Handmade 2012

Wallpaper magazine has employed the services of various designers and illustrators to create a series of handmade covers for their August issue. With the involvement of artists and designers such as Alan Kitching, Anthony Burrill, Rob Ryan and APFEL the result is obviously quite impressive to say the least.

The 30 covers will be displayed  at London's KK Outlet from 5 to 25 July.

Personally, I felt I had to include this short but very moving film of Alan Kitching making his cover, but you can also check other artists at work here. 

*all images from wallpaper.com, artists featured in order are Anthony Burril, Tom Hingston, Alan Kitching, APFEL, Supermundane. Film by Jake & Josh featuring Alan Kitching.

Page 1: Great Expectations

Great Expectations has always been one of my favourite novels by Dickens, so I couldn't resist posting about this interesting experiment, even at the expense of posting about books again!

In the words of GraphicDesign&: 

"Page1: Great Expectations is an unusual typographic experiment designed to explore the relationship between graphic design, typography and the reading of a page. Crafted to engage the culturally curious, Page 1: Great Expectations collects the responses of 70 international graphic designers when posed with the same brief – to design and lay out the first page of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a text chosen in part because it directly references lettering as Pip searches for clues about his family from the letterforms inscribed on their tombstone."

Some of the contributors are APFEL, Experimental Jetset, Studio Frith, Spin and the extremely talented and skilled Phil Baines. 

And yes...it will soon be mine!

*all images by GraphicDesign& from their website

Turning over a new leaf...

The end to 2011 proved quite hectic and exciting with some new additions to the printing "family". After a long trip in a lorry and under considerably heavy rain, our "new" beautiful Arab Press arrived ready to get inky and press some paper.

It also saw some interesting work, I do not want to show off too much but I do get the best clients... you know who you are! And it seems that the start to 2012 is not going to be any different. I'm referring here to the level of busyness, as the nature of the work regards... well, let's say that it maybe slightly different. Being one that rarely says no to a challenge Inkthread Press has taken on a new adventure in the murky waters of publishing... the project is still taking shape so enough said for now.

I promise some photos soon but in the meantime I leave you with a bit of magic...




*images via Vimeo by Serviceplan for Austria Solar

So much to catch up with

That I hardly know where to start. Let's consider this post something of a three course meal:

Our starter, I think, should be enticing enough to open our appetite without spoiling it completely. So, how about a piece of delicious and dreamy work by Maria Fischer, in particular her book project Traumgedanken ("Thoughts on dreams"), a collection of literary and scientific texts on the subject of dreams. Connected networks of threads and words form vague and fragile patterns representing the elusive nature of dreams.

Then, for our main course the amazing 10 minute animation The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew Allen, an intriguing story as beautifully detailed as stylish. A feast of textures and vintage patterns that will delight the senses and while engaging the brain since it includes 16 hidden messages to help you solve the riddle, a challenge that cannot be refused!

And finally for dessert, some letterpress eye-candy from the expert hands of Studio on Fire designed by canadian collective Point Form. Printed to perfection on duplexed French Poptone Sweet tooth and Lemon Drop card, as tasty as it sounds. Yumm!

*image credits in order: Maria Fischer from her website, Andrew Allen via Vimeo and finally Studio on Fire from their blog.

Woodtype Now!

An interesting and inspiring research project by Dafi Kühne for his visual communications Bachelor, where he combines digital composing and production methods with traditional letterpress techniques. A very thorough piece of research with beautiful results, Dafi has experimented with a variety materials from cardboard to plexiglas, adhesive foil and thread on plates.

*all images by Dafi Kühne from his research catalogue (presented in website form).

time flies...

...whether you are having fun or not! wherever did January go? belated Happy New year all the same. Hope you all had a good holiday and a good start of the year. The holidays seem so far now but I have to share my little discovery while was away... I've fallen in love with this beauty

In fact you could say the love affair is with the whole shop but I'd be happy to start small. For those of you in Spain if you are in the South (Jerez) and need any items for your old typewriter or even an old typewriter this is the place to go -Arroyo in Calle Porvera. Sadly I came out only with a new ribbon for my Olivetti lettera 32.

On a different topic, a friend (thanks Nick!) pointed me in the direction of this intricate and delicate work by Japanese artist Yuken Teruya who makes beatiful cut-out shapes from anything he gets his hands on, pizza boxes, toilet rolls, paper bags. Here follows a sample for your enjoyment...

*top images by inkthread, bottom images by Yuken Teruya studio

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

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

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!

A break for Christmas

So... Christmas is almost here and the news blog is taking a well deserved break, back in January with some more news and some changes... intrigued? In the meantime an image (not very clear, I'm afraid, desperately in need of good lighting) of Inkthread's Christmas card and my best wishes to all of you on the other side of the screen!

Letterpress from Japan

At least I think it's from Japan ( please correct me if I'm wrong- anyone reading understands Japanese?). I regularly check Papier Labo's blog even though I don't understand a word, but the images are nice and they do letterpress - do I need any more reasons? There's a link to Sab Letterpress who have a very nice website with beautiful images of type (Japanese type?), I'm not sure how they are all related -again for obvious reasons since as I said I don't understand the text. I particularly like the images showing Japanese typography rather than the work in English (although it's also rather good!)

*top image a still from Sab Letterpress' website, second image from Papier Labo blog

It's been a mad couple of weeks here and I'm afraid the posting has suffered quite a bit of neglect. Things will get better from next week as normality kicks in again, more posts then. In the meantime some nice and intriguing images of work by Trip Print Press from Ontario, it's worth checking their flickr too.

*all images by Trip Print Press

Letterpress and maths

Browsing the internet in search of letterpress equipment (a completely unrelated search as it happens), I came across London Transfer Studio. All the images above are from their Letterpress & Maths project, they describe it as a self initiated project to learn the proccess of letterpress printing: "The cards are a representation of different measurements and rules related to letterpress printing and to typography in general"... very clever and equally beautiful.

*all images by Transfer Studio

Our latest

We thought we'd share with you an image of our latest job. It's been a pleasure designing and printing our friend Daniel's business cards... we wish him the best tomorrow in the opening of his Degree Show at RSAMD and a very exciting future as set designer. The show is sure to be quite interesting since it's been themed around Dadaism...