Working with letterpress is not the same as working in CMYK or RGB. It calls for some backwards thinking.
¶ Tonight, July 30th, 2010 Keith (the Cranky Pressman) will be giving a presentation at PechaKucha Cleveland Volume 8. The title is Let Letterpress Be Letterpress - Tips on designing for the medium. In 20 slides and 20 seconds each he will try to give some useful information for designers creating work for this unique old medium. Alternatively he may just freeze up and babble some incoherent nonsense for 6.5 minutes. We will see, and hope anyone in the Cleveland area can make it out to what should be an interesting evening.
A sneak peak at some of the work included in the presentation after the jump.
Hand-set wood type poster by Mikey Burton.
Even though most design and artwork for letterpress production is created digitally, you still should consider the quirky imperfections of the relief printing process.
Some of the techniques that letterpress is well suited for include patterning and inkless blind impression as shown in the example above.
Decorative line illustration printed in 2-color letterpress on Lettra cotton paper stock.
Die-cutting, typography printed in 2-color with blind impression patterning give letterpress its unique tactile quality.
