If Rosie Can Do It

I am often asked how we maintain our presses in the studio and folks always find it surprising when I answer that we do it ourselves. The truth is, armed with a manual or two and a few connections with experienced printers, keeping our presses in working order is pretty simple. They need oil, and plenty of it, along with a little cleaning and visually checking that screws and bolts aren't working themselves loose. Both of our platen presses are motorized, with the motors running directly off the flywheel. I'm not a big fan of belts (even after successfully replacing a disintegrating one on our Vandercook press), so this setup is ideal. Both of our motors are made-in-Chicago Kimball motors that are period to the presses, and have had a pretty good run of 10+ years in our shop with little complaint. That changed this past Fall when the 10x15 C+P press motor decided to act up. After a little cleaning and investigating, it was apparent that a few parts were worn to what is probably a not fixable degree. Because this press is our workhorse, we took the motor from the 8x12 C+P and put it on the 10x15 for a temporary fix while searching out a replacement. In the meantime, I purchased a treadle for this press as it seemed like a good idea to have a manual backup. Think vintage, foot-powered sewing machine.

Well, I suppose the treadle came in perfect time, as the 'new' motor on the 10x15 died last Saturday. This was most likely due to old wiring with poor connections. This was the throw-the-hands-up-in-the-air moment of realizing both motors are long overdue for an overhaul. I ripped the treadle out of its crate and got it on the press. First, the unused motor mount had to come off because it's attached to the same hinge that is needed for the treadle mount:

Here's the front of the treadle that sees all the action.

Bad!

I lowered the pulley away from the flywheel so it doesn't needlessly drag on the flywheel now that it's operated by foot:

And here's the happy setup. I printed over 2400 calendar pages by foot (more on those later), which was not unlike spending about 4 hours on an elliptical, only with one foot at a time. This was followed by 200o 4-run gift certificates. Happily, next week is a Vandercook week so I've got a little break coming up. The interns will be getting the workout!

The beauty of working in Chicago, the city that works, is that there are motor shops in nearly every neighborhood. We'll be taking both of the motors in to see if they can get us up and running again at full speed soon.

Metal Typography in Context

I recently acquired a copy of the new textbook, Graphic Design in Context: Typography, as a photo of one of our type forms appears in the book.

This was a piece I put together 2 years ago to showcase many of the victorian typefaces in the studio for the purpose of photographing them. Forms are so lovely and architectural, and we've endeavored to include process shots on our site, the flickr letterpress forme group as well as this blog to share. Here's the full photo:

And after taking the care to build this, I decided to print a number of copies of it so the actual type could be seen as it was originally intended. It's available on our etsy site.

Just this week I assembled a similarly complex form with more of our 19th century type for a birthday card, which you can see here. The best bit is the little pin set in the corner that requires careful setting in order to line it up correctly.

There'll be more on this card coming soon... In the meantime, if you have any interest in the study of type, check out Typography. It's thoughtfully laid out, very concise and offers a unique perspective on how type functions in the real world. I can't put it down.

CPG is A-OK

About four years ago, our fellow printmaking friend, Nadine (now of Sonnenzimmer fame) suggested that Chicago area printmakers pull together and create an organization that would help to define, promote, support and educate the printmaking community of the city we all call home. This turned into the Chicago Printers Guild and has been gaining momentum ever since, through monthly meetings, field trips, outreach and print shows. Each month a different studio in the city hosts a meeting, where as many printers as possible gather together to discuss issues that surround the field and then enjoy a demo from the hosting studio. Beer and cookies abound. In February, Starshaped was up! Because the group is largely made up of screenprinters creating large works of art, I decided to set up our tiniest Press Bike press with the tiniest type in the studio, which happens to be 4-point type on a 6-point body. Here's the little Sigwalt in action. And yes, that had been a plate of peanut butter cookies.

This is Rebecca from Rar Rar Press, one of the few studios (alongside us, of course), that prints entirely with antique type. So this is a lady who knows what's she's doing here.

The little Sigwalt isn't the finest press we've got, so there's something left to be desired in the print quality. But you get the point.

Here's the form for the tiny print alongside a pica ruler. This is approximately 1.5" in length.

And here are a few of the stars of the printmaking galaxy, including the 'dorky hat club' members Andy Schwegler from Letterform, Dan Grzeca from Ground Up, and Nick Butcher from Sonnenzimmer.

More fabulousness in the form of Megan Sterling, a former Starshaped alum, alongside Julie Morelli of Letterform and Nourishing Notes (seriously multitasking lady). Following is ass-kickin' Sonnenzimmer Nadine Nakanishi.

Here's our own lovely Janice!

Tiny future printmaker and CPG member. Already churning out some great ideas.

And here's me and Julie again! A while back we were thrilled to have Julie print with us at Starshaped, until she acquired her own press.

If you're curious about printmaking in Chicago, please check out the CPG! New members are always welcome and we've got some great projects up all of our inky sleeves...

City in a Garden... and in How Magazine

I'm pleased to share that our poster, Urbs in Horto, was just selected as one of the Outstanding winners in How's International Design Awards issue, which is out now.

Last February, I built the form for this poster and printed it over the course of 4 days, to be included in the city's show, The Flag and Seal Revisited, which featured different takes on Chicago's flag and seal by local artists and printmakers.

When starting the print, I wasn't sure if it would be successful or not, as I explored the idea of building a city of ornaments (which we do a lot in the studio) in multiple colors and in a circular shape. The type was set solid, meaning there was very little spacing in it, making it that much harder to take out the individual colors while maintaining the overall integrity of the print. Here's the initial shot of pulling ornaments and designing it before moving to press; I can't help but liken it to building the Death Star:

Here are a few other close ups of some of the colors once I moved the form to press:

And here is the final print. I wanted it to have a specimen-like feel, and labeled the bottom accordingly with mini pins.

The print plays off of the idea of City in a Garden, the Latin motto of the city. There are flower and plant ornaments cropping up between all of the buildings represented, as well as little 'trees' that follow the line of the water meant to represent Lake Michigan. Many popular features of the city are included, like the Sears Tower, Buckingham Fountain and Harold Washington Library.

The other side of the print ends in the more stereotypical bungalows that make up many of the city's neighborhoods. And would it have been complete without a cow?

The 'kissing kids' in the lake is a small cut originally produced by Chicago's own Barnhart Bros. & Spindler type foundry.

The print (which sold out quickly) was a crowning achievement in my typesetting career, and I'm glad it turned out to be successful on many levels. We'll be celebrating at the lovely Atwood Cafe in the historic Reliance Building downtown.

And as if the recognition of this piece wasn't enough, How also selected one of our invitations to be included in the Merit category:

Also a city, but this time San Francisco. Apart from the difficulty of setting the Golden Gate Bridge with curved rules, the other fantastic and challenging aspect of this project was setting it in both english and french, which required the use of accents and a little 'type surgery'. Here are a few close ups:

Notice here the addition of accents, and the trimmed Copperplate E's (to make room for the accents).

Why does it look like this picture was taken late at night? Because it was... it took about 4 hours just to get it to stay together and straight given the bent rule, let alone getting it on press. Is it worth it to spend this amount of time typesetting? Yes, given that the mission of Starshaped is to preserve the typesetting techniques of the past and make them relevant to commercial work today.

Anatomy of a Move

This past weekend I traveled up to the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum (again) to help with one of their volunteer move events. As you may know, they need to move from their current location (the original home of Hamilton) to a new space in Two Rivers by April first. If you've ever moved any printing equipment and/or type, then you know what a monumental task this is on a small scale let alone 30,000 square feet of printing history. Jim and Stephanie, the museum directors, have put a great and organized system together for labeling each piece for the move, and an impressive amount of packing has already taken place. I got a chance to walk around and get a few great shots of the current state of progress. If you've been to the public area of the museum, this will look familiar. The system for packing involves shrink wrapping pallets in colors coordinating with where the pieces are at the current location. Many of the displays have been removed and are awaiting pallets.

Not only do you get to see the organization of these final staging areas (this is just one), but the sheer scale of the building itself.

Some very large wood type ready to go.

Pallets full of half rounds that could be (and hopefully will?) be used to create new wood type.

My job involved packing up the bits and pieces for printing (leads, reglets, furniture, etc.), as well as organizing the type cases in preparation for packing on the second floor of the building. This was a delightful job as I got to use years of experience with moving type as well as peek at many fabulous (and fabulously dirty) wood typefaces, some of which are here:

Found this type set in its case like this. And yes, I was.

This ampersand is approx. 5" tall.

There is also a fair bit of metal type at the museum, and this was a treat to find. It's 48 pt. Spread, a typeface we have at Starshaped in a tiny 8 pt version. Just lovely.

The back of one empty type case. We have some similar styles of written labels in the studio, though ours are from Chicago.

Our first load of wood type on a pallet, ready for labeling, shrink wrapping and banding. There is a sheet of bubble wrap and cardboard in between each case for extra protection.

We may not be up again until after the move and hope that all continues to go well. Money still needs to be raised and you can still help. And the always lovely Mari will gladly ship orders of some of the awesome prints and souvenirs you can find in their shop. Let's hope our next post about Hamilton involves a happy new homecoming and opening celebration!