I've Got A Little Poster Here

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.

An Alphabet in Print

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.

H

Ecloseup

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.

N

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.

ampersand2

Y

C

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.

formsonpress

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

L

Ocloseup

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.

endpapertype

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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!

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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.

aaos1

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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.

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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.

sigsonshelf

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.

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The last to print was the colophon, appropriately enough.

colophon

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.

Fsig

titlepage

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!

New Year, New Type

Starting a new year with a printed homage to great type is always a good idea. Starshaped scored a great deal of new metal and wood type this year and it's time it pulled some weight. So this year's New Year card features type from a few different metal type foundries alongside the snowflakes from our collaboration with Moore Wood Type. The idea was to take a standard rectangular form and make it appear as if the snowflakes were swooping in to break it apart. Below is a reversed image (so it's easy to read) of the main sections of the type form before separating them.

How about a typographic rundown? 'Wishing' is a new cast of Ray Shade by Hill & Dale Type Foundry in West Virginia. 'You A' and 'ew ear' are Latin Ornate and Tuscan Graille, both from Skyline Type Foundry. 'Starshaped Press Chicago' is 6pt Camelot and the N and Y initial caps have yet to be identified. 'Happy' is a mortised initial cap with Dakota. The three main borders are from Bixler Letterfoundry, courtesy of Punky Press, coupled with tiny bits and pieces from our collection.

After a quick carbon paper proof of the forms, I scanned them so that I could figure out the best angles and build the rest of the piece digitally. This is the cheat sheet printed out with the placement of the sections and snowflakes. It is marked up to determine the measurements of the angled furniture I needed to cut to square up the sections.

Here you can see the angled furniture that holds the sections in place and keeps them flush with the rest of the form.

I first pulled a few proofs on the actual paper with the entire form to set up placement and look for any wacky spacing issues. After that was established, I took out all of the second color, leaving just the sections to be printed in burgundy. I marked the spacing with a sharpie so I would remember what I added in place of the type that was there.

The burgundy read well on Wrought Iron, dark gray stock from Neenah's Environment line. It matched the Paver Red envelopes from French Paper. Printing dark inks on dark papers can always be a bit of a crap shoot but this worked well. Silver is a no-brainer. The registration is pretty tight, and given the angles in play here, that's impressive.

Next up were the snowflakes. I trimmed most of mine to be as close to the edge of the design as possible so that they could almost sit on top of each other.

Figuring out what ink they'd be printed in was more challenging. My first thought was opaque white so I could test how this would perform on the gray paper. But the white competed with the silver and the type receded, which was definitely not desirable. So I tried transparent white as well as variations on this with differing degrees of silver and black mixed in. The final was a combination of all of these.

While the snowflakes were set up on press, I used them to print the front of the envelopes as well, where they appear a little darker on burgundy stock. The silver on these is particularly striking. More great initial caps.

I was very pleased with how the cards turned out, as they hit all of my bases for typography as well as great paper and ink combinations. The challenges of setting this form were also very pleasing and it's great to see both old and new type functioning on a heightened level. One of the plans for the studio this year is to really highlight some of the gems of the Starshaped collection and use them in similar ways to how they would have been used 100 years ago, but with (hopefully) a modern breath of fresh air.

Alphabets are Go!

It's a pleasure to announce that the ornamental alphabet I built over the summer will soon get the royal treatment in book form. Co-published with Wells College Press, An Alphabet of Sorts is now available for presale, to be delivered in the Spring. To celebrate this collaboration, here is the Prospectus, which features all of the exciting details of what's to come. All fitting within a 6x9" page size, this is one of the tightest and most elaborate forms I've built in a while. Given the amount of information that needed to be conveyed in a small space, the type is largely 8 point and under. The previously set ampersand makes another appearance here.

For the title, I set SORTS from 6 point square ornaments and added asterisks in some corners to soften what would normally be a smooth curve. ALPHABET is set in Cleft Gothic, a Chicago-based typeface designed about 120 years ago. I liked that it was small and gothic but had its own bit of ornamentation going on.

The main paragraph was set in 6 point Bernhard Gothic, both Light and Medium, and gives an overview of the forthcoming book. I'm so pleased to have Paul F. Gehl of The Newberry Library on board to write the introductory note to this endeavor!

Since I'll be printing the cover and end papers as well on gloriously red Italian paper, I've been experimenting with creating a smaller alphabet unique from the large one that will be featured inside. One idea is to reverse out an alphabet from ornaments on a smaller scale. This would be a nice juxtaposition to the main letters and present a new challenge to designing a set of letterforms.

The bottom of the prospectus contains the nitty gritty details of the book. You may recognize the name of this guy listed here, now comfortably stationed at Wells.

Presales are going strong, and the edition is expected to sell out! I will be finishing the printing by the end of the year so that binding can begin. Books will be delivered around May Day, 2015. I'm happy to send the above Prospectus; just contact me with your address!

Days Like These...

Hard to believe, but it's nearly time to think about 2015 calendars. For the last few years, we've created two different wall versions, and 2015's are ready to go! The first features a checkerboard pattern made of reversed wood type, along with another pattern created from wood borders. You can see the lovely texture and overlapping effects in this close up. The inks are all translucent enough to show the different layers of print.

2015 is set in Gothic Round, a typeface we have in limited quantities and that doesn't often see the light of day. Here it is coupled with the borders.

The calendar pages are not letterpress printed (sorry), though they are built from scans of the type in our collection. Printed on text weight paper, there's room for writing little notes before tearing off the page as the month comes to an end.

The second calendar features a Superchunk quote that often pops into my brain when driving the Starshaped Fiat. So it combines both of those things (though the Fiat here is an original 500....someday).

The image started as a sketch that was then resized and transferred to linoleum to be cut. This was a tiny one!

Here you can see it sneaking through the wood type city on its way out of town! This calendar also features tear off months.

Both calendars measure 8x18" and are printed on heavy gray chipboard in four colors. They are currently available in our etsy shop. We printed a limited run of both, so get one while you can... no reprints on these!