A Blog about Typography, Letterpress and Printing History | News from Typoretum

Upside Down, Left To Right: A letterpress film

Justin Knopp — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 20:14:26 +0000

A short film by Danny Cooke about letterpress and one of the few remaining movable-type printing workshops in the UK, situated at Plymouth University, featuring Paul Collier. plymouth.ac.uk

‘Ink & Paper’ documentary by Ben Proudfoot

Justin Knopp — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:21:46 +0000

A short documentary about the Aardvark Press, one of the last letterpress printers in Los Angeles and McManus & Morgan Paper, Los Angeles’ oldest artist paper distributor.

Typoretum featured on Spitalfield’s Life

Justin Knopp — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:47:37 +0000

We were recently commissioned by St Jude’s to illustrate an interview with the The Gentle Author of Spitalfields Life in the first issue of Random Spectacular, published this week in aid of Maggie’s Centres.

As a result of the commission, The Gentle Author visited our letterpress workshop and interviewed me for the Spitalfields Life journal – this interview can be read here.

We have printed a 150 copy edition of the print and copies can be purchased via our website here. A 20% donation is made to Maggie’s Centres for each print sold.

Justin Knopp printing ‘In the Midst of Life I Woke’ posters on his 1851 Albion press

Limited edition ‘In the Midst of Life I Woke’ letterpress poster by Typoretum.

‘Ampersands’ wood type print by New North Press

Justin Knopp — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:10:19 +0000

Our friends over at New North Press, Richard Ardagh and Graham Bignell, have created a new letterpress print from a range of wood type ampersands.

The damped paper was blind embossed revealing the shapes of the type blocks themselves, then it was flipped and printed with a clear varnish showing the mirror image of their printed form.

Set and printed by hand in an edition of 200. Available to buy online from New North Press.

The Ludlow Project – Saving Hot Metal Typecasting History

Justin Knopp — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:07:37 +0000

We’ve received an appeal from our friends at the International Printing Museum to help spread the word about The Ludlow Project, an effort to augment their collection of Ludlow matrices to be as complete as possible.

They have brought the campaign to Kickstarter, where there have been a significant number of successful letterpress-themed projects. You can view their video appeal, that supports their very worthy campaign, below.

Typecasting at The Whittington Press

Justin Knopp — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 16:05:55 +0000

I recently had the great pleasure to return to Whittington again to exhibit at the Whittington Press Open Day 2011 and was delighted to watch – through the fug of fumes from the Monotype casters – brand new type being cast by Neil Winter (ex-Libanus Press).

Since John Randle bought his first Monotype caster and keyboard at auction for The Whittington Press in 1981, their range of typefaces and Monotype equipment has increased considerably and they have recently started casting founts of type for sale.

Having acquired the entire library of Monotype diecases of the Oxford University Press in 1986 when the OUP closed its printing division, The Whittington Press had assembled one of the most comprehensive collections in existence. The casting operation was originally run by retired Monotype operator George Wiggall and is now run by Neil Winter, who is an experienced operator & engineer and looks after their three Composition Casters and two Supercasters.

Packets of semi-founders’ Caslon type cast at The Whittington Press

The Whittington Press has started casting some of their rarer founts for sale, starting with Caslon in 18-, 22-, and 24-point, roman, italic and small caps, with castings of Centaur, Bible Centaur and innumerable ornaments & fleurons are underway.

A fount of semi-founders’ Caslon type cast at The Whittington Press

Monotype diecases & layouts at The Whittington Press (image courtesy of Ian Knight/Printmonkey Press)

A Monotype Composition Caster at The Whittington Press (image courtesy of Ian Knight/Printmonkey Press)

Detail of a Monotype Composition Caster at The Whittington Press

1Q84 by Haruki Murakami – Limited Edition

Justin Knopp — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:31:49 +0000

After being sworn to secrecy over the past few months, we can finally reveal a rather special book project that we have been working on – a limited edition of Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84. We letterpress printed the covers onto Somerset Velvet Newsprint 280gsm card stock and the book edges were printed at our studio using an innovative technique that will be staying a closely guarded secret!

This signed and numbered edition of 1Q84 is limited to exactly 111 copies. The front and back covers are printed on Somerset, a 100 percent cotton archival paper, using a Swiss-made 1963 Gietz Art Platen hand-fed letterpress. This limited edition is a collaboration between Simon Rhodes, Kristen Harrison at The Curved House and designer Stefanie Posavec. Text design by Jim Smith. Covers printed by Justin Knopp at Typoretum. Text pages printed and bound by Graphicom, Verona. Published by Harvill Secker in 2011.

1Q84 Limited Edition – Books 1, 2 & 3

1Q84 Limited Edition – Signed back of Book 3

1Q84 Limited Edition – Book 3

1Q84 Limited Edition – Book 2 (detail)

More photographs of this project can be viewed on our Flickr Photostream.

Rural Landscape – Art Car Boot Fair

Justin Knopp — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:09:43 +0000

We are delighted to be exhibiting at the Rural Landscape – Art Car Boot Fair on Saturday 1 October 2011, 12-4pm at Roudham Farm, Roudham, Norfolk NR16 2RJ. We will be showing our letterpress work and our letterpress posters and greeting cards will be for sale. We hope to see you there!

The Occasional Print Club – 5th meeting

Justin Knopp — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:27:16 +0000

The fifth meeting of the Occasional Print Club took place in late July at The Whittington Press and this time the four existing members (Jonathan Kielty, Justin Knopp, Pat Randle and Ross Shaw) were joined by Swiss graphic designer & letterpress printmaker Dafi Kühne.

During the weekend meeting a 75 copy edition of a six colour letterpress poster was designed, typeset and printed. The poster measures 580 x 740mm and is printed onto handmade Hayle Mill Linen paper, very generously provided by John Randle, proprietor of the Whittington Press.

More photographs of the work-in-progress can be viewed on the Occasional Print Club’s Flickr site and a limited number of copies of the poster can be purchased here.

Letterpress ‘4+1=V’ poster by The Occasional Print Club

Dafi Kühne choosing woodletter letters for the poster

Ross Shaw taking printed posters from the Western proofing press

World’s Largest Printing Type?

Justin Knopp — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 15:41:45 +0000

Brooklyn-based typographer Nick Sherman has just created what he believes to be the world’s largest printing type. Standing at 576 lines pica (8 feet) tall, I’m inclined to agree! Nick designed, produced, and printed these wooden letters for the Wood Type Evolved exhibition at Columbia College Chicago.

More images showing the process employed to create this type can be viewed on Nick Sherman’s Flickr Photostream.