Research

Letterpress history.

The creation of letterpress printing, printing technique which has been in use in the West since the 15th Century, is believed to be the most important invention in history.

Johann Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany, craftsman and inventor, created letterpress printing around the year 1440 by inventing movable type and by combining it with existing technologies. This allowed him to compete with hand produced manuscripts, the only way of reproducing texts at the time. His method of printing from lead movable type, a novel letterpress, and oil based inks allowed for the first time the mass production of books.

About Guttenberg.

Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (1400 – February 3, 1468) was a German goldsmith and printer, who is credited with inventing movable type printing in Europe around 1439 and mechanical printing globally. His major work, the Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line bible, has been acclaimed for its high aesthetic and technical quality.

Some of the well acclaimed contributions to printing that are attributed to Gutenberg include the design of metal movable type, the invention of a process for making such type in quantity (mass production), the use of oil-based ink, and the use of a wooden printing press.

Gutenberg's method for making type is traditionally considered to have included a type metal alloy and a hand mould for casting type.

The “Gutenberg Bible”
It was in early 1455 that the print run of one of the most famous book, the “Gutenberg Bible”. It was one of first books printed by Guttenberg and his craftsmen. It took about one year to produce the approximate 180 letterpress printed copies; about the same amount of time it would have taken a scribe to complete one hand written manuscript of the same text.
How the book was printed... The PROCESS...

1. Using a Latin translation from about 380 AD the type was hand set; and the individual sheets were letterpressed in black ink.
2. Next, blue and red color initials and illuminations were hand drawn.
3. Finally, the individual leaves were folded, gathered and bound into volumes.

Today, Gutenberg’s first book, one of the finest of all the printed books, is considered to be the rarest and most valuable printed item in the world. It is thought that if a complete Gutenberg Bible became available today it would sell for as much as 100 million dollars. In 2000, in honor of his invention, Gutenberg was chosen by an international panel of scientists as the “most outstanding personality of the millennium”

Revival of letterpress printing.
Letterpress publishing has recently undergone a revival in the USA, Canada and the UK, under the general banner of the 'Small Press Movement'. Discarded by commercial print shops, affordable letterpress printing presses (in particular, Vandercook cylinder proof presses and Chandler & Price platen presses. In the UK there is particular affection for the Halifax built Arab) became available to artisans throughout the country. The movement has been helped by the emergence of a number of organizations that teach letterpress

The casual observer or recent aficionado of letterpress printing may be surprised to learn that there are numerous sources of printing type available even today. Although letterpress printing may seem like a relic of history, it has in reality never completely ceased to exist as a commercial enterprise. The scope of its use in commercial printing has, however, gradually decreased to the point that it is now appreciated more for the “press” than for the “letter”. For a very few, letterpress is still a worthy enterprise, and for these few, a supply of letterpress type continues to be necessary and valuable. Fulfilling this need is the work of a handful of active typefoundries around the world.

Letterpress versus Offset printing.
To bring out the best attributes of letterpress, printers need to understand the capabilities and advantages of what can be a very unforgiving medium. For instance, since most letterpress equipment prints only one color at a time (unlike presses for offset printing which often use four-color process printing), printing multiple colors can be challenging. The inking system on letterpress equipment is less precise than on offset presses, which can pose problems with some graphics: detailed, white (or "knocked out") areas, such as small, serif type, or very fine halftone, surrounded by fields of color, can fill in with ink and lose definition. However, a skilled printer can overcome most of these problems.

While less common in contemporary letterpress printing, it is possible to print halftoned photographs, via photopolymer plates, on letterpress equipment. However, letterpress printing's strengths are crisp lines, patterns and other graphics, and typography.

About Erik Spiekermann:
Erik Spiekermann, born 1947, studied History of Art and English in Berlin. He is information architect, type designer (FF Meta, ITC Officina, FF Info, FF Unit, LoType, Berliner Grotesk and many corporate typefaces) and author of books and articles on type and typography.

He was founder (1979) of MetaDesign, Germany's largest design firm with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco. Projects included corporate design program for Audi, Skoda, Volkswagen, Lexus, Heidelberg Printing and way-finding projects like Berlin Transit, Duesseldorf Airport and many others. In 1988 he started FontShop, a company for production and distribution of electronic fonts. He is board member of ATypI and the German Design Council and Past President of the ISTD, International Society of Typographic Designers, as well as the IIID. In 2001 he left MetaDesign and now runs SpiekermannPartners with offices in Berlin, London and San Francisco.

In 2001 he redesigned The Economist magazine in London. His book for Adobe Press,“Stop Stealing Sheep and findout how type works” has recently appeared in a second edition and a German and a Russian version. His corporate font family for Nokia was released in 2002. In 2003 he received the Gerrit Noordzij Award from the Royal Academy in Den Haag. His type system DB Type for Deutsche Bahn was awarded the Federal German Design Prize in gold for 2006. In May 2007 he was the first designer to be elected into the Hall of Fame by the European Design Awards for Communication Design.

Erik is Honorary Professor at the University of the Arts in Bremen and in 2006 received an honorary doctorship from Pasadena Art Center. He has just been elected an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the RSA in Britain.

Quotes by Erik Spiekermann

What is the one thing you think every student of typography should know?that you are designing not the black marks on the page, but the space in between.

In germany we have a saying: “there are many ways to bake a parrot.”

Stop stealing sheep and learn how type works

Erik Spiekermann's work:

documentation

TYPOGRAPHY (course facilitator: Julie Fairless)

That's the first course of second semester of Visual Communication Design i.e, VCD302. I think i very much needed a course on typography. Since i have got to do the course, I am going to make the best use of the opportunity and learn practically as much as I can.

The first day of the course...

January 14, 2008.

A new semester beings with new rules to be implemented in class—

THE RULES:

1. one reading and reflection on the same per day
2. be in at 9:30 or get marked absent.
3. keep a timeline record of what you do when.. daily.
4. compile the readings in the form of a book or any other way possible and hand it in on 7^th February 2008, 9:30 a.m

Aims and Objectives of the readings:

Broaden the understanding of typography and get acquainted to what has been written, done or practiced so far in the realm of typography, letterpress and design.

Timeline:

9:30 New Rules This Semester

9:45 Reading (Old style letterpress, time magazine.)

10:00 time to ponder upon the questions raised.

10:15 - 10:45 Class Discussion

10:45 - 3:30 Research on Letterpress, Typography

3:30 - 3:45 Discussing Line of inquiry—what interests us, what we think can we take forward.

3:45 - 4:10 Julie's Presentation.

____________________________________________________________________

January 15, 2008 (at home)

10:00- 12:30 Research on letterpress, typography, graphic design continues.

12:30- 1:45 reading and analyzing the quotes that I came across while doing the research.

1:45- 3:00 considering the layouts for the quotes keeping in mind the certain known constraints, without knowing about the constraints at VYKAT press.

A few quotes that I came across while I was doing the research..

"Typography is a beautiful group of letters and not just a group of beautiful letters"
- Steve Byers.

"what is typography?"
"A terminal condition suffered by letter"

Poor Design is making something worthless.
Good Design is making something intelligent and memorable.
Great Design is making something memorable and meaningful.
Exceptional Design is making something meaningful and worthwhile."
- Dieter Rams
(Source: the art of looking sideways)

"A designer has to have the hide of a rhinoceros, the neck of a girraffee, the memory of an elephant and the persistence of a woodpecker."
- Dieter Rams
(Source: the art of looking sideways)

"I'd sooner do the same on Monday or Wednesday as I do on Saturday or Sunday. I don't devide my life between labour and pleasure"
- Alan Fletcher, Graphic Designer and author of The art of looking sideways.

" You are designing on the black marks on paper, but the spaces in between."
- Erik Spiekermann.

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January 16, 2008

The day began with an interesting article on Gutenberg and movable type. This particular article seemed to have given me better understanding of hoe letterpress was first used (I could visualize it). Following the tea break we were given the vital time for research- finalizing the quote, and a concrete research on the person/ topic you’ve chosen. And then the visit to VYKAT press… that’s when I realized that most of my layouts will need to be reworked and rethought so as to fit the requirements of letterpress printing at VYKAT press. The following were the constraints:

• use of only black ink
• only one gsm paper for all(no varying thickness, textures and general quality of paper)
• typefaces available: probably these are the only fonts that we could use.

gill sans (pt 18 and pt24, normal and bold)

universe (pt18 and pt24, normal)

Times New Roman( pt12, and certain letter of pt 24)

Script (pt 12)

• printing time: 10:00a.m to 1:00 p.m

• not more than 10 prints per student.

• Experimentation with two layouts only.

• Cannot have layout that has text along any diagonal axis.

• Avoid using text along vertical axis.

Timeline:

9:30 - 9:45 Reading ( movable type and Gutenberg.)

10:05 -10:15 time to ponder upon some questions raised by Arjun

10:15 - 10:45 Class Discussion

10:45 - 12:30 Tea Break + Research time

12:30 - 4:15 Travel, Lunch and visit to VYKAT letterpress printing followed by a class discussion with Julie at CCD.

VYKAT prints PVT, LTD, Airport road, Bangalore.

letterpress machine at VYKAT press.


box containing all the glyphs.


the numbering machine used to number pages.



tpye set for letterpress printing.
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January 17, 2008

The day began with a reading that Upi and myself happen to selected. We selected the same one by chance n neither knew that we had the same article... Anyway... The article is about “design
educators are finding that the letterpress nurtures creativity and visual abstraction” Eye magazine

I could somehow relate this one to our batch since we all are quite glued to the comp almost all the time… and this particular article talks about how moving away from the comp can be of use.. And hence nurture creativity.

The Final Quote:

" You are designing on the black marks on paper, but the spaces in between."
- Erik Spiekermann.

I’m not too happy with my thumbnails.. plus Somesh ended up giving me an inferiority complex because of the way he “perfectly” did his thumbnails.. They were way better than what thumbnails are supposed to look. All of use ended up following Somesh and hence had kind of "perfect" thumbnails. I don’t think Julie expected it that way. She just wanted an idea of basic composition and the use of serifs or sans serif font. She was kind of awestruck to see the quality of thumbnails.

I know I can do a much better job than this.. guess it's just a matter of giving it a thought again and making my hands work without fear.

Timeline:

9:30– 9:55 Reading

9:55- 10:00 Time to ponder upon the questions raised.

10:00- 10:30 Class Discussion headed by Upasna and myself.

10:30- 10:45 tea break

10:45 -3:00 working on the layouts (thumbnails)

3:00 – 4:15 feedback session on the thumbnails.

____________________________________________________________________

January 20, 2008

1:30- 3:30 Finding more information on Erik Spiekermann and his work

4:30- 7:00 Finalizing the layouts for letterpress printing, keeping in mind the constraints.
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January 21, 2008

One more reading (Pallavi got it) from one of the books I like. Type matters from The Art of Looking Sideways by Alan Fletcher.

This was followed by handing in the new briefs… discussing it briefly.

Following this we had to collect one sample (as a group) of each of the eight principles of composition:

1. Visual Anchor
2. Figure and Ground
3. Hierarchy
4. symmetry
5. asymmetry
6. active
7. passive
8. grids and margin

In a group, we collected some samples from books that Julie had asked us to bring in and presented them to the class. A couple of us who forgot to get the book, rushed to the library devoid of typography books( because even the second year students had a course on typography going on, hence all typography books were issued.) and got back to class in 15 minutes. Roshan’s car did the magic of taking 7 of us to the old campus and dropping us back to the new campus in almost no time. Thanks Roshan.

The photocopier was out of order so we had to use my camera in a hurry... and some of the images were just badly shot! Sorry Julie, will definitely keep this in mind the next time we take pictures of images from any book.

Timeline:
9:30- 10:00 Reading
10:00- 10:30 Questions.
10:30- 11:00 Class discussion.
11:30- 12:15 collecting samples f the 8 principles of composition.
12:15- 1:00 presenting the samples to the class.
1:00- 4:30 Kayen printers with Pallavi and Arjun for looking at the production of Nokia book.
19:30- 21:00 research on the net and from books related to the 8 principles of composition.
22:30- 1:00 looking at visuals and identifying the 8 principles, thumbnails for next day.


Offset printing machine.

Hiedelberg's Letterpress machine used as foil stamping machine.



Sample of foil stamping.
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January 29, 2008.

Today, Prarthana, Aditi and I went for the letterpress printing. We got late by half an hour. We reached there at 10:30 instead of 10:00. It was a challenge for us to finish on time i.e. 1:00 p.m. that’s because all three of us were supposed to complete the printing in the given time. I chose two of the 5 layouts that I had prepared. I chose simple ones since the lady said that if we choose the complex ones, it will be difficult for all three of us to finish it.

Hands on Letterpresss...

A hand on letterpress was indeed a unique experience. It gave me a better understanding of kerning and leading as well as the letter forms itself. While setting up the type, the constraints did not become a hurdle.

The final letterpress prints came out pretty much up to my expectations. I liked the emboss effect it created.

One of the letterpressed prints.

But the day was pretty long and tiring. It was tough to come back and work on the book. I was almost zero on energy.

P.S. I have to upload many more pictures. but somehow the server did not allow me. It kept saying "bad error". So I shall upload the other remaining relevant images as ans when the server allows me to do so.