letterpress design
| January 30, 2008

I've always had a weakness for letterpress design, and in a way, it's different from enjoying other printing techniques. For example, the tactile quality of a good letterpress design has a different feel in the hand than holding an embossed dust jacket or a super-gloss fashion catalog. The indentations of type and/or image create a comfortable feeling, almost natural. It stands out and usually adds an elegance to the paper it's printed on. When used and done well, a good letterpress piece really does stand out from other print work.

The historical lineage of letterpress is a long one, dating back thousands of years. It is most well known in the modern age for Johann Gutenberg's moveable type.

This mini-documentary about Firefly Press in Somerville, Massachusetts goes through some of the process as filmmaker, Chuck Kraemer, narrates and asks some interesting and important questions at the end.

Link:  firefly letterpress

Tags:  letterpress, typography, video

Topic: Typography Design