A slug by any other name
Mon ami français Stéphane, a.k.a. Zig (and proprietor of the fantastique design studio and silkscreen poster workshop Dezzig, wrote quite a flattering article about me and my letterpress tinkerings at the International Printing Museum. For non-francophone readers, it should be possible to get the gist of the article using Google Translate.
Stéphane is a fellow amant de la typographie (“typographamant?”) and inventor of the “Poster Pant,” a brilliant device that allows poster-rich-but-frame-poor collectors like myself to hang and display their posters proudly and safely. Stéphane sells the Poster Pant online at his Artshop, and I have ordered several for myself (some of which I will be offering for sale along with some of my vintage posters at our space inside the collective vintage shop inretrospect, Long Beach, California.
In appreciation for Stéphane’s support of the Museum’s Ludlow Project, I cast for him the Ludlow slug shown above. This early 1960s reintrepretation of his Dezzig logo was set using 48pt Tempo Bold Extended, one of the more contemporary looking typefaces available to us in Ludlow. I really dig the “G.”
Speaking of France and letterpress printing (worst segway ever?), I came across this article on French Wikipedia, which confirms that the term “cliché” is still used in French to refer to what we in English call a “plate” or a “cut.” The original French word apparently derives from onomatopoeia (though there is some controversy). I still think it’s fascinating that two printing terms, “stereotype” and “cliché,” have found their way into common English usage for completely non-printing-related reasons.
Merci beaucoup, Stéphane!
PIASC Graphics Night Letterpress Invitations
The Printing Industries Association of Southern California (PIASC) is the parent organization that sponsors much of the International Printing Museum‘s activities. Each year, PIASC hosts Graphics Night, a gala event at which Southern California printers congregate and schmooze, among other more important things. Graphics Night also features an awards ceremony, where best-of-industry printing and print design is recognized.
For this year’s Graphics Night event, PIASC asked the Museum and Three Steps Ahead to print and design (respectively) the invitation and surrounding identity pieces, themed around the concept of “The Power of Print in the Golden Age of Film.”1
The design of the invitations was intended to evoke the classiness of letterpress invitation and menu design from the early half of the 20th century, perhaps centered around the late 1930s through 1940s. The type is a combination of Mark Simonson’s Art Deco classic Mostra Nuova, Hoefler & Frere-Jones’ Verlag, and lookalikes for Ludlow’s thick-and-thin sans-serif typeface, Radiant: ShinnType’s Eunoia and Lanston Type Company’s Obelysk Grotesk.
The design and printing process were tied very closely together for this project. The first piece we created was the Save-the-Date bookmark, which was mailed out as a reminder along with some other PIASC promotional material towards the end of 2011. Prior to designing the piece, we worked with Neenah Paper to secure a donation of their surprisingly-great-for-letterpress Classic Crest paper in the new Eggshell finish, in Solar White and Red Pepper colorways. We had the already thick paper custom triplexed (duplex + duplex), so that the red was sandwiched in between two white sheets. In addition to making the flagship pieces obnoxiously thick, it allowed us to create a thin red stripe down the edge of the cards, mirroring the thin red rules used throughout the designs.
While the Save-the-Date bookmark looks like a two-color over one color (2/1) piece, it took many more trips through the Heidelberg Windmill 10 × 15 platen press than one would expect. We broke down the design into several plates, so that the solids and the thinner elements were printed in separate passes. This allowed us to achieve proper solid coverage without blowing out the type. Solids were printed in multiple passes as well, so the bookmark, which was the simpler of the two pieces, ended up going through the press five times, before trim out.
The main piece, the invitation, was designed to be mailed out as a single 6″ × 9″ card, but the piece was die cut and perforated with a chevron shape where the almost 4″ × 6″ RSVP card detaches from the invitation. The reply card then fits into the enclosed reply envelope for return. This unique design allowed us to print both the invitation and the reply card as one piece, with all of the aesthetic elegance and functionality of having two separate pieces.
The invitation was printed with a similar process to the bookmark, where solids and thin bits were segregated on separate plates. But we also added a blind pass on the front, a clear foil pass on the back, and the “extra” step of die-cutting the whole piece (which incidentally saved a lot of time that would have been spent trimming out each edge on the paper cutter).
At Graphics Night last month, both the Museum2 and Three Steps Ahead were recognized for the printing and design of the Graphics Night invitations. We were honored that Three Steps Ahead was given the Award of Excellence for design.
Baseball Infographic
After the success of our previous infographic project, Scarborough Research asked us to create a new infographic to explain the data that they had gathered regarding “Generation Y” fans of Major League Baseball. The goal was to create a piece that felt “baseballish” and sporting without being overly cliché. I’m particularly proud of the angularly-accurate, 3D sliced baseball bat pie graph. Featured typeface families are Verlag from Hoefler & Frere-Jones, and Abril from TypeTogether.
Scarborough Research Baseball Infographic, earlier draft, without gratuitous filtering
Note: Much of the data and text shown here has been flubbed for the sake of layout and design; I like things to look just so. For the final infographic with more accurate statistics, see the PDF on Scarborough’s website.
Update: The Scarborough MLB infographic made an appearance at Times Square.
Best Gift Ever: Linotype T-Shirt
Alyssa just made a masterpiece of a t-shirt based on the cover of a 1951 book called The Linotype Handbook for Teletypesetter Operation. Just in time for the screening of Doug Wilson‘s Linotype: The Film this Saturday, March 17, at the International Printing Museum. The t-shirt was stenciled and then hand painted to bring out the shadow and punch detail on the lightning-bolt-like roll of tape extending from the back of the Linotype Comet, equipped with teletypesetter. As if the basic Linotype wasn’t complicated enough, it was also capable of automatically casting lines from strips of punched tape. These coded tape reels could be transmitted electronically to and from different points around the world, allowing the same newspaper articles to be printed in multiple locations around the world simultaneously. No need to ship type metal.
Three Steps Ahead featured in IdN Magazine
Three Steps Ahead in IdN Magazine v19n1, pages 20-21
We are honored to have been featured in Hong Kong based IdN Magazine‘s “RSVP” issue, devoted to creative invitation design around the world. The article’s focus is on our “Married at the Museum” wedding invitation design, and contains a bonus interview with yours truly.
Super Tuesday Infographic
Scarborough Research asked us to create a very comprehensive infographic for Super Tuesday to explain the data that they had gathered regarding the demographics and media preferences of Republican voters. We went with a simplified type and color palette that we hoped would make the data easy to digest, and wherever possible, we erred on the side of Edward Tufte-esque caution. Featured typeface family is Benton Sans from Font Bureau.
Note: Much of the data and text shown here has been flubbed for the sake of layout and design; I like things to look just so. For the more accurate statistics, visit Scarborough’s website.
Update: Just got word that the infographic was featured both in Times Square and in Las Vegas on PR Newswire displays. Nifty:
A (metal) taste of things to come
Upcoming all-metal Karnak type specimen giveaway for The Ludlow Project. Stay tuned…
SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft PictureBubbles°
SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft—click thumbnail image to view full panorama
We were hired by SpaceX to document the interior of their now famous Dragon Spacecraft. Now that SpaceX has announced its plans to visit the International Space Station later this year, they have unveiled the PictureBubbles° panorama that we created.
Duro Decals Box o’ Typography
The Duro Decals brand, which still exists today, has been knocking out good, wholesome, sturdy display type and lettering (in decal, sign, and stencil form) since 1938. The Chicago-based company begat “Duro Dan,” their quirky advertising mascot, a sort of elvish, mustachioed gnome-like character that touted Duro’s wares during the middle of the 20th century. This “Pressure Sensitive Letters & Numbers” box was originally made as a point of purchase display for selling individual letters, numbers, and symbols as pressure-sensitive labels. There is some gorgeous condensed gothic / grotesque (sans-serif) type throughout, evocative of the late 1950s and early 1960s, when this was probably manufactured.
And it can be all yours if you get to Etsy first.
Star Waggons Happy Holidays card
Our design for Star Waggons’ 2011 holiday card. We went with a mid-century modern look, featuring a slightly-modified Buffalo from Photo-Lettering. › Continue reading
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- The Alphabet Thesaurus, Vol. 2
- The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst
- The Graphic Artists Guild Handbook
