Authored by
Alexander Ross Charchar
1st of March, 2009 
Beautiful Things 13 Comments
We all have our addictions based in creativity. They keep us up at night. They loot and plunder the gold from our pockets and often don’t make sense to family and friends. We lose our selves for hours at a time in our obsessions, thinking and tinkering, pondering and playing. But the rush of joy and happiness and energy they give us can be the greatest high one could imagine. Hello, my name is Alex Charchar and I’m a letterpress addict.
I’m addicted to paper that has been kissed by metal type. And, sometimes.. sometimes it doesn’t even need to be metal type—it can be photopolymer plates, which is sort of like metal type but… different… it’s a whole Pepsi vs Coke thing… Even wood type will flame my passions. Oh, blissful wood type. However it’s pressed, I love paper that’s been squashed; that’s been impressed upon by inked letters and… ohhh… but… yes, yes, even on the dark, quiet nights, when I just need my fix, I’ll even go as far as to enjoy the sweet, naked bliss of a blind emboss. That’s right! I’m a print designer who loves the look of paper that’s been printed without ink! It just feels so good and I am not afraid to admit it so.
I’m not even sure when my story of addiction began. I don’t remember my first taste. I must have been 16 years of age the first time I got a sniff of it. Just a whisper. It was all I needed.
I was starting to look at graphic art and design and get excited about this new world of beauty. DesignIsKinky served as my gateway—showing me things I’d never seen before—expanding my mind into the little hours of the morning. Once in a while I would hear the voices talking to me. I would shake my head and accept them as background noise – I wasn’t here to see them. Not yet, anyway.
But… but they grew louder. “Who… who are you?” I once said aloud, realising I was talking to a computer screen and feeling a little ashamed. Then… “We are the letterpressed, come play with us.” I awoke the next morning in a pool of cold sweat. I had seen something the night before. And it was special. Beautiful.
Time passed, my studies began and ended. I got married, started my life, every now and then smirking and smiling at pieces of letterpressed work—the look of which is often emulated to great effect in modern print and on the web. Yes, yes… emulated. But then it changed, the recreational enjoyment became a lot more. The voices were back.
Come late 2007, I began to become a lot more adventurous in my travels over the fields of the internet, subscribing to many an RSS feed. This is when I really started to enjoy this addiction. It’s when it all changed.
The traditional look, the style of the thick rules, double rules, dotted and dashed rules had lived on! People still used these machines! The capitlized letters in abundance, the loosely tracked headings and the one and two colour jobs! The crafters of this immense beauty were still to be found! Their works being printed, being crafted, each unique due to the physicality of the materials! Oh, the materials!! Typography with dimension dances with paper of sophistication to the tune of the machines while they chant their muse-songs; whoosh-clutch, whoosh-clutch, whoosh-clutch!
And the paper! Ohh, oh, oh the paper! It isn’t flat. It isn’t perfect—it has bumps, it is off white—you can see the grain, feel the fiber! And when it dances with the type, whether it be naked or dressed in the robes of Reflex Blue, Rubine Red, Orange 021 or whatever the heart of the job demands, something beautiful happens! Something glorious!
Something we, as creatives, want more than anything. These flocks of cards, gallops of bookmarks and packs of invites engage the audience. They bring in their attention, whispering to them the secrets of the letterpressed—”feel the impression”, they say, “tickle the stock”, they entice.
There are no runs of 5,000. No runs of 10,000 or a million! They are pressed in small groups. Giving the magicians of tangible type an opportunity to use stocks of a unique kind, a special kind. Hand made stock can be brought to the dance! Stock with fibers and hairs as long as the lashes on the lids of your eyes! Specks and spots! The stocks alone invite one to touch and caress. They give large, solid spaces of colour an opportunity to develop character when they print isn’t perfect and thank all that is beautiful that it never is! The imperfect paper gives the ink a stage on which to dance, rather than a cage in which to perform.
And it is in this that so much beauty can be found. Where the craft resides. The physical type, which succumbs to the scars of use, the paper which isn’t smooth but charactered, and the ink that doesn’t always cover—these three work together in a way that cannot be, and should not be, perfectly mastered, lest this craft be lost. For it is this result of craft that gives the character that I so love.
My name is Alex Charchar and I’m addicted to the craft and character of letterpress works.
Gallery
The above images came from a number of sites, including Hello Lucky, Greenchair Press, Brooklyn Bookbinder, Beast Pieces, Smock Paper, Bellafigura, Satsuma Press, Elum Designs, Cabel, the Letterpress Process Flickr collection, the Woodtype Flickr Pool, Jaypeg’s 30 Letterpress Flickr collection.
Also, if there are any images that catch your eye and you’d like to know who exactly produced it, just ask for it by referencing the image number or url – it’ll also help if you could give a super-quick (two or three word) description just to confirm and I’ll let you know where it came from (go on, try me!).
So, what’s your creative addiction?
Found beauty in the words given?
then perhaps subscribe to the rss feed.
• Comments •
13 pieces of brilliance put forth by the audience
Ryan Hageman
1st of March, 2009 • www
I love the work done by Studio on Fire (Beast Pieces). They’re a local press (Minneapolis) and as a student its a goal to get something pressed in the near future.
Thanks for sharing you collection.
Alex Charchar
3rd of March, 2009 • www • twitter
I only recently discovered Studio on Fire but there work blows me away.. they’ve got the same (maybe larger, but same type) letterpress as I do, so its impressive for me to see what they can get away with.. something to aim for ;)
Andrew Kelsall
4th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
Dear me, that collection of images must have taken ages to compile. Great stuff.
I wouldn’t say that I love letterpress, but I do admire many pieces of work I’ve seen over the years. I used a couple of machines at University, which was a great experience, where I used proper metal leading, etc.
I hope this art never dies out, as there should always be a place for it…
Alex Charchar
4th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
Oh cool, i’d love to have used some of these machines when I was studying.. I think it’ll help give you a better appreciation of kerning and setting type digitally.. did you find that the case at all?
My typography teacher was pretty good in that he wouldn’t let us near a computer for the first semester.. nothing like kerning pieces of paper with glue to help you understand what to do
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio
6th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
oh btw, I’ve found Lunada Bay Letterpress’ flickr photos REALLY helpful; she documents a lot of her processes. She’s super nice, too, and answers comments on her photos if you have questions.
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio
6th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
Ah it’s been forever since I’ve visited Alex! I’m sorry :( I printed a new project recently: http://flickr.com/photos/lauren_marie/3305045761/ It was a hit at the event it was for! People were asking for more than one :)
How are your own letterpress adventures coming along? Done any projects lately?
Love, love, LOVE all the pieces you’ve shared here! Is it even possible for letterpress to be anything but beautiful? I don’t think I’ve ever seen letterpress work I would consider ugly.
LaurenMarie – Creative Curio
6th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
boo, your blog deleted my link to her flickr stream! http://flickr.com/photos/7929005@N07/
inspirationbit
6th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
uhmm, I too love letterpress, I have Lauren’s first letterpress card on my Inspiration board above my desk :)
I’m now saving money to get letterpress business cards for myself, hope that day will come soon ;)
thanks for this letterpress inspiration, Alex.
Brian
6th of March, 2009 • www
What a beautiful collection! I’m really considering purchasing a letterpress.
Thanks for posting this.
Alex Charchar
7th of March, 2009 • www • twitter
Oh man Lauren, they’re gorgeous! Well done! I love the little bit of steam at the top, lovely touch. Thanks for the Lunada Bay Flickr set, sorry about the CMS killing the URL.
There’s some great shots in there that make me want to run out to my press! I haven’t done much lately, except for a brief discussion or two about getting the equipment to make up my own poly plates in the garage, which will be handy. I realised I’ve been too scattered lately, so am focusing on one major thing at a time (at the moment, writing for retinart) for the next couple of months. One of those ‘projects’ is going to be learning my press inside-out and running my first proper job through it.
Hey Vivien, thanks for stopping past! I’m glad you enjoyed the article! Letterpress business cards are always a hit. My first lot of business cards (and only actually, hah) were an ambigram I designed up then ran through a letterpress doing crazy things with the ink (using red and gold metalic with loose registration).
Hey Brian, keep your eyes peeled and talk to printers in your area, you’ll be surprised at how cheap you can pick the smaller machines up for!
Sam
28th of April, 2009 • www
It would simplify identification of the owner of the images by adding the owner’s name/website to the ALT attribute of the IMG tag.
Sam
28th of April, 2009 • www
Oh, I forgot, your site is excellent. I’m enjoying it very much. Thank you.
Alex Charchar
30th of April, 2009 • www • twitter
Hi Sam,
I grabbed so many images (many of which aren’t shown here) that it became bit of a daze of what came from where. I kept a document of what series of images came from what site, but to put ALT tags on all of them would have been a nightmare!
Next time I find my self doing something akin to this, I will have to employ a better tactic, I think :)
Shall you delight, entertain & enlighten
us with your own thoughts?