This was the most exciting weekend yet in the development of Binary Press … for the first time, I got to use a Letterpress – I learned how to set type, I handled my Polymer Plates, and I saw what kind of impression they would make on the 220 lb Letra Bright White Paper. I saw how the Rubber ink would fill each indentation of the 1s and 0s, and how black black could be.
It was absolutely glorious.
PHOTO POLYMER PLATE . logos graphics
Friday afternoon was spent at Logos Graphics with Lars and John Sullivan. Using a Windmill press for the first time, I was amazed by how the machine actually worked. Arms and knobs controlled the impression of the plate, while Ink rollers spun, re-inking each other and the plates. A thin, spindly grabbing arm, took each piece of paper, and SWOOSH placed it to be pressed against the plate, and SWOOSH, brought it to the other side of the machine to dry.
It was mesmerizing. After the perfect impression, and ink density was found it was time to print my plates.It was so cool, so so so cool to see it all come together
WINDMILL LETTERPRESS
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the photo polymer plate inside the windmill.
impression left by the plate on the 220 lb letra paper.
The entirety of Saturday was spent at the San Francisco Center for the book, getting instruction from letterpress extraordinaire Mary Laird. Instead of using polymer plates, however, I learned the technique of setting type — individual letters, dingbats, and images carved into wood or cast in metal, and placed, spaced, and set in between two pieces of lead. Every font, every size font, and every size spacing had an appropriate place in the press, and if it wasn’t in it’s spot, the printing process was likely to go wrong.
Drawer of Woodtype at the SF Center for the Book.
Drawer of STYMIE 18 PT Metal Type at the SFCB.
We worked on a Vandercook press, which had a flat bed where we placed each of our designs, as opposed to the Windmill Press in which we placed the polymer plate vertically. It was fantastic to see the difference between printing with a polymer plate, and actual metal type.
SFCB’S VANDERCOOK PRESS
While the plate affords ten times the creative freedom, printing with type really does make one appreciate the art of typography, the hours that book printers take to produce limited editions on the letterpress, and just how much digital media has made the printing process easier and more accessible.
I thought about it – and it took me nine hours to print something on a letterpress, that would have taken me one hour to design and print using Illustrator and my printer, without having to travel 40 minutes both ways to do it. But that’s what makes letterpress printing so special. Indeed, all five senses are utilized in the printing studio. When using my computer and my printer, I use maybe two, at the most.
And now that my project is printed, it’s on to creating the mobiles from which my floating pieces of 0s and 1s will hang. Drawing inspiration from Alexander Calder, the said-inventor of the Mobile, I’ve been dreaming up just how these pieces of paper will float in the Cantor Museum.
And in one month, I hope to have a full set of ten mobiles, ready to be hung in the Cantor, before I head off to Oxford in the Fall.
