Our director Paul Booth recounts his visit to Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop to revise his typesetting knowledge and learn some new techniques for the Press.
“Having a fair amount of experience with Typographic design in digital form, both in print and for the Web, the need to get into a traditional type studio had grown and swelled for some time. Whilst helping a student with a research project (on printmaker Alan Kitching) we came across Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop on the Creative Review website… I saw a price and dates, went home and booked my place.
The studio is situated in a yard in Kennington, a cobbled street tucked behind a full set of characteristic London houses. After (good) coffee and polite introductions we cracked on with day one; print the date and your own in some form using wooden type on the Vandercook press. Like a child in a sweetshop at Christmas I rifled through case after case of Mr Smith’s wooden acquisitions, looking for the something striking but simple. Outline, old, cracked and weathered type filled the cases which we selected carefully and carried to the Vandercook on galleys. Having drawn a grid on paper one student laid out their idea while the other began setting their type on the press, ‘sketching’ a composition on the bed, which Kelvin explained was a method used by Alan Kitching that he learned as his apprentice for four years.
Day one was extremely informative yet relaxed, we printed our work and then looked to combine our own ideas to form and unified piece. Homework was set to come up with a short statement which would provide content for a certificate of course completion which would incorporate both lead and wooden type.
We returned the following morning with a plan of action, learning the proper methods and terminology for setting type. Which as a ‘digital native’ in design terms made my previous knowledge and experience in working with type very real indeed. Leading by pulling it from the shelves and locking it into a forme (the name given to a chase when it is filled with type), counting the points and picas as carefully as you can before proofing the idea into something fully formed. First by manually inking the type on the bed, then later using the roller to produce a clean and even coating of ink. Two colours were decided on by the end of the day and the designs came together nicely. Both myself and the other student attending produced a set of beautiful prints. As an educator in graphic design and a long time appreciator of type design and layout it was impassioned and the most satisfying work I have done in a long time.
The whole two days has given a great deal of inspiration and information on working with type, along with the recent purchase of an Adana press and a few boxes of lead Type the work is underway to bring Typographic workshops to Badger Press. With a long term view of providing accredited courses (more on this soon) and amassing a type collection to bring Badger Press in line with other letterpress studios like Mr Smith’s. Plans were made for Kelvin to visit the press in the future and to offer advice on improving our resources in building up a facility for letterpress.”
If you are interesting in learning about traditional and/or digital typesetting, layout and even Typographic design please register your interest to paul@badgerpress.org
Tags: Alan Kitching, Directors, letterpress, Mr Smith's, Paul Booth, typesetting, typography
