A snowy Sunday in November. A trek in from the suburbs. A precarious walk down Haddington Road, 4 inches deep in snow! Arrival at Beggars Bush. Or more precisely, arrival at the National Print Museum.
The National Print Museum is one of Dublin City’s hidden treasure. Located in the old Garrison Chapel in Beggars Bush Barracks and although the museum catalogues the history of printing, it also offers the opportunity to gain practical experience of the craft of printing with a series of guided tours, workshops and open days.
The workshop on letterpress printing was the reason why I trekked in to Beggars Bush early that Sunday morning.
Very timely and sdasonal, the workshop was on printing Christmas Cards. Attended by six and comprised of four graphic designers, one writer and a ‘husband’. Who apparently was made attend by his designer wife – a designer! This workshop was hosted by Con Devlin and covered the fascinating techniques of traditional letterpress printing.
First off we were introduced to the fundamentals of typesetting and letterpress printing. The workshop was developed for those without prior printing experience and covered the basics setting metal type by hand and learning the basic mechanics of printing. Before starting, Con talked us through the process and the equipment that we will be using and he also compared the process of hand setting with that of digitally typesetting on a Macintosh!
Prior to attending the workshop, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to design and print. I had the idea of printing a Christmas Tree using various letters, characters, numerals and dingbats in different fonts and sizes to create a triangular shape for the Christmas Tree – complete with Asterisks for the star. I wanted to achieve a ransom note feel with the mix of styles, faces and sizes.
However, I quickly realised because of time constraints, I wouldn’t be able to complete my vision during one session! So I simplified my design and opted for a single character set of Times New Roman in 48pt. Plus, it also meant that I had one typeface to put back in the correct order when I was done! So there were benefits to altering my concept.
I hastently arranged my lettering and starting with a capital A the characters quickly fell in place forming the distinctive triangular pattern leaving me with a Y and X to make the trunk of my tree. While rummaging around some of the cases, I stumbled upon a cherub, correct size for my card and neatly placed on top of the tree to make an angel!
Once I was happy and confident that the design was working, I locked it in to the frame, secured by furniture and coins and then transferred to the bed for printing.
Con kindly operated the proofing press that was going to be used for the printing of our cards, carefully centering our designs on the flatbed before applying the ink to the presses rollers and finally introducing the paper to the ink.
The bite and type quality delivered by letterpress is simply pristine and cannot be matched by any other printing technique.
For further information on coursed and workshops visit http://www.nationalprintmuseum.ie
