009. Inkthread has lots of new plans and good resolutions for the next year, some are old ideas that never took shape during 2008 and with a bit of luck and lots of hard work we are sure will come to live in 2009. As always we will keep you informed... thanks for reading.

And now a few things that I hope to find under the Inkthread tree, I have been very very good indeed!

No 1. The beautifully designed and bound selection of classics by Penguin. So you may have read them all by now but did they look this good on the outside? Well, now the cover matches the quality of the content, form follows content, ahem.



No 2. ABC 3D a pop-up book where each letter of the alphabet magically transforms with every page you open. Using a restricted palette of black, white and red. You can find it via Present & Correct.


No 3. Rainbow In Your Hand, flip book by Masashi Kawamura. Flip the pages and the rainbow appears...very sweet. Find it at Analogue Books.

No 4. The Applause Machine, designed by Martin Smith for Laikingland. Just press the button and the Applause Machine claps its hands for you in case you need cheering up, silly but funny.

*all images from the websites mentioned as links, (except top image by Inkthread).

stamps stamps!!

Is it a nerdy thing to collect stamps? or anything else for that matter...not sure. All the same, even if collecting stamps is not your thing this detailed poster will probably be and with stamps looking like this who could blame you.

"A field guide to stamps of the world" by Gavin Potenza is a letterpress poster representing 20 original stamp designs from around the world, printed on archival printmaking paper in a limited edition of 200. Beautifully printed, if you feel so inclined you can buy it from his website.

(via the Designboom blog)

*all images from Gavin Potenza's website

...violets are blue

It's amazing what some people can do with a sharp blade, a bit of paper and a good few hours! I suspect they are laser-cut though.

"All year rings" by designer Tithi Kutchamuch in co-operation with Nutre Arayavanish, twelve flower rings (one per calendar month) that come alive from their flat and intriguing two dimensional form into full three dimensional beauties. Personally, and although I know that the whole point of their existence is the fact that they are rings, I prefer them coming out of the card.

*all images from Tithi Kutchamuch's website

Not on paper

Hard as I try I cannot explain where the fascination with type comes from, there is something about repetition I guess; the rhythm of curves, lines and spacing, the contrast between the lines of type and the empty space around them. When type is used in all its beauty it seems to sit on the space as if carved into the paper...

And then sometimes it really is carved, a deep impression into wood or stone and it takes my breath away. Gordon Young is a visual artist who creates sculptural public spaces with an abundancy of typographic work. I had seen some of his work featured in design books and blogs before but I came across his latest piece during the past week when checking Why not Associates' website -I'm a big admirer of their work and I check them from time to time. Images below: work in progress for Crawley Library... I have no words.

*all images from Why not Associates' website

little people

Firstly let me please apologise for the short video on letterpress being repeated three times on the blog! ahem...we'll blame some technical difficulties...moving on.

This post is not print related, although there's a book involved and I'm sure it has been beautifully printed, but I had to share my appreciation for the work of Slinkachu and his "little people" project. There is something so alluring about the visual play with perspective size, and the choice of location. I dare you to look at the photos of his little people around the big city and not find them clever, endearing, or at least amusing. I'm getting myself a copy of the book right now!

*all images by Slinkachu

A little bit of letterpress expertise

Not coming from me... but from the real masters! To start with, a short note about Hand & Eye Press. I found about this letterpress studio long long time ago and they are greatly responsible for my early interest- now transformed into mild obsession- in letterpress. I was checking their website and they have updated it with some very nice photography. They have recently printed a beautiful edition of Hamlet and have been so kind as to document the process on flickr, if you feel curious -and so you should- you can check it here.

Wisdom from across the Atlantic now: a short video posted on YouTube by Don Black Linecasting Services the place to get all your letterpress equipment and supplies, no doubt... if you're in Canada. We will just jealously admire from a distance... and for those out there who are interested in some of the basic principles when printing with a Heidelberg Platten or have never seen one in action here it is...

*all photos above from Hand & Eye's website and video by Don Black Linecasting Services

It's all so quiet...

So...Inkthread was closed for a bit...I've been on holiday, hurray! I intended to keep myself as far away from the computer as I could and I managed pretty well, thus the period of silence. Back and supposedly refreshed (I feel like I need another holiday to recover from the first one), I thought I'd share some of my holyday pics...

From the very elegant and stylish to some funny signs type is everywhere, couldn't resist... what did you expect photos of me eating ice-cream, honestly!

A mysterious benefactor...

So...someone very kindly and quietly has put Inkthread's details into the Briar Press Directory, and it wasn't us or anyone we know... And they did take their time and even put an image taken from the website. It was one of these tasks I never get round to doing although I had all the intention of and eventually would have got to it, or so I'd like to think, self promotion is still at the bottom of the list! The mystery is killing us, please mystery benefactor make yourself known... so I can say thank you properly!

On a different subject I came across the work of Curtis L Jinkins (via the Serif) and I love it specially his identity and branding work. Also quite funny that he's added a list of enemies at the bottom of his page, quite short mind you!

*all images from C L Jinkins website

PS. Some changes are appearing on the blog (as you can see) new website and shop are still not up, soon hopefully we'll let you know.

Out of Print

This month I have been briefly tutoring at Glasgow School of Art and wasn't it a nice coincidence that the exhibiton that was on (just by the Computer Studio where I was) was entitled Out of Print.

Unfortunately it's over now, sorry about the late post -and my photographs taken on my mobile phone don't do it any justice- but it was worth visiting, though I wished there had been more samples of work. Featured aboved are Edwin Pickstone's works in letterpress. I find them extremely beatiful; simple in appearance, black ink on small pieces of crisp white paper, and an accurate balanced use of space and printed type. On a completely different style was the work of Marc Baines (photos below) screenprinted poster size pieces vibrant with colour. The strength of the exhibition was probably the fact that each one of the exhibitors work in a completely different media and have very different styles, however I still felt I would have liked to see more from each one, but maybe that's just me being greedy!

Experimental Jetset

One of the good things that came out of going to see the Helvetica film was that it reminded me of dutch design studio Experimental Jetset. I had seen their work before but -like some many things you read in blogs- I had forgotten about them. They have designed a mesmarising piece, a vinyl record stlyle sleeve for the Blu-ray high definition disc of the Helvetica film (above) and I think it represents a lot of their work. Their work is beautifully typographic and clean and if you've never heard of them I'd go straight to their website...now.

*images above the text form the Helvetica website, images underneath from Experimental Jetset's website.

Some random things about Inkthread...

The horror, the horror! Emma from Showpony tagged me ages ago and I never replied... it would be rude not to answer, but I can't honestly think of seven pieces of information that anyone would find vaguely interesting so instead these are some random things that not everybody knows about Inkthread:

• Before Inkthread was called Inkthread... it was briefly called (only few hours) Calliper Press, mmm connotations of orthopedics made me change my mind.
• The Heidelberg Platen traveled all the way up from Leeds on the
  back of an open-back pick-up truck, originally covered with a tarpaulin but the wind almost blew it away, so it finished its trip completely uncovered... on arrival at Glasgow there was no human way to unload it so it had to spend the night in the open... needless to say it rained and snowed all night long, other than a bit of surface rust it moves as smooth as when it was made... German engineering!
• Music preferred while printing... classical I'm afraid, even if it sounds pedantic, preferably Bach. It helps concentration, I find.
• The cat Smudge was called Smudge long before he became a printer's cat... destiny perhaps?
• Inkthread advocates the prohibition of the use of Comic Sans, under no circumstances should this type be considered "appropriate". No apologies voluntary organisations and charity shops...

Since I've suffered a lot trying to think of fairly interesting things to say I'm not tagging anyone... no curse involved, I hope.

helvetica

At last the Helvetica film has made it to Glasgow... I missed the Edinburgh screenings so I thought I'd have to resolve to watch the DVD (I believe it's already out). But oh, lucky me, the nice people at the Six Cities have organised a screening tomorrow the 11th at the GFT, I think it's already all booked but they have a reserve list and you know what people are like, someone may never make it. I booked my seat as soon as I found out... I'm such a geek!

In the meantime you can have some fun helping Helvetica let Arial know who's boss in here.

yum, yum

yum... gotta get me some of these! Chocolate type by Typolade from Germany. I love the fact that they bothered making the spaces too!

*all images from typolade's website

work, work, work...

So... 2008 has definitely started on an up -workwise speaking- which is good; no complaints. This means, however, that finding time to finish the website-cum-shop is proving quite hard...we'll get there, eventually. It also means there's not much time left to check other people's websites, blogs or magazines so I haven't got exciting work to blog about! To all of you who keep reading this blog a big thank you for your patience, back to proper blogging soon!

PS. In the meantime if you haven't checked the Dailypoetics flickr set on business cards yet, go and have a look, it's well worth it. Kariann, if you're reading, I haven't forgotten I promised a business card, on its way soon!

Back to work!

I hope everybody had a good break and that 2008 has started full of energy and new plans. 2008 is bringing some changes for Inkthread too: design business continues as usual and expect the same type of posts from the blog (hopefully with more regularity!). The website however is under transformation, as soon as the new version is up I'll post about it so you can check it and give your opinions- contructive criticism only, pleeease! And it will also have a new section with a small shop. Although Inkthread is not a shop based business but a consultancy, the print studio generates such an immense amount of paper offcuts and other bits and pieces that it seems a shame not to do something productive with them!

Thanks for reading the Inkthread blog, and keep checking!