Outcome Study Task 8

After looking at all the feedback and different designs I had done I decided I would letterpress my favourite quote. On the right you can see where I have tested out 4 different types. After looking at them all closely I decided I would pick the top font as it was the one that represented what I wanted to do the best. I then moved on to put all the letters in the correct way and line the up all perfectly. I actually found this task a lot harder than I thought it would be due to the fact I had never done it before. However saying this it did not stop me because when I did the first press of the practice types I found it very satisfying. This made me think of Pepin Zurburg when he said, ‘the computer does nothing for you, it only makes things a lot easier’. Because as I experienced it first hand it made sense, I could recreate what I did by hand but on the computer and it just took less time but was more rewarding.

The thing I found most difficult was  making sure that everything was lined up correctly with the correct spacing and making sure the letters didn't fall out - to do this there had to be the right amount of pressure being put in the correct spaces.

As you can see I tried pressing it many times, quite a few times it did not come out properly but I managed to get there in the end. Despite the process taking a lot more time than a computer I am still heavily interested in using it and wanting to make more things by hand, which related to something Odling-Smee said;  ‘Despite being slow, labour-intensive and costly in comparison to modern printing methods, and increasing number of designers (and often their clients) want to use it. ’ .

In reference to the brief I believe that i have taken a step in the right direction, it is going to take a while for some people out there to appreciate the handmade print methods but this is somewhere to start. I have also shown that it can be used in some like an exhibition which is where my series of hand made printed posters could go. ‘Some are using letterpress and silkscreen technologies to produce small-batch or one off products’ (Meyers, 2009) I believe that I have made an example of what Meyers is talking about.