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Posted by Jason Urban on September 23rd, 2009 | 
Jimmy Luu has been developing an interesting body of work called The Office of Printed Ephemera. The work consists of letterpress translations of various electronic communications. The tension between analog and digital is a favorite topic at Printeresting so we thought we’d share some images of his recent show at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX; the pictures don’t do the work justice but they should give you some sense of the project.
I had a few questions about the work and Luu was good enough to share his thoughts. I asked if there was a physical office and how quotes were chosen for printing. Here’s Luu’s response…
So, no there is no physical office. Unless that office is my studio. Which it could be. When I started the project, I was thinking of the word office in a couple different ways. Between being a fictional physical office in the way that most people would read it, and “office” in the other sense, to mean “function” or “authority” as well, so what purpose does printed ephemera have, and why am I choosing to immerse myself in it.
For the rest of Luu’s response, more pics of the show, and a full exhibition essay, follow the page break.
Posted by Jason Urban on May 26th, 2009 | (Via Chris Clark Via BoingBoing)
Over the last week or two, this little device from Cargo Collective has been busy making the rounds throughout the blogosphere. It’s too print-related for Printeresting not to follow suit with a quick post. It’s pretty self-explanatory so I’ll let the pictures do the talking.
 Ever the sucker for some good information graphics, I couldn’t not include a pic of the user’s manual. I may enjoy the instructional images as much as the object itself.
What’s next- kitchen-friendly Tetris-inspired multiples?
Posted by Jason Urban on May 17th, 2009 | 
Apparently, the surface of this piece of lead type is only 4mm x 4mm!? That’s one sixteenth of an inch! I don’t know why the text is right-reading but even just as a photo, this thing is pretty powerful. Apparently it is a souvenir from a visit to the Type Museum in Kennington. Read more at wemadethis.
Posted by amze on May 15th, 2009 | 
The image above comes to us from The Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum an amazing treasure trove of wooden type and letterpress goodies. If you have any intention of getting work done today – do not go to their site. The actual image is a print they recently pulled.. well, I’ll just let them tell it:
This is the first-ever printing of an 1893 plaque that Hamilton made for the Columbia Exposition in Chicago. It features 48 different wood fonts, measures 51″ x 22″ and boasts the smallest wood type ever made. The plaque is the only known copy that exists and needed to be printed without getting ink on it. After experimenting with various offsetting techniques we settled on shrinkable window film as a barrier and printed through it. It gives a bit of a ghostly effect but the posters are really handsome and we are able to preserve and share this treasure of typography.
 Here’s a picture of the plaque on the press bed. It’s a pretty great project. The museum is built in the old Hamilton type factory and is “a fully functional workshop and educational venue. In addition to its massive collection of 19th, 20th and soon-to-be-added 21st Century wood type, the museum also illustrates antique printing technologies including the production of hot metal type, hand operated printing presses, tools of the craft and rare type specimen catalogs”.
The next time I’m in Two Rivers, Wisconsin I know where I’m going for my printing fix.
One can’t look at one online type museum without sizing up the competition, in this case.. the great photo of the wooden type (above) was taken from the spash page of Unicorn Graphics online Wood Type Museum. The site has a great collection of type and a fairly user-friendly interface. And if you get bored you can click on over to their Museum of Creative Calendar Design. With such a love of type and design I may need to keep them in mind for my next odd mass-produced printing project.
I have to thank the modern type foundry Hoefler &Frere-Jones for these great links.
Posted by Jason Urban on December 1st, 2008 | UPDATE (12/3): Willis was kind enough to respond to a few questions. Follow the page break at the bottom of the post to read more.
Did I say “type”? I meant hype. I’m a little rusty on my Public Enemy lyrics but they’re coming back to me. During high school, “Nations” and “Fear” were in constant rotation in my walkman but I have to admit, it’s been a while since I dusted off those cassettes. That’s why I was so pleasantly surprised to learn about Austin-based designer Ryan Willis’ letterpress tribute to PE.
Public Enemy: The Trinity is a beautiful merging of (relatively) contemporary hip hop language with the aesthetic of handset type (that’s Adobe Jensen in case you’re wondering). I can’t think of a more deserving group to get this kind of “historic” treatment. I’ve requested some more info about the project and if I get it, I’ll update this post.
Continue reading Don’t Believe the Type
Posted by Jason Urban on November 28th, 2008 | For the type-setter with a sweet tooth… from Typolade in Germany.
Posted by amze on July 29th, 2008 | 
Helvetica is a documentary that came into limited theater release in 2007 and is now widely available for rental or purchase through all the usual channels. The films’ website does a better job than I could at unpacking the film:
Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which recently celebrated its 50th birthday) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.
Gary Hustwit, the films director, had me from the opening shots of a salty, swiss printer at work in his letterpress shop. While the film is well crafted, complete with funny font-in-use shots spliced throughout, what really held my interest was the passion expressed during the interviews of the various designers that their work was actually affecting the world; the stakes in their work came across in a way not often expressed or seen in the ‘fine art’ world.
Full Disclaimer, I would be remiss if I didn’t admit that the person I was watching Helvetica with did fall asleep. While not for everyone, anyone who hasn’t seen it but has an expressed interest in design, typography or visual culture I would highly recommend it.
Posted by RL Tillman on June 3rd, 2008 | Most artists who use text, even many printmakers who should probably know better, have little interest in typography. I’ve noticed that most people fail to notice that type has any form whatsoever, which is why I frequently must tell my students that this:
…bears no resemblance to this:
As an artist who uses text regularly but was never trained in typography, I’ve made efforts to bone up on the principles. I want to share a favorite resource, the Hoefler & Frere-Jones Type Foundry blog.
The site is well worth a visit. The blog is frequently updated with fascinating information about the history of typography, and insights into current typeface design.
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