The White City

March 4, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

It's no secret that I love Chicago. And one of the many events I love about it is the annual Printers Row Book Fair (sure, it's called the Lit Fest now, but that doesn't sound as nice, does it?). Last June, Jo and I found some real treasures, including these souvenir booklets for the Chicago World's Fair Columbian Exposition in 1893, with lovely hand drawn illustrations of the various buildings constructed for the Fair. These were printed in Germany and were clearly either based on preliminary drafts of what would be coined The White City or descriptions of the structures as some of the illustrations are not correct, nor is there mention of the Ferris Wheel, a new-to-the-world invention but relative latecomer to the Fair. The Field Museum also presented an exhibit of some of their treasures from the Fair and that was where I picked up the other book shown here, Spectacle in the White City.

These buildings were screaming out to be recreated in metal type form! It's rare that this is the case, but my biggest concern was finding a paper that would allow for the exploration of printing them in white ink and I did. More on that later.

The first step was to figure out the structure and scope of the print given the sheer size of the Fair. I set the parameters so that the print would be at home with our Urbs in Horto homage to Chicago's city seal. Then I grabbed a dark sheet of paper and sketched out the basic layout.

The hard part was determining what structures to include, but I think the final choices were wise ones. More on these choices in the photos to follow. Slowly and painfully, I pulled ornaments that might resemble elements of the buildings.

As the buildings started to take form, I moved on to the gardens and water features.

I read that Daniel Burnham kept a sign above his desk that said RUSH while laboring to make the Fair happen in a breathtakingly short period of time. I left out wood type to this effect to keep me on task. I also wanted to use the little 'kissing kids' ornament in the water area as it was used on the Urbs in Horto print and was also produced in Chicago at the time of the actual Fair.

Mr. Starshaped felt the Ferris Wheel lacked something so I had to think on it a bit more. Setting circular forms is hard enough.

The labels for the buildings were set in tiny 6 point Engravers Roman, a particularly old and beaten up version. They are set to resemble little ribbons with great end caps.

Here's the first final form! Looks great in photos, but print is another beast.

Details of the form follow here. The Administration building is one of the first you would have seen if you took the train to the Fair. I loved its stately manner and tried to work in little angel faces to represent the many symbolic sculptures that graced the façade.

Machinery was also an appealing building for its church-like steeples and large skylights. Plus... I like machinery.

Manufactures and Liberal Arts had to be included as the largest building of the Fair. The sheer size must have been a sight to behold. This building looks better in 2-color so there are more images to come.

The Palace of Fine Arts was a must, given that this is the only building that still stands today in the form of the Museum of Science and Industry (Have you been there? The U-505 tour is worth the price of admission alone).

The Transportation Building was designed by Adler and Sullivan and included an incredible 'golden door'. The challenge here was to find tiny ornaments that most represented the style of work for which Sullivan is known.

I added circles to the Ferris Wheel to represent individual carriages. The scale of this print prevented a more elaborate solution so let's just say there might be a bigger Ferris Wheel print to come in the future.

Last but not least, the title. I kept the format of the Urbs in Horto print, complete with 'pin' ornaments.

Before any ink touches the press I pull a series of carbon paper proofs for general placement and to get a quick glimpse of what I'm up against. Many small tweaks were made at this point.

Once I was happy with the overall look I set up the first color and pulled a full proof before breaking down the form for different colors. I marked up a few changes on this as you can see, as well as left a few notes for myself going into the next colors.

The forms are pretty, inked in white.

You can see here that much of the spacing is colored with Sharpie to indicate where I put it in place of the other ornaments I pulled out. This is what passes for color separations in old school letterpress.

The second color was a subtle hit of transparent white which has the look of a varnish on the paper. I wanted to use this to make the negative spaces of the buildings recede. Not an exciting form, but here you can see a few of the solutions to create solid areas of ink.

Kissing kids!

The water elements underwent the most drastic changes. I initially thought it would be set pretty solid between the buildings but then loosened it up over subsequent proofs and made it more organic. You can see the 'ghosts' of the buildings and gardens in this crazy form.

The final print! It measures 14x18" and is printed in 4 colors. It's a bit tough to photograph because of the subtle colors and texture of the paper. I worked with Neenah'sWrought Iron from their Environment line and it was the perfect paper; a dark enough gray to show white but light enough for darker colors, and it has little recycled inclusions that give it just a bit of the rough and tumble feel of Chicago itself. The final edition size is 125 prints.

Chicago will always be my first true love and its rich history, warts and all, will continue to provide ample resource material for print inspiration. The White City is officially the hardest print I have ever set and the lessons learned both about my typesetting ability and the history of the city will no doubt guide all future projects at Starshaped. Huge thanks to all of the fine folks that supported the midwestern gumption behind this project through kind words, sales and Chicago-style chop-bustin'. And much like the Fair itself, this is what the remains looked like:

The print is available for sale here while the edition lasts. This one won't be reprinted, folks.

I've Got A Little Poster Here

February 24, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

Dann and I have been friends for... two decades? So long I can't fully recall how we met. What I do remember are all of the shows we've been to over the years, the scheming about building prints shops, bands, record labels, you name it. The hours at Dons in Rogers Park and Trevi in Lincoln Park. And the thread that's pulled us through all of these years is a simple one: Sweet. Pop. Music. So when Dann came to me in December with the direction to 'make some cool posters', I gave it a shot. Hosting a residency at the Hideout, a veritable Chicago institution, meant a whole lot of type to go with a whole lot of music. The Cooper Black was calling out for a little action, so I set the themes for each night to proof and play with digitally.

After scanning them into a 'fake out' file, I could then figure out how all of the rest of the type would fall into place for the design I had in mind. This is the computer print next to the first printed proof; I can line up both together to check for spacing and alignment.

I wanted to create the effect of an old 45 label with shapes reverberating out of the center. I drew what these would look like on a transparency then used it to confirm the text would fall within the proper areas.

I set all of the type at once to make sure the placement was correct and then labeled what blocks would be what color (green and blue).

A brass circle for the center, coupled with a wood circle ornament from Moore Wood Type.

This is the full form, inked for the proof. It's a sexy amount of type!

I cut linoleum for the shapes and printed them last given the highly transparent ink. It's a very subtle split fountain that is yellow in the center and orange on the outsides.

Registration was tight!

Here's the final poster. The shows were intimate, entertaining and stacked with some of the best talents in Chicago. No doubt you'll witness another collaboration before long. Check Dann out here, or scroll down here to listen to his interview on WBEZ. Or damnit, just go see him play... you won't be disappointed.

Typeforce Class of 2015

February 17, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

If you work in design and typography in Chicago then chances are you're already familiar with Typeforce, the annual celebration of typographic work hosted by Firebelly Design.

I pitched the idea of taking old prints and cutting them up in a way that they could be reconfigured to resemble large scale versions of the metal printers' ornaments that we work with in the studio on a daily basis. Then a new kind of cityscape could emerge on a vastly different platform.

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After finding out the project was accepted, I started to cut down prints to piece them together and see if patterns would emerge. Indeed they did! Then I knew I could focus each 'building' around a specific color theme and that prints could be organized accordingly.

Printer's Devil Jo was very helpful creating patterns with the 'ornaments' and double checking we had as many as we needed.

I couldn't resist taking the cut up and taped together pieces and putting them into a type case. Here's most of our city along with a handy little paper cutter and the rough 1" scale schematic I put together for reference.

Once the pieces were cut, taped and trimmed the buildings practically assembled themselves.

A few days prior to the install I pinned everything in the hallway to see if there would be any pitfalls. Apart from minimal tweaking it worked fine and I got a greater sense of how the colors would play together.

Here's a snippet of some of the interesting patterns that emerged once everything was assembled.

Something needed to fill up the sky a bit, so a typographic wind blew into the studio. Type prints were cut up in thin strips to differentiate from the square format of the building ornaments and were then glued to a backing sheet.

Last but not least, a few trees and CTA train, without which Chicago would be incomplete.

We mounted the trees onto wood and trimmed the edges in paint. These cuties were laid out and ready to be mounted on the wall during the install.

The train rested on a magic track covered in Virgin Wood Type calendar font from the handful of leftover 2014 calendar sets we had laying around.

Our wall appears to float above the floor, as you can see, but that didn't stop the trees from looking right at home.

This is about the best shot I could get during the install, and as it turns out the best of the weekend as it was too crowded at the opening to get a better one. Off to the side you can see the table we used for people to be able to create their own cityscapes from our leftover scraps.

My install partner, Matt and I went for falafel wraps when we finished. Major score!

Opening night always features a treat of 3D typography in the windows.

This is me!

The evening started in a serene manner and the paper crafting definitely appealed to the younger set. As time wore on, the table became increasingly chaotic, with paper, glue and mixed drinks taking over as the adults rushed to get in on the action. Who knew little paper scraps could be so much fun?

Here are just a few of the projects that were left behind. Well done, type nerds!

Matt had to show everyone up with his minimalist approach.

So many talented faces in the crowd, including our own lady of Starshaped, Megan, alongside Matt. Also 'uncle' Brad Vetter and Adrienne Miller.

Three fine printmakers from NIU, including Danielle in the middle, former Starshaped lady and Typeforce artist.

Jeff took to the interactive wall, as did many.

My absolute favorite moment of the evening was watching Frances and Julie, two incredible type talents, lose their minds over An Alphabet of Sorts. So glad I had it on hand to show off to just the right people.

Did I mention it was crowded?

Poor Julie tried to take a nice picture and got the treatment from Adrienne.

There were many gems from the show and I attempted to get a few shots of them here. My sincere apologies for not having all of the images credited, but it was exceptionally difficult to read a lot of the labels and get decent pictures given the crowd and lighting. You can get a little more info at this site.

Danielle's work:

Yep. I've totally got this. If only I had gotten to eat one of these words before everyone else beat me to it.

You can get info about the closing reception on February 26th here. I hope you get a chance to check it out in person and to experience all of these clever explorations in typography.

An Alphabet in Print

February 3, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

If you've followed along with Starshaped's typographic adventures over the last six months, then you already know about An Alphabet of Sorts, my forthcoming book with Wells College Press. As of this weekend, the book is completely printed and is headed to Wells for binding! I thought I'd share some shots of the printing process and a sneak peek of both the cover and the interior pages. But first, a few images of some of the glorious type forms. The 'I' is one of my favorites as it includes some of the very first ornaments I acquired.

In this section of the 'N' you can see the beautiful, angled sorts, pieced together to create a diagonal shape. These were made in Chicago by Barnhart Bros. & Spindler.

I call this catchword the tattoo of the ampersand, as it sits right in the middle and is the only discernible word included in the alphabet.

This was the first galley of letters to go on press. The 'G' is locked and ready. I brushed many of them with a little oil and wiped them down well to remove old ink and any dirt that might affect the print quality.

The 'L' is the only themed letter in the set; it is entirely made up of ornaments from the Lanston Type Company.

First on deck were the end papers for the book. These reversed letters, along with patterned ornaments were printed with red ink on Red Tartan stock from Gruppo Cordenons.

I liked the idea of the mirrored type above, so it carries through to the covers as well. And it was fun to set 'SORTS' twice... right reading and wrong reading!

The covers are printed in red, gold and pewter. I couldn't be happier with how these turned out, even though it's tough to photograph this lovely red paper.

One of the treats in the book is the inclusion of two vellum pages with digitally printed images of the type forms. Here's a peek at the A that will sit right on top of the printed 'A' page.

My elaborate organizational system involved a piece of masking tape on the drying shelf. The book is made up of 4 signatures, each with 4 folded sheets. I labeled what was on each of the 4 and checked them when they were printed. I did not go in any order, but instead printed whatever letter was next to slide off the galleys.

Typesetting the intro note by Paul F. Gehl at The Newberry Library was a challenge; it's a lot of tiny 6 and 8 point type with 1 point of leading. Luckily, it printed well. It's an honor to have Paul as part of this project.

The last to print was the colophon, appropriately enough.

I assembled and trimmed one set of pages to confirm that all of the imposition was correct. Thankfully it was. 'F' starts the second signature.

I'm anxious to see all of the pieces come together in their final form. I'll be putting together another blog post about the binding when that starts, along with images of the completed book. The edition is already over half sold, so don't miss out!

A Wild Rose

February 2, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

Every so often we get to pour a lot of effort into creating a single, special print, and it's usually commissioned as a gift from one spouse to another. In November I was approached for a project like this, using a poem that was read at the couple's wedding. The wife wanted something blocky, bold and straightforward with a little bit of ornamentation and ample white space. This is the result of the collaboration: Here's a close up of the 12x18" print, done in 3 colors on soft white cotton paper. It's a nice mix of both metal and wood type that, while slightly beaten up and rustic, mostly keeps to a straightforward sans serif diet.

The is the type in the final lock up. We usually set up the entire print if possible then pull a proof. If everything is spaced accordingly and looks well together, then we can go in and separate individual colors and print just one at a time.

Some of the wood type for this piece is pretty rough, as noted in the uneven and speckled forms. The catchword 'THE' is new, however, and is one of Moore Wood Type's laser cut pieces.

The print features two-color ornaments from the Keystone Type Foundry known as 'wild rose' ornaments. It's not every day that named ornaments tie in directly to the words being printing, but they sure did here. These are beautiful in their detail and include two different sized sorts, making it easier to fit them into any line length. I'm certain this charming print was a touching Christmas gift.