Letterpress Printing (DE302)
This letterpress class is offered for fulltime students at the Massachusetts College of Art. The letterpress class takes place at the Mass Art Press and offers an introduction to hand set metal and wooden type, letterpress printing techniques, and limited edition printing on fine papers. Each semester the students devise a theme for an exchange portfolio. An exchange portfolio provides an opportunity for the students to recieve a copy of each other's work. The first class introduces the basics of hand typesetting with an "Exquisite Corpse" Poem workshop. Eeach student sets 1-2 lines of type, normally a quick thought, quip or idea made up on the spot. The combination of those lines of type comprise an impromptu poem. Results vary as studnets choose seemingly disparate idesas, and types, but soon see the interconnected practice of setting their thoughts into letters of a physical nature.

The next five weeks of the letterpress class covers additional typesetting techniques and cylinder press operation. The most intense class is called "Meet the Press". Letterpress class participants learn to to ink the press, adjust pressue, 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 the 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 blocks.

Past themes and titles for the letterpress exchange portfolio include "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.