Sewer-Sewist » letterpress

Best of ’09: Blazers Letterpress Project

Sarah — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:00:07 +0000

I’ve spent a lot of time dwelling of how awful 2009 was for us–which is probably not all that healthy, but it was bad at an epic level. However, in my continuing effort to be more positive, I thought I’d take the chance to write about my favorite project of the last year. Amazingly, it wasn’t sewing or screenprinting, it was one of my first letterpress projects. I realized I’d never really shared this project with “the World,” though all my Portland buddies have seen the results in person.

I was never able to print this type, but it was for the back of the Brandon Roy card--the header read, "The Reason." Because, when it comes down to it, B-Roy is the reason that many, many people came back to the Trail Blazers, after the team had some very dark days.

What I really loved about this project, is that I got to experiment with photopolymer and the results of using different ink and paper combinations. My original goal was to print an entire team set of basketball cards, complete with back descriptions. However, between limited access to printing facilities and my workload increasing, I didn’t make my goal. However, I was very happy with the prints I did make. The red were printed in open editions, but I limited the silver to a small run of 12 each. The cards are around 3×4, printed on acid free paper, with round corners. The silver ink is actually made with silver–so the metallic quality has a lot of depth, and I suspect that it may be oil-based–given how long it took to dry and how difficult the clean-up was. The variations in the red are due to mixing the red at different times (I have to hand-blend the rubber ink), I also learned that if consistency is important, you need to mix all your ink at once. I ended up only writing a few descriptions, again, because I ran out of time with the letterpress studio and hand-setting all that type is extremely cumbersome.

So, with all that said, here are the results (please keep in mind that these are based off of the 2008-09 team, not the current team)…

This is Rudy Fernandez–if he were traded, the collective heart of Portlanders would break, he is incredibly popular, and the showman on the team (he can fire up a crowd like I’ve never seen). I had a really difficult time creating the artwork for this one without Rudy looking like a zombie; he has smallish eyes and fine features, so I had to improvise a lot to get him to look “right.” Rudy’s probably the most enthusiastic person I’ve ever see play any sport, and he clearly loves his job, so I tried to replicate this in this letterpress portrait. This card is dedicated to one of my favorite people, my friend Michelle (who I met at a Blazers game last year).

Oh, Greg Oden. This was one of my favorites to design and print, because I really wanted to capture the funny, charming #1 pick that Blazers fans fell in love with before his ill-fated rookie season–and I think I did that fairly well. My mom and I were at the game earlier this season in which he broke his kneecap, and we were both choking back tears. All I can say is, in our house, we still believe in #52.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s portrait is the least portrait-y of them all, intentionally because I tend to think of him as only existing on the basketball court. I am actually grateful that I never got around to having to come up with content for the back of this card, I don’t think I would have had much material. It seems like there have only been a couple of in-depth interviews with the Blazers power forward, and we don’t know a ton about him. We do, however, know that LaMarcus Aldridge does not seek your popular applause.

Travis Outlaw and I have a strange history–he drove me nuts all of the 2006-07 season. And, I wanted the team to sign Ime Udoka instead of extending Travis’ contract (this has more to do with Ime being from Portland than anything–I’m very loyal to fellow Oregonians, it seems like there’s so few of us sometimes). However, over the summer, I started to feel guilty about it, and then I figured out that Travis was really, really funny. So, I actually spent the next season making amends with Travis, and cheered extra loudly for him whenever he took the court or really did anything–and he was pretty awesome during the team’s crazy 13-game winning streak in 2007-08. So, now I’m really fond of Trav, but, unfortunately, he too is injured. I love how he turned out in letterpress. He may look a bit like an alien, but it really looks like Travis. In a sense, this one is the most true-to-life card, right down to the look he has on his face. He always has that look on his face. I would have had a great time composing the back of his card–there is a lot of wonderful material out there featuring his “Travisms.”

Nicolas Batum’s letterpress card was the first one I made, and I was pretty thrilled with it. You can really tell how young he is, and to me the look of it illustrates how promising he is as a player. I can’t explain why, but it’s the way he’s looking upward that really does it for me. This was one of the few that I had time to do the typesetting for the back, and I’m sure glad. (By the way, the “Frenchie” nickname seems to have stuck, since Adidas now provides Nico with custom sneakers with it stitched on them.)

This was my only letterpress card that is of someone who is no longer on the team, Channing Frye. This card is based off of a photo taken by the extremely talented Brian Kroll. (Go check out his awesome photography!) I love that this image is very clearly a non-basketball portrait, since the reasons that I’m such a Channing fan have far more to do with the was he embraced Portland as his home and little to do with the sport (though, I don’t think you could ask for anyone to have a better attitude while facing adversity on a basketball team). While he’s having lots of success in Phoenix now (and playing with two of my favorites: Grant Hill and Steve Nash), I sure do miss his blog posts about living in Portland… Incidentally, my quasi-famous “Channing for Mayor” shirt still gets the occasional comment. In terms of the actual printing, I was really challenged with this one, since I wanted to have fine details that were true to Brian’s photo–which is hard to do in letterpress. After a lot of trial and error, I think I was able to capture that, and it feels the most “real” of all of the portraits. (Pats self on back.)

I really developed a soft spot for Martell Webster last year, when he was injured the entire season (oddly, it’s the exact same foot injury as Travis Outlaw has right now). That sounds weird, I know, but I went to a lot of games really early last year (to get good parking), and before most games I watched from my seat in the 300 level as Martell went from kid to kid (and a lot of adults, too) who clamored for a professional basketball player to say “hello” to them. You could tell that it meant a lot to those fans, but what really struck me was how he never rushed away, always looked thrilled to talk to everyone and was just the epitome of gracious to everyone to whom he talked. It was some kind of impressive. I know nothing about the circumstances of why he was so good to all those folks, and never saw an interview about it, but I certainly won’t forget it. Furthermore, Martell famously–while in his walking boot–pushed two people’s cars out of the snow during a storm. I just have a feeling that he’s a really good dude. Actually, this fall I saw Martell while he was driving, stopped at an intersection, and I was walking the dog. When I did a triple-take (I’m sure it was pretty funny) and realized it was him and smiled like a total dork, he very nicely smiled back, so there’s that too. I do fear that since I’m a big Marty fan, it will result in his being traded, since I have that awful Blazers karma. Anyway… Printing-wise, I am actually kind of disappointed in this one. Martell is a very good-looking guy, with very distinctive features, but I had a hard time translating that into the letterpress medium. I like the look of this print, but I’m just not thrilled with it actually being a portrait.

This is my favorite, Brandon Roy. I think I got really attached to this one, because I spent so much flipping time working on it. Brandon has very distinctive features, but they’re kind of fine, so translating that into the letterpress medium was a tremendous challenge. I actually really struggle with creating the artwork (I create it digitally, in Adobe Illustrator) for letterpress projects, because I’m not very confident in my ability in visual arts. So, I invested days and days and days of work into creating my first Brandon print, which was terrible! He looked, well, scary. Which was definitely not the look I was going for. Finally, when I was almost ready to give up, I hit on this design, and I love it. The eyes were the toughest part, like with the Rudy print, and I like how the eyes translated in ink and paper in this one–especially in the silver. I am really proud of this one, and it’s really the first thing that I’ve made that actually feels like it’s “Art.”

~Sarah

P.S. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I have to remind folks to please not use my images without my permission. I have had a lot of trouble with that lately, particularly with sports bloggers stealing my images off of my All Rights Reserved Flickr stream and posting them on their blogs–without credit or permission. All of the thieves has had ads on their sites (one was an ESPN-affiliate blog), so they are literally making money off of my work without compensating me. I’m sure many of you have been dismayed to find your work on other people’s sites, and I encourage you to combat content theft–it helps protect all of our intellectual and creative property.

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Check Out My Dabbled Guest Post

Sarah — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 04:05:27 +0000

One of my favorite creativity blogs is the wonderful Dabbled blog. So I was thrilled when I was asked to write a guest post about letterpress while Nancy’s on vacation in Europe. Hopefully, this post will be helpful to those of you who are contemplating learning letterpress. It’s a lot of work–but the rewards are fabulous. Check it the post right here.

Also, I’m thinking I should get some special props for working multiple Trail Blazers references into a post about letterpress on an art blog. Just sayin’…

~Sarah

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Letterpress Project Preview

Sarah — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:15:48 +0000

As I mentioned in my last post, I didn’t get a chance to finish up my project during our letterpress seminar last week. But I did go back on Monday and work on the fronts a bit. This it half of my postcard project. I haven’t printed any of the other side yet. I think I mentioned this before, but this project is inspired by a couple of my favorite Portland-y things–the Steel Bridge and the Loretta Lynn-Jack White song, Portland, Oregon.

I created the letterpress using three different techniques, which always makes me happy. Not because it’s more complicated (it’s really not), but because I love the vastly different results you can get in letterpress, depending on your approach. For the back, I used type–obviously. For the front, I carved a 4″x6″ linoleum block in sort of a freeform oblong shape and printed it in an ultra transparent gray with a good measure of reflex blue mixed in.

Here’s what the lino block looks like set up in the press bed:

(Thrilling, huh?) And this is how it looks printed on the paper:

Then, using a photopolymer plate and artwork I’d created of the Steel Bridge, I printed over it in a darker, bluer gray.

The idea with using the lighter gray first was that it created that hazy, monotone look the Willamette River (pronounced Wil-am-it) gets sometimes, when you can’t tell the difference between the water and sky. It’s quite beautiful, and something that I’ve really only seen here. I wish I had a photo of that effect… I love the functional beauty of the Steel Bridge, and how trains pass under it all the time without anyone really noticing. It’s a real workhorse of a structure.

Anyway, I’m printing the other half of my cards with another version from the song,

Well I lost my heart.
It didn’t take no time.
But that ain’t all.
I lost my mind in Oregon.

Steel Bridge photo via Portland Bridges.

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Letterpress Workshop – Final Day

Josh & Sarah — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:42:19 +0000

Today was the last day of our letterpress workshop–and it sure was fun getting to spend four full days together doign letterpress. Josh really enjoyed learning a new skill and I liked getting focused back on something I really am enthusiastic about, but have been too busy to make time for lately. (The big downside of letterpress is that it’s not something you can just go do at the drop of a hat. You have to travel to the press, plan out your work, etc… Not like sewing and screenprinting, which you can can anywhere, anytime.) I didn’t get to print today (long story), although I did get some more type set, and a linoleum block carved up. Josh, however, did the bulk of his printing using a process that enables simple two-color registration called “skeleton printing.” I can’t explaint this very well, but basically you slide type in and out of your press bed so that you get perfect registration. It’s extremely simple, yet not something I would have been able to figure out in a million years on my own. Josh’s postcard project was a two-color print with cascading letters based on the Negro League All-Star game in 1935. It turned out absolutely beautifully.

Josh's locked up type for his baseball project.

Josh operating the press.

Locked up type from Josh's project.

The first color on Josh's postcards--check out the names, they're awesome.

Both colors printed on fawn-colored paper.

And another--you can really see how the type cascades across the paper.

Detail of this beautiful type called Prisma.

Josh should probably write about this some more, but he radically changed the nature of his project over the four days. He started out trying to create a linoleum cut print about the demise of the economy of Dayton, Ohio, but he found that it was making him stressed out and frustrated. He then switched to this baseball-themed project and it really took off. I think that really speaks to the importance of thinking about how the subject will make you feel while your working on your creation, doesn’t it?

~Sarah

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Day Three of Letterpress – Now Our Feet Really Hurt

Sarah — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 02:20:10 +0000

Lots of fun printing today in day three of four-day letterpress workshop. Josh had a few minor “issues” to deal with–his type wasn’t as cooperative as he had hoped. I hopped onto one of the printing presses first thing (nerds that we are, we went an hour early) and printed up the text for half of my postcards. I also worked on some photopolymer and did some lino-cutting. A busy, full day. One of the highlights was just watching all of the folks who’d never letterpress printed print their work for the first time–everyone was just so happy! Tomorrow, I’ll make sure to photograph the other students’ work–folks are extremely talented, for sure.

Inked rollers...

Inked rollers & locked up type.

Hot pink ink. (Not ours.)

Hot pink draw down. (Not ours--but a fabulous color!)

Green ink--this is a gorgeous transparent green that another student mixed. It's lovely seeing something so vibrant also be translucent.

Green ink draw down.

Back of my type project.

This is an ink-stained table in the print studio.

~Sarah

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Another Day Letterpressing…

Sarah — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 00:58:49 +0000

Josh printing for the first time.

Josh's first printing project--some calling cards for his dad.

Letterpress gears--this one's on "Tony"--the larger of the Vandercooks at PNCA.

Josh's type.

The type in the corner is six point--so tiny, and so lovely. This is from my project.

~Sarah

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Photos from Letterpress Workshop

Sarah — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:06:26 +0000

We had a lot of fun in the first day of our letterpress workshop today. For me, It was interesting being one of the more experienced students, since I was definitely the least experienced in my letterpress class in the spring. In fact, I’m probably the most experienced student in the workshop. I realized that I actually know a lot about letterpress, even though I don’t feel completely confident with the medium. Josh has such a unique creative eye, and because of that, it’s such a treat watching him learn something completely new. I think he totally understood why I had said my brain hurts after several hours in the letterpress studio–it really taxes you mentally (and when you’re actually printing it taxes you physically as well). One of the things I didn’t do enough of when I was in class before was photograph the actual type, so I made sure to do it this time. Here are some of my favorite type “Glamor Shots.”

Josh's intro type-setting project. The stag is actually an impala--like would be used in an old Chevy ad.

Times 12 type--this is from my project this spring. I have quite a bit of type set from that project that I still need to print. I plan on finishing that up in the next few weeks.

More type from my spring project--the script is Raleigh 30, which is a beautiful italic type. It's very difficult to set because you have to use "wedgie things" to make sure everything's straight.

Ornaments. It boggles my mind how many unusual ones there are.

88 - Spartan Bold Condensed 72. I love this type so much it kind of makes me hyperventilate. This is a piece of a block from my spring project still needing to be printed.

California job case. This is where type is stored. I believe this one was for Bank Gothic.

This is from my summer project--it's part of the lyrics from a favorite song of mine, "Portland, Oregon" sung by Loretta Lynn and Jack White.

Brackets--you just can't reproduce this with a computer.

Punctuation. Did you know that printers invented punctuation?

One of my favorite types, Ad Sense.

I also experimented with the “Chroma” setting on my camera. I love how it makes the images look like they were taken with a lomographic camera. Type is perfect for photographing on this setting.

The two blocks of type from my spring project still needing to be printed. I am really proud of the type-setting on these.

The song lyrics for my summer project.

I’m going to keep my camera with me all weekend long, so I’ll have more photos of type and projects to share…

~Sarah

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