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Letterpress Classes in Boston
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The letterpress classes listed here are taught by Keith Cross at the Mass Art Press located at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts.
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Mailing List
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Please join the mailing list if you're interested in
being notified about upcoming letterpress classes taught by Keith Cross.
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About
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The Mass Art Press has four Vandercook presses: 2 SP15s, a Universal 1 and a 219 Old Style. The shop boasts over 350 cases of type in both metal and wood and may be one of the largest letterpress shops for students in New England.
Watch this excellent video about letterpress and book arts at the Mass Art Press!
Watch it!
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Summer 2012
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Expand your letterpress experience and take your projects further! You'll have the latitude to create a project or project(s) of your own design.
Challenge yourself by setting longer texts, devising more complex compositions, additional runs of color and/or experimenting with inking and paper choices.
You'll examine projects by former students and working letterpress artists as well as participate in individual and group critiques.
Demonstrations may include pressure prints, rainbow rolls, file preparation and ordering relief plates from digital files, printing from
different plate types, using linotype matter as well as locating specific typographic assets from foundries, etc.
Other areas of exploration may include polymer plate printing and die-cutting.
Prerequisites: one of the following courses or demonstrated letterpress experience:
- Letterpress Fundamentals Workshop
- Letterpress (full-semester course)
- Artists' Books on the Vandercook Letterpress
Instructor: Keith Cross
Schedule: May 22-Jul 10, 2012, Tuesdays, 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
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This workshop is an introduction to letterpress printing and manual type setting with
metal type, wood type and ornaments. You'll learn to hand-set type and print from type in our collections of existing
typefaces. Your text may be combined with found or hand made images and printed on special papers.
Bring 1-2 impactful words to typeset and your ideas for a simple project to print. Apporpriately sized projects (read: feasible in a short amount of time) include items such as thank you cards, bookmarks, haiku, birthday cards, and consise affirmations. You can do it! See you there!
Schedule: Sunday, July 22, 2012; 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
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This workshop includes an introduction to letterpress printing and manual type setting with
metal type, wood fonts and ornaments. You'll learn to compose text and print from existing
typefaces, which may be combined with found or hand made images and printed on special papers.
Explore the nuances of impression, inking, and paper selection while enhancing your typographic sensitivity in this hands-on workshop. Demonstrations include typesetting by hand, on-press page composition, and printing multiples on a Vandercook cylinder press. The class also experiments with overprinting colors and printing illustrations. Bring words and ideas for your project to the first meeting. Some manual dexterity is necessary.
Schedule: August 10-12, 2012;
Friday, Saturday & Sunday 9:00 AM - 6:00 PM
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Fall 2012
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Schedule: Sept. 11 - Dec. 11, 2012
Tuesday nights: 6:30 PM - 10:00 PM
The letterpress class offers an introduction to hand set metal and wooden type,
letterpress printing techniques, and limited edition printing on fine papers. Students will have the option of devising a theme
for an exchange portfolio OR working on individual projects (subject to review). The exchange portfolio provides an
opportunity for the students to receive a copy of each other's work and complete and edition of letterpress printed posters, broadsides or other format.
The first class introduces the basics of hand typesetting with an "Exquisite Corpse" Poem workshop. Each student
sets 1-2 lines of type, normally a simple quote, quip or idea made up on the spot. The combination of those lines of type
comprise an impromptu poem. Results vary as students choose seemingly disparate ideas, and types, but soon
see the interconnected practice of setting their thoughts into letters of a physical nature.
We may also embark on a mini-exchange portfolio called "Missed Encounters" which incorporates found text from online
sources into wood-type collage layouts and hand-set text layouts. This exercise introduces more complex composition
problems as well as color registration.
The next five weeks of the letterpress class covers additional typesetting techniques and Vandercook flatbed cylinder press
operation. The most intense class is called "Meet the Press". Letterpress class participants learn to ink the press,
adjust pressure, adjust roller height, register and feed a sheet of paper, make an impression (or many!), and then clean the rollers with loving care.
The second half of the course is all about producing work. I meet with students to discuss direction and feasibility
of design concepts in letterpress. Once a portfolio theme is chosen, students set their types and often carve linoleum, wood or
sintra (a carvable plastic substrate) blocks. We also have the capability to print images from copper, magnesium or polymer plates (time/expense permitting).
Work time outside of class is expected and strongly encouraged as we'll have monitors opening the shop on week-day nights. Work nights are a
great time to get to know the shop, the type we have available and to become famiilar with working habits that will assist you in completing your work.
Past themes and titles for the letterpress exchange portfolio include "Circus Acts", "Hoax Tourism", "Hair", "Book Covers", "Zoo Posters", "Fantasy Rock Concert", "Relief", "Space Tourism" and "Anatomy of a Typeface". Each student can design and print whatever they want provided it fits some simple
size specifications and have hand-set type in the design.
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Want to get the word when Spring classes are schedued?! Sign up!
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Are you seeking a letterpress printer? |
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