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!

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!

In the spirit of the season

In case the Christmas madness hasn't got to you yet here's one I made earlier... not really, I haven't made one yet but I might, when I get a spare moment. Playing with paper is always gratifying, find the instructions here. (via Core77 Christmas list)
And if you are already planning the year ahead you may be interested in a calendar, I quite like the one by Pentagram, this year it's designed by Kit Hinrichs with twelve different beautiful types. Or this diary-sketch book by Typotheque, nice.

All I want for Christmas is...

It's only mid-november, I know, but the Christmas shopping madness seems to have started a while ago and I thought it would it be a good idea to join in... from the safe distance of my screen! So, this is my wish list, for the time being...

No1. Gateshead Get Carter Car Park print by We Live Here , litho printed.

No2. 3D letters in recycled card by REfound Objects, one letter would do, really.

No3. This colouring book from People will always need plates, and maybe one of their mugs too...is that too greedy?
No4. Anything from Blanka... no need to explain, I think.No5. These plates by Le Petit Atelier de Paris

No6. This poster by Transfer Studio, it can be bought via Beyond the Valley

This list seems to be getting longer and longer, and I'm sure I can think of a lot more to add! I may publish a second part, it may give some people ideas, you never know!

*all images by their correspondent authors as they appear on the linked websites.

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

Oldies Goldies

So, I've found this really interesting and useful book"The Penrose Annual 1958". It's a review of the graphic arts at the time, with multiple articles on typography, printing techniques and the use of graphics in advertising; to illustrate the articles it also includes printed samples. Most of the samples are just photos but some of them, oh beauty, are the original pieces specifying the type of paper and impression used (including newspaper samples), what a jewell! The book itself is a very good binding job, with nice finishing touches, it made my day.

Alex Noriega

I haven't posted about illustrators for a while and I've been meaning to mention Alex Noriega for a long time now. His work is always colourful but subtle and rich in detail, with a child-like quality that reminds me of fairytales. He ran a contest via his blog where you could win one of his prints, if you (like me) missed it do not despair! some of his work is for sale through his website.

*all images by Alex Noriega

On a different note: I have added a flickr account to the blog where I'll be uploading bits and pieces that are not really worth mentioning but that maybe nice to look at... unfinished printouts, letterpress tests, rejected proposals...