Each year in early September, Portland becomes a frenzied city of festivals and events. PICA’s Time Based Arts Festival happens concurrently with MusicFest Northwest, leaving Portlanders culturally stimulated and sleep-deprived. The city comes to life with performances, gallery shows, dance parties and live music.
This year, a celebration of the print that broadcasts these events will be part of the fun.
A beautiful whale print to benefit WNYC's Radiolab, by Always with Honor.
A team of five designers, illustrators and artists have created a set of limited edition artwork to benefit WNYC’s Radiolab. Curated by Jez Burrows, In Radio Lab We Trust is a set of five Gocco printed pieces available in an edition of 100. Seemingly intangible audio content comes alive and becomes physical in these beautiful two-color prints. All proceeds, after production costs, will benefit Radiolab, the radio show that fosters curiosity and operates at the intersection of science, psychology and the human experience.
Participating artists include Always With Honor, Richard Perez, Jim Datz, Lab Partners and Jessica Hische, each of whom created an image inspired by a specific episode of Radiolab. Each print is a B5 print (roughly 7″x10″) and the set of five comes packaged in a special spot-printed packing paper. They’re available online, but hurry! The edition is limited to 100 pieces.
Photo-Lettering becomes more than just a dated catalog of typographic treasures.
Design world, meet Photo-Lettering, Inc.
House Industries, in collaboration with Erik van Blokland and Christian Schwartz, has just re-released the expansive library of display type from the seminal type house Photo-Lettering. The unveiling of Photo-Lettering’s web platform brings long-unavailable typography straight to the desktops of the world’s designers: a series of simple steps allows users to set their headline and then purchase an affordable vector version of the setting with liberal licensing restrictions.
How exactly did House Industries come to release a collection of dated decorative typography? The original Photo-Lettering type house closed its doors in 1985 after 57 years of operation, and eighteen years later in 2003 House Industries purchased the remaining assets and got to work making the typographical treasures available on a mass digital scale.
The website’s extensive history section reveals the passion and energy of the PLINC team; these folks are serious about the resurrection of the type library and have done endess research to power the project. The History, Ideas and Films sections contain enough rich content to keep you busy for hours, and that’s not even considering the time you could spend typesetting headlines in the extensive lettering catalog.
Go forth. Resurrect historical typography. Make beautiful headlines.
When we first set our eyes on this sculptural volume released by Visual Editions back in November 2010, our immediate reaction was, “How did they make that?!”
Here is an answer. This video, made by the publisher, documents the three months of production at Belgian printshop Die Keure. Printing, die-manufacturing, die cutting, trimming, binding: this book took countless hours of people power to manufacture. And that’s not counting the research it required! Visual Editions notes they were turned down by nearly every printer they approached, the stock line being “The book you want to make just cannot be made.”
This video proves that wrong. Watch it below.
Joel Speasmaker is Forest, a Brooklyn-based studio with a varied portfolio of design work. His series of small books (aptly titled The Small Book series) recently caught my eye.
The set of simple booklets each approaches a different topic with a different visual approach, but remain united through their use of materials and format. Titles include Spirit Figures, On Symbolism, Abstractions, and Collections, each printed on French Poptone paper that evokes archetypal pastel photocopy paper from the cornerstore copy shop.
Sets one and two of the Small Books series is unfortunately sold out, though we can hope a new title is on its way. In the meantime, drool over these out-of-stock titles and peruse Joel’s stellar design portfolio. See below for more images.
Let this guy break it down for you.
We all know how important print is. But this guy? He really understands.
Watch the video below.
The C.C. Stern Type Foundry opens its doors to the public this weekend, their collection of aged foundry equipment and metal type on display.
The C.C. Stern Type Foundry will say hello to the world this weekend, excited to share the heavy equipment and hard work they’ve been wrapped up in for the last few months. Self-described as a working museum (“with an emphasis on ‘working’”), C.C. Stern boasts one of the largest collections of Monotype casting matricies in the United States. As one of the only working type foundries on the West Coast, the museum is stepping in to fill a void as a resource for the Pacific Northwest’s growing community of designers, book artists and letterpress printers.
Death Magazine #3: The Sex Issue
You might remember Death Magazine from our interview with editor Forrest Martin late last year. The third issue became available last week, and if the idea of a publication about death made you squeamish, get ready for a double dose. Death Magazine #3 is the Sex Issue, which, in Forrest’s words, “means sexy and/or deathy content from a variety of artists, in literal and figurative ways.”
This issue features cover artwork by Creativity Explored artist John Patrick McKenzie, made specially for the issue. Contributors include Slava Mogutin, Joel Gibb (The Hidden Cameras), Anna Huff (Anna Oxygen/Cloud Eye Control), Chris Hornbecker, Sara Marcus (Girls to the Front), David Neevel, and Clark Goolsby.
Ink and paper lend themselves to fundraising efforts.
In the week since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we’ve seen a number of print items pop up across the internet as fundraising tools. Proceeds benefit a variety of humanitarian organizations, and formats range from art prints to oversized posters to pocket notebooks. Print is stepping into a role as a fundraising tool; though not a new role, it is an interesting one to consider.
Wood type goes digital.
LetterMpress is a proposed virtual letterpress application for the iPad that allows users to push around simulated wood type and create letterpress-inspired compositions. Spearheaded by John Bonadies, a graphic designer from Illinois, the project is currently seeking funding through Kickstarter.
Hmm.
This project is an interesting embodiment of the crossroads of antiquated and contemporary, of utilitarian and fetishized production methods, of analog and digital. But is it fair to claim that you can “experience the art and craft of letterpress printing on your iPad?” Can one really experience craft on an iPad? Or any sort of “printing,” for that matter?
Give Your Big Ideas A Little Room To Grow
Scout Books: pocket-friendly notebooks for your biggest ideas!
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Hatch Show Print:
Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest print shops in America. For a hundred years Hatch was a si... 
Carson Ellis, Illustrator Extraordinaire:
It is important to have heroes. It is also helpful when they are real people. I have my share of... 
Eco-friendly CD Packaging:
Printer: Pinball Publishing
Item: Pinball Pak (CD Packaging)
Paper: 20 pt. Chipboard
Inks: Pa... 
Field Notes and Fifty States:
Item: Field Notes Colors "County Fair" 50 Editions
Paper: 100# linen cover stock (Blue, Red, Ye... 
Coffee Common, Scout Books, TED 2011:
"The people serving you coffee today come from a movement, not a company."
So reads the first... Pinball Publishing is a creative publishing company located in Portland, Oregon. We are fueled by a love for print, collaboration, and the manufacture of meaningful things. Pinball powers a growing web of interconnected projects, including Scout Books, Bangback, and Print Pinball.
Bangback is a place for print. Here we share our own print projects as well as expanded coverage of print culture at large.
Print is dead. Long live print!
