I learned all of what I know about letterpress and learned the craft in practice in Olympia, Washington, and when I moved back to Philly several years ago, it seemed there was very little letterpress activity here. Letterpress and small presses seemed to have had a greater resurgence on the west coast than in the east, but as there is more and more small press printing happening in New York and a little in Philly and other towns in the past five to ten years, I think it could be really helpful for people to have a regional resource on this topic. I definitely want to create a website that is useful to others, not just fulfilling the requirements of this course. One of my hesitancies about this topic is that the website I listed in my first posting, Briar Press, is such an amazing and popular and well-regarded site for letterpress printing that whatever I create needs to perhaps have a different angle so as to not end up as just a vastly inferior version of the same....
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Topic for Final Website
During our first class meeting last week for Internet Information Resource Design, after hearing about the final project of creating a website, I immediately thought that I would like to create a website on letterpress printing. I mentioned already letterpress printing as something I love, and it has been a hobby and area of study of mine in the past. I would really enjoy focusing my project on letterpress printing, and I also think there could be a real need for information on this type of printing and resources for letterpress on the east coast, and in Philadelphia in particular.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Did you notice this on their site?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.briarpress.org/museum
I think this is a great idea. I have some experience with using letter presses when I was studying art in college; it was a lot of fun and something I would be really interested to know more about. I agree that getting an angle on the issue would separate you from larger resources available on the internet. Perhaps centering it around a certain geographic area or group of people working in this field?
ReplyDeleteI have no experience with letter presses. When I clicked on the website it seemed to be designed for people who are already familiar with the subject. Maybe you could design a website that is directed to introducing people to letter presses. The advantages and disadvantages and why it means so much to you.
ReplyDeleteLetterpress here in Philly is surprisingly relevant. It is probably the number of art schools, but I know a lot of people interested in/doing letterpress. Finding an angle might not be as difficult as one might think if you focus on area artists (many of whom, I suspect, would appreciate the attention). A bit about the history of printing in the area might be interesting, after all Philly was the printing capital of the colonies and early nation.
ReplyDeleteThere is an amusing anecdote about how hard it is to describe the process in writing or speech, how one book spent dozen of pages trying to convey what could be shown to an apprentice in seconds. So the only warning I would have is to be ware of trying to teach letterpress techniques through a Web site.
This sounds like a great idea and it seems to be a topic that you know a great deal about. I'm reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography right now and he talks a lot about the early printing business in Philadelphia and how he created his own letter casts for printing. Definitely would be interested in reading about letter pressing in the Philadelphia area.
ReplyDeleteHave you thought about creating a site on salad spinners rather than letter presses?
ReplyDelete