Maybe You're Right But This Is My Song

October 8, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

"No, no, no, no. If the book is made up of ornamental patterns then no pattern paper made by someone else will fit."
"Well what do you suggest then? Printing your own end papers?"
"I guess so. Yes."

This snippet of conversation between Richard Kegler (RK) and myself during the early development of An Alphabet of Sorts is representative of many of our collaborations; a lack of satisfying answers until one that involves a lot more work presents itself. And that 'lot more work' is what pushes our projects to be stronger than we ever thought they might be. This post, told through a few recent projects, is the anatomy of an ongoing professional partnership that has always been greater than the sum of its parts.

VERSE

During my residency at Wells Book Arts Center in March, I stewed on an appropriate gift for RK to thank him for securing the position as well as suggesting the creation of An Alphabet of Sorts. When he showed me his library at the Center and mentioned needing a way to differentiate his books from those of Wells I knew immediately that bookplates were in order.

The bookplates I designed were a stew of all the things that came to my mind when thinking about him and what he was passionate about and involved in at various points in life. I created an image of books on a shelf, alongside records in the middle (including the lone 10" that got away, RK). The type is German and includes initials in Alpha-Blox. Rather prophetic.

The form for these was particularly pleasing, with so many tiny pieces all coming together. I pulled a carbon paper proof to check the result and was relieved that they looked like books, especially the angled one. It was time to separate the different colors and mark them in a way to keep every piece of spacing in place.

I started with gray because it was the key color. You can see where marker delineates which spaces are placeholders for the other colors.
It was right about here when RK started texting me how badly he needed bookplates. Unbelievable. I bit my lip and kept printing, all the while being bombarded with images of "stuff I really like... y'know, for inspiration."
I replied, "You're breaking my heart. Can you wait on this until Friday, please?" thinking that would give him a hint. It didn't. He sent more.

Gold followed the red. The tiny star in the middle represents the gold star on the spine of An Alphabet of Sorts. I wasn't about to leave that volume off the shelf.

I loved the little detritus left behind when I started to put it all away because it's a fine example of how not to set something unless you're doing exactly what I did; moving minuscule sorts for multiple colors.

This is a rough shot of all stages of the printing, from the first single-color proof to the end result.

I was quite taken with these until I remembered I was no Rogers or Dwiggins or Preissig, or ANY of the imagery RK had sent during the process. But I mailed them anyway.
I have been asked to occasionally run something through what I've coined 'the RK translator,' meaning his expressions can be difficult to read, especially from a distance. I have discovered that 'nice' means 'that's really f-ing amazing and I'm jealous' and that '!!!!' is the highest praise one can receive.
So when I got this anomaly a few days later, I kept it:

Sorry, RK, but there are actual, complete sentences here and it needed to be documented. I nailed it; a challenging project we were both happy with.

CHORUS

There's no doubt, no doubt, that RK and I butt heads on many things. Anyone privy to our phone conversations will likely overhear one of the following statements:

"You never listen. You're a horrible communicator."
"Don't be so taunting."
"Get off the spectrum and put yourself in my shoes!"
"You're really reading too much into this."

Tension, anyone? But the arguing brings breakthroughs that are the seed of the Next Big Thing. I may be angry, but it channels into pushing my design work beyond myself, all while knowing, feeling I have the full confidence of someone whose respect for me means something.

One thing we almost always see eye to eye on is music. With our record store pedigrees and heavily used Spotify accounts, countless playlists have furiously flown between us as our tastes mirror each others. Kiwi bands: Go! Top Ten Wedding Present songs: Go! Cover songs: Go! I made the 4AD list, he followed with Factory Records. We tackled Creation together, all the while avoiding Oasis. It is truly a level of geekiness of which I have no shame.
There are no ground rules but we each have our limits. My 'No No' list: Pink Floyd, Johnny Cash, Nick Cave. His: Morrissey, Death Cab for Cutie, Sleater Kinney. Fair enough.
My favorite playlists are coined One Degree. With these, one person adds one song to the list and the other follows it with something that is one degree of separation away by song title, band name, band members, record label, country of origin, producer, etc. Most of these run about 3 hours long.
One evening Mr. Starshaped came into the office and saw me belaboring a song choice. When asked, I explained how the One Degree lists worked.
"Well, he started it with The English Beat so I followed with Beat Happening. Luna did a cover of 'Indian Summer' so he added 'Ride Into the Sun' which Luna also covered. So I followed with an actual Luna song which he then chased with Wire's 'Outdoor Miner', another song Luna covered. So I followed with a Felt song because, duh, Felt and Wire!..."
And this is when Mr. Starshaped exited stage right, trailing, 'I'm glad you have a work husband to share this with...' and hence that terminology was born.
Side note: I have a second 'work husband' but he surely deserves his own post someday, no?

Sometimes records arrive in the mail at the perfect moments. After lamenting that a beloved De La Soul CD didn't make it out of our old car when trading it in, it showed up just in time to print the aforementioned end papers for the book.

The Bill Drummond record was sent to remind me of the time I couldn't quite place it when he played 'you have 20 guesses to figure this one out.' The Bedhead when I was having a particularly bad day, depressed and struggling with the Magic Hour print. I texted:
"Bedhead live in Chicago record store day only release. Lame. Can you find me one?"
"Of course."
Three days later it showed up with the silly secret admirer note.
And the most recent addition, my holy grail, Velocity Girl's cover of Seven Seas. Note packaging that arrived to Jennifer Gedge, a nod to my crush on David Gedge of The Wedding Present. Aren't you funny, RK.
Lest it seem one sided, I have been hunting for two LPs I want to send and can't find them. I prefer perusing stores to ebay so it's going to take a while. But I have been known to put a little heart into custom notes for special occasions, like his solo show at WNYBAC.

Music softens the proverbial blows we repeatedly throw at each other and I am grateful for it.

VERSE

"How many bookplates did you send, out of curiosity?"
"I don't know... about 400?"
"Do you know how many books I have?"

Do you see what he did there? I certainly did.

Sigh. "What do you want this time?"
"I need really tiny ones for my small artist books."
"Okay. What should these ones look like?"
Enter the best art direction I have EVER received:

And I did know exactly what to do, right after I joked about the book I was writing, with Replacements reference, 'Unsatisfied: 25 years of bookplates for Kegler.'
First, a Wedding Present nod as mentioned. This is one of our favorite bands, hands down, and the 'Too Much Apple Pie' line comes from the song Kennedy. I wanted to add it in a way that would be obscured but there. The inner circle would print to help ground what I planned next, but the outer would not. The type is 6 pt. Remember his size requirements? I used an etching needle to shove those tiny brasses in place.

I set and proofed the three main elements so that I could scan and digitally manipulate them to find the best angles. I also gave him options on the tiny inner ornaments.

'Dense' and 'dynamic' weren't going to happen in 2-3 color. To create a time warp it needed to be layered and a little nuts. This coil was printed in four different directions, with each ink being slightly tinted with CMYK, as per RK's request.

Here are the 6 (yes, 6) color separations.

While finishing up, the deluxe 10" set of The Wedding Present's Bizarro album showed up in the mail. Perfect.

BRIDGE

While teaching again at Wells this summer, RK showed me his plans to create an Alpha-Blox style modular type system and I said "I want in. What can I do?" without having any idea of where I'd fit beyond getting to play with the end result. Two months later, a $20k+ kickstarter and plastic injection molds being made as I type, I'm in deep.

I am crazy proud of my work on P22 Blox. With shockingly few moments of wanting to poke out my eyes (or his), I have never been involved in such a successful and equal collaboration. RK had the pieces modeled and drafted and found the injection mold company. I brought in an engineer for second opinions and drawings. He quoted and budgeted the pieces while I quoted and budgeted the prints, packaging and shipping. He threw up all of his thoughts and research into the kickstarter site and I cleaned it up and rounded out the story. He made a clever video while I printed cards and built P22 Analog. He oversaw the start of production while I designed the key chart for the digital release of the typeface.
Our enthusiasm is matched by that of the print community and the support we've received is borderline overwhelming. I like to think my ability to edit and focus and appeal to the right crowd was the perfect complement to the respect RK receives for being a hard worker who delivers (with charm!) on promises of typographic greatness.

CODA

The lack of tension directly related to Blox almost makes me worry something isn't quite right, but we've managed to annoy each other in different ways throughout, so I think it's on the level. It's very possible our friendship will come to blows and explode in our faces (you heard it here first, folks!), in which case I hope we have enough of an understanding of what was to send it off with a proper requiem drink and of course, a playlist centered around the theme of Death.
But we must be gluttons as the next project has already happened! Here's a peek:

I've roped in RK for my Next Big Thing that will be announced in November; I'm excited about this one and wouldn't have had the presence of mind to present it to the public without his guidance and enthusiasm, which I am reluctant to admit but it's the truth.

This in a recent email: "Collaborating has been good for us. Better things yet to come."
If this is true, and collaboration continues, then my best work hasn't even been imagined yet. And that's the challenge that gets me into the studio everyday, as well as the prospect of seeing '!!!!' when I shoot off an idea.
Thanks for keeping the faith, RK.

Disclaimer: If your fact checkers confirm with RK that all of the above is a fabrication, please refer to title of post, courtesy of Lush.

The Well-Traveled Ampersand

September 7, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

Who doesn't love a great ampersand, that 27th letter of the alphabet, in all of its varied and interesting forms? The Starshaped collection of metal and wood type includes hundreds of examples of how fantastic this form can be in print. Ampersand imagery is one of the biggest sellers in the studio and I wanted to go big to create larger versions from the metal ornament collection. Instead of being locked into the rigidity of a standard letterpress form, I could create wood furniture (the pieces used to hold a form together) that was based on existing ampersands. This would allow me to be true to a pre-existing design.

And because that one concept wasn't enough, I started thinking about how the ampersands could tie into a geographical region or city and somehow represent that location. And thus, this was born:

Before solidifying my idea for The Well-Traveled Ampersand, I built the structure for the first in the series, Frederic Goudy's Californian, a typeface he designed for the University at Berkeley. I timed this to coordinate with our trip to the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco so I could gauge the response.

Filling in a frame isn't as challenging as some of the other work in the studio. However, building in a mini set of row houses and hill-climbing trolley was a lesson in holding things in place while squeezing in spacing. This ampersand was ideally suited for the hills of San Francisco for this reason and the result was very pleasing.

The second ampersand was done while teaching at the Wells Book Arts Center in July. It features Victor Hammer's American Uncial, designed while at Wells College. I love how different this form is from Californian.

Wells College is nestled next to Cayuga Lake, one of the beautiful Finger Lakes of Central New York. While not saturated with people and structures, it does have a fantastic sunset over the lake which informed the imagery in this print.

The third print is near to my heart. Before even casually mentioning what typeface would be used to represent Chicago, folks said 'it has to be Cooper, right?' Indeed. Cooper Black is the only typeface meaty enough to carry a substantial skyline of the city I love.

I had an epiphany the night I embarked on this one, realizing that there has to be a way to represent wind for The Windy City. This involved a lot of lead curving and some tricky setting to retain the shape but hint at the sky. It's almost ridiculous how much is going on in this design.

The fourth ampersand representing the London Underground is fresh off the press!

This form for printing the prospectus will also appear on the final sleeve that houses all of the prints. I arranged the ampersands in order of size to make it look like the tiny airplane was pulling them in banner form.

Here are the details! While each print will be available individually, 50 sets will be packaged in an LP-style sleeve and include a digitally printed colophon showing photos of all of the type forms used to create the ampersands.

The series is available for sale here and individual prints will be listed on our etsy site as they come off the press.

Metal Type Presses On

April 28, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

Fortune has always favored me in the form of friends that are true go-getters. From the family I found at Fireproof Press, to the Chicago Printer's Guild and Chicago Printmakers Collaborative, to the talented stream of interns at Starshaped and the new friends I discover at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum Wayzgoose every year, there's never been a dearth of inspiring artisans and designers in my life. Not the least of these is Erin Beckloff, who reached out years ago looking for a proof of one of our wood typefaces so that her father, Scott Moore, could create a set of patterns to pantograph cut a few replacement characters. We hit it off immediately and I have always been impressed with her enthusiasm for all things design and letterpress. She has never faltered in her quest to understand the craft and the people behind it, so when she mentioned this past Fall that she felt a documentary was in order to showcase the stalwarts of the print community, I knew immediately she was the person to make it happen.A long while ago, I heard an interview with an actor talking about working with the Coen Brothers on a film and he said, 'Some people just don't suck. And when they call you to work on a project, you say YES.' This is how I've always felt about Erin and her projects because she thoughtfully sees them through to a fully realized end. She asked if I could contribute in two ways to help get this off the ground. The first is in the form of a print to be offered as a reward for supporting her Kickstarter campaign.

I have always felt that promoting metal type has been an uphill battle as wood type, in all of its textured, meaty glory takes center stage. Metal type requires more patience and a solid understanding of the medium in order to get stellar results. Starshaped creates most projects with metal type and given our past of printing propaganda, it seemed like time to mix the two. I began by sketching out what would look like a mass of protest posters with slogans altered to be typographic in nature.

Then each 'poster' started to take form in various sizes with a mash up of different typefaces.

I added rules to give dimension to the edges as well as those that would look to be supporting the posters. This is the first good carbon paper proof of the form.

When all looked good, I removed the rules as they would be printed in a different color. Here they are sitting on a proof so that I remember what went where.

After printing the red I replaced the rules and took the type out.

It never fails that I sense a third color would really 'bring a print home'. So I took a misprint and labeled the dimensions of each poster so that I could cut linoleum blocks to print over them in a transparent-based ink. This helped them pop from the paper quite a bit, despite the subtle effect.

The prints, offered as part of the fundraising effort, measure 8x10" and are printed on paper generously provided by Appleton. I also ran a short edition on 11x14" paper to give the type a bit more breathing room. These will be available eventually; invest in the documentary first!

The second way I am contributing to this project is in the form of teaching one lucky (or unlucky?) person as much as I possibly can in one day about metal type. In this 12+ hours of grueling type setting, proofing and printing, we'll discuss the history of metal type, look at how issues were dealt with by previous generations of printers and how to best work in the medium now. Plus, that person will have access to the Starshaped collection and the opportunity to create something special. Are you up for it? Check out the entire campaign and get updates on the facebook page.

Erin is in the middle of this photo, surrounded by students that she has inspired both in design and letterpress. It is incredible to see her grow and overlap both fields while taking the time to teach everything she knows to the next generation of aspiring printers. The fact that Jo and I will both be a part of the final documentary is such an afterthought to the bigger picture of how the craft is recorded and passed on. And pulling in Mark from the Mayfair Workshop, a longtime close friend of both Fireproof and Starshaped, to create the perfect background score brings this project full circle for me. Everything about it feels right. Will Erin be the Alan Lomax of the letterpress world? It's early to speak to that, but she is well on her way, supported by those of us who understand the importance of retaining and collecting history before it vanishes. Go get 'em, lady.

Wells or Bust!

March 30, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

Nothing beats the long haul of March in Chicago like a working vacation in another print shop. Okay, maybe that's just me, but it was a real treat to spend time in Central New York for a residency at the Wells College Book Arts Center, with stops at some of our favorite places along the way. We packed the car with tools and remaining copies of An Alphabet of Sorts, our contribution to the Goudy 150 keepsake project, prints to share and one kid destined for Grandma's house. The one stop Jo and I made together was at Virgin Wood Type to collect our newest typeface as well as other ornaments I can't wait to ink up. A visit to Virgin is like waking up Christmas morning, where even the type gets the fancy wrap treatment.

Here's Geri proofing up our Gothic Bold thanks to the ease of carbon paper.

For a small shop it's terribly impressive what takes place here. The team was very busy, cutting nonstop to stock up for an upcoming trip to SGC.

Even the hell box is a popular spot for slightly less-than characters with a ton o' potential.

No set is complete without stamping!

Right after we left the pantograph was set to work again, cutting a preliminary set of an exciting new modular typeface. See the patterns below. Can't WAIT for this one.

Two of my favorite people, Matt and Geri.

We brought a clampersand as a gift for Matt, which Jo promptly tested on his thumb. It works!

The next day I headed out on my own, stopping for a few hours at the Cary Graphic Arts Collection to both visit and print and put together a little more research on Albert Schiller. Amelia made these great posters!

And here she is, having just set up my Goudy keepsake form to print. Many folks came through to pull a print for themselves, and I couldn't resist putting one of the prints on Goudy's press for a photo with the man himself.

I also found a copy of Schiller's original tribute that served as a model. Here it is next to my reincarnation.

I've narrowed down the images I captured of Schiller's work to just the ones I sought as inspiration for what I planned to do once at Wells College, starting with the incomparable Ampersand Machine.

The Cary Collection is a trove of treasures and it was an honor to get a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of a curator.

After fully saturating myself with inspiration, it was time to head to Wells for the real work of my trip. I love this poster printed at their Book Arts Center, soon to be my home. It's a little glimpse at the kind of typographical dessert that was waiting for me.

And here's another. This is a fraction of the unbelievable type available to work with and I wanted to use it all. It was a delight to discover much of this was originally from the Chicago Type Foundry (read: OLD).

The shop is so beautiful and well organized, as you can see. There's a ton of natural light in this charming old building with it's large doors and windows and worn hardwood floors.

The only big messes in the place were the ones I made over the course of the week. A little food, a little caffeine, a ton of boxed ornaments.

And if one incredible studio isn't enough, there's a second faculty print room as well. Spoiled for choice!

One order of business was to tackle the binding of An Alphabet of Sorts and you can see the beginning of the collating with students here.

Seeing them pile up was pretty exciting, as was the addition of little gold stars foil stamped on the spine.

Friday evening I gave a warts-and-all lecture about the 15 year history of Starshaped and shared details about collaborating with Wells on the book. What a great way to launch my 'baby' into the world. Shout out to Jookie Jill for taking this right-on shot.

Not able to remove the images of Schiller's Ampersand Machine from my brain over the last 6 months, I knew I wanted to create a response print that would take advantage of the type collection at Wells, including the different types of ornaments there. Hence my Alphabet Machine plan was hatched. I have a soft spot for big, fat type and was tickled to find this Bodoni in the basement of the Book Arts Center. We just don't have enough of this at Starshaped.

Slowly my machine started to take shape, with made up gears, smokestacks and repositories for type.

LOVE these mortised circles into which I shoved tiny 6 point number arrows.

It got a little tough to keep my bearings with this one, as you can well imagine. Limiting my choices to ornaments that were not organic while fitting my brainstormed buzz words (pipes, valves, shoots, squares, linear, conveyor... you get the idea) was the only way to keep my head screwed on straight in this 'crack house of ornament'.

By late Saturday evening, the entire form was set and on press, ready for a proof.

My first move was to pull a carbon paper proof. Not perfect, but enough to get an idea of what the overall print will look like.

The first full proof was pretty great. Regardless of number of colors, I always print the entire form together to make sure everything makes sense before pulling out the separations. The paper is a gloriously rough and recycled gray and I used the same dark gray ink for the machine as in An Alphabet of Sorts.

Then I pulled out all of the type which would be printed in red. This was very mentally helpful as I could then see just the machine itself.

I marked spacing for where all of the letters were so that I'd know how to reinsert them after the first color was done.

Here's just the second color made up of letters only. Apparently this is pretty interesting as I caught both Virgin Wood Type Geri and Rich, director of the Book Arts Center, taking shots of it.

Here's the sequence for printing, starting with the proof, removal of the second color and then the full version. And of course another excuse to show this wonderfully fat type.

I decided to add a third run to the print in the form of a very light gray. This was to solidify a few areas as well as add a bit of dimension to the machine.

The final print is very satisfying. It is now available for purchase here.

Late nights? I saw a few. But what a great way to spend them.

Throughout the week we hosted a few open studio times as well as helped students with their own printing. It's wonderful to see how much the equipment is being used and I loved working with a new group of printers.

We also played hooky one day and visited the Bixler Letterfoundry which was almost too much to bear. Their large shop is split between meticulously maintained casting and printing areas and I spied on both.

They had two new matrices made for 36 point ornaments so we set those up to cast.

Here's one of the first!

I received a set of both of the new casts, shown here with a new-to-me set received from honorary Starshaped lady, Jessie of Punky Press.

There was beautiful, ornamental inspiration all over the place.

Luckily we had to create another poster for an upcoming lecture, which gave me the opportunity to use more of the Bixler's ornaments. Andrew Steeves' talk on Ecology, Economy and the Endurance of Printing begged for a layout that would pull these elements together in a self-feeding, circular manner. And so this form was born, tying in natural, organic elements with directional and monetary hints at the same time.

The first carbon proof was pretty tight. Students and visitors helped set all of the supporting text with a run of Centaur.

A straightforward, sexy form.

I ran the lighter circle image first as it would be nearly impossible to pull it out to run the text first.

Then the main text was inserted back into the form and I deconstructed the circle right on press.

The final print was elegant and straightforward and a real departure from the Alphabet Machine.

I'm so glad I was able to work with two disparate sets of type and ornaments for both prints finished at Wells. Luckily I kept good notes on distribution when all was said and done!

While there are a lot of photos here, I feel that this post is not a well-rounded one. I was fighting a cold when I descended on Wells and didn't take photos of its charming structures or Cayuga Lake. I don't have images of all of the work done with students or the friends that came for my lecture. I don't even have as many shots as I'd like to document the collection itself, though this trip is the first of what will be many. If you want to check it out for yourself, don't miss the Summer Institute program, a veritable feast for everyone interested in book arts, typography and printing.

I do, however, have more fond memories of my visit than I can recount. Like seeing this face that Jenna, the Victor Hammer Fellow, pulled in Rich's direction every day to keep him in line.

And having a 'Holy Hell!' moment while collecting type specimens for my prints.

And seeing these classy ladies over the press every day, reminding me of the legacy of the Center.

And this. Because that's how I felt every day I got to work there. Can't wait to get back.

Tribute to a Tribute: Goudy at 150

March 16, 2015 Jennifer Farrell

It was an honor to be asked to contribute to the keepsake exchange celebrating the sesquicentennial of the birth of Frederic W. Goudy, organized by RITs Cary Graphic Arts Collection.Last summer, while visiting the Cary Collection (which you can read about here), I was introduced to the work of Albert Schiller and was immediately enthralled with the detailed and incredible use of metal type ornaments to create 'type pictures'. One of my favorites was a relatively simple one-color form done as tribute to Fred Goudy. Given that the keepsakes would be collected by the fine folks at the Cary Collection I felt I should attempt to recreate this piece for my offering. Here is the form when first assembled.

Below is the first carbon proof of the form; not fancy but enough to know approximately how it would look in print. Behind is my photocopy of the Schiller piece. Not an exact copy, given that Schiller and I clearly had different sorts to work with, I wanted it to merely reference the original work.

I first printed the full form, knowing that I'd eventually like to print it in two colors.

The first color was a cheery mustard-yellow. I placed solid pieces behind where the side and top star-like ornaments would be overprinted.

Here's the last print to come off the press with the second blue color. You can see how overprinting the blue on yellow altered the color of those particular ornaments. I left the lovely Cloister initials with no color behind them so they would pop.

The type was set in Deepdene and Camelot, both Goudy-designed typefaces.

I joked when putting together this form that Schiller must not have liked Goudy much as it felt like one of the easiest he, and subsequently I, had done. Then I discovered that the devil was in the printing; it was one of the hardest pieces I have printed. This is mostly because of a few key elements: the ornaments are set very solid and must be perfected planed (flush to the base they rest on), the 'doorways' required mitered rules that are very small and difficult to master and the registration was impossibly tight. Now I know that Schiller loved Goudy and I still have a long way to go to come close to the brilliance of his work.