Notes and documentation of today's Leeds Print Festival (2013), as originally founded by BAGD Leeds College of Art tutor, Amber Smith.
The event itself was amazing with exhibited work from various designers, as well as talks from Nick of The Print Project, Matthew the Horse, and the remarkable Alan Kitching.
I’m feeling so inspired for my projects ahead, particularly working with the combination of typography and print… I feel like this was exactly what I needed right now (along with getting some beautiful print and Yorkshire tea bags in a goodie bag...always a plus for a caffeine-fuelled zombie designers, like me).
Big thanks to Amber, I hope she was as delighted with the day as all the guests and attendees were.
NOTES
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THE PRINT PROJECT
* Nick, presenting on behalf of The Print Project, Bradford.
* Influenced by skateboarding and music through teen years which lead on to working with print. Started fanzines, inspired by skating and trash metal.
* Inspired by designers like David Carson- experimental, punk-esque, of the time.
* Employed as a litho printer in 1999 after a design education.
* In 2005, he bought a 100 year-old press for £60 to begin experimenting with letterpress design- traded in at a later date for a more updated design.
* Became The Print Project through printing at the 1 in 12 Club, Bradford.
* Learnt independently how to develop experience with letterpress- first inspired by friend Peter who worked with letterpress printing.
* Featured at the LPF Pop Up Shop- allowed people that aspect of "having a go".
* Pink Milk Float printing in Leeds- open print experience.
* Enjoy the freeness and lack of convention in letterpress printing and type- very expressive and free- can't be effectively digitally replicated.
* Grotesk No9/ Headline Bold type for "Nothing Twee Here..." print.
* Cut type on free saws on improve and specify kerning to experiment.
* Letterpress "is what it is"... and "does what it does".
* 'All sorts' publication sold at book fair. Rep from The Tate came and bought the book and put it in the Museum. Experimental print and type- "faces" and characters made from letterpress.
* Colophon for book in 10pt Bembo, set by hand.
* LPF responsible for more exposure and work within the industry.
* Grambe (sp?)- Susan Blake type foundry/typeface used on letterpress invites for LPF.
MATTHEW THE HORSE
* "These are my opinions today"- observations, make your own thoughts...
* Like to have fun and be playful- name reflects the silliness.
* Enjoys co-ordinaring socks with drinks flask (fantastic).
* Very passionate about "graphic art".
* Illustrator & Graphic Artists, but commitments also lie elsewhere within being an educator.
* Context + Concept + Form = Illustration/Image- Making in response to a brief.
* Does a lot of editorial work- worked for The Guardian for 3 years. VERY short deadlines, visual thinking.
* 30 minutes for one illustration... PROUD moment.
* Graphic Art: Self initiated art, conceptually driven by it's own agenda.
* Marcus Oakley is his #1 heartthrob of design.
* Illustration isn't just vocational- it's about hustling and business too.
* You need to BE your work to inform your practice.
* Created work for Pick Me Up print fair in London.
* Likes to create work that expresses moments of epiphany, euphoria and spontaneity.
* The original idea is the gold, and you want to maintain this as much as possible.
* Don't work for free, but if you can, you will learn from it through spec work.
* Graphic Art is driven by agenda and concept.
* It's all about finding balance and brining your tone of voice to the work.
* Fine Art has turned its back on image making in more recent years through Artists such as Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons, etc.
* An illustrative practice is commercial and needs value.
* Graphic Art is affordable and inclusive.
* Building a collection makes it yours. Shouldn't be a symbol of wealth or intellectually inclusive. Follow YOUR JAM.
* You define your own tastes- they can be developed, we all start somewhere. Ikea canvas prints CANNOT be excused, however... Create work that means something TO YOU... counteract the mass-produced.
* Appropriate art and be inspired.
* Matthew the Horse may well be the happiest man in the World.
ALAN KITCHING
* Talk for Wolff Olins in November 2012. Asking why designers did what they did... he replied 'B'cause, B'cause, B'cause'... verbally and visually.
* Traditional methods learnt from letterpress.
* Anthony Froshaud, 1964 > Alan was studying at Watford College of Technology, taught by Anthony as Senior Lecturer (taught at the Bauhaus. International reputation, 20 years his senior).
* Peter Schmidt/Alan Kitching, 1967. Watford College of Art, School of Art poster > Very minimal, pure, clean type (Swiss-like)... RESEARCH & REVIEW.
* Started t work with Fletcher Forbes Gill after college (this group now runs as Pentagram... though under varying management)... Colin Forbes/Alan Kitching, 1972.
* Typographer Matthew Carter was commissioned to design font for V&A.
* Created Broadside typographic publications/specimens to promote his practice and the typefaces available to use... used multi-lingual type with quotes from the bible for the communication of the type and how it's used.
* Experimentation of the overlays and layering of type and editorial design.
* Commissioned to make a typographic map of London as a printing guide to the city. Used the river as a key feature (as it is so distinctive)- all the blue circles are representative of the blue plaques seen on notable persons houses, but contain content in regards to notable prating (Penguin Books, Samuel Johnson, Faber & Faber, etc.)
* Tube Map can fold down to a poster/invite- getting two jobs out of one.
* Phrases can often make very effective typographic posters- COLLECT THEM!
* Experimented with printing manually by rollers- gives more texture and an element of spontaneity.
* Baseline magazine cover using wood cut type and varying colours.
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