On Friday, I was lucky enough to go to the St Brides conference titled "Letterpress: Something to Say"
This one-day conference set out
"to explore letterpress as a means for delivering real content, be that a set of sharply thought-through design intentions; a re-imagining of the possibilities of the inky process itself; an analogue springboard to new digital visuals and environments; or a reconnection with the power of a simple press to communicate ideas. To step beyond the production of work to be merely admired and consumed, and to reclaim letterpress as a viable means of distributing a message; to tell stories; to galvanize our communities; to allow practice to resonate beyond the frames of our living room walls"
Speakers included Thomas Gravemaker, Ian Gabb, Jono Lewarne & Charlotte Hetherington, L’automatica (Barcelona), Anthony Burrill, Dylan Kendle (Tomato) and Gee Vaucher plus a presentation on the 6x6 project which is a collaboration between staff and students from six colleges with active letterpress workshops (CSM, Brighton, Camberwell, Lincoln, LCC, and Glasgow)
Ian Gabb from the RCA (above) delivering his excellently "shambolic" talk (...his words, not mine!)
Workshop demonstrations were held throughout the day. Richard Lawrence was working on a very interesting linocutting project that he took the time to explain to me.
Helen Ingham from Hi-Artz Press
www.hi-artz.co.uk was also in the workshop giving demonstrations and working on projects.
Below is my modest little table of printed examples that I took along to show our papers in action:
...and who should have the table next to me, but my industry colleagues from that other well known, Hull based, paper merchant! Mark and Vanessa were good company and we enjoyed the day together.
As we were in a side room, this is the sign I wrote (...exhibiting no bias at all!)
It was an excellent day and most important of all, it was a sell out. This is the third one day conference that they have run, so the lesson here is book early, to avoid disappointment. Congratulations to the organisers, Catherine Dixon and Rose Gridneff and thanks to them for inviting me along.
http://www.stbride.org/
http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/something-to-say
http://letterpressworkshop.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 13.11.2012
In 2008, Peter Saville was reported as saying that Record sleeve art, as a medium was dead. Maybe so in mainstream culture, but there are pockets of people in the creative arts who are still innovating and designing for the record sleeve. This is the sleeve for a 10 inch EP (45rpm) titled Watchtower Blues by The Shooting Stars, a new band described as a western 'n' rockin!
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