“Established in 1986, New North Press is an artisan letterpress print studio based in London. We have a substantial library of type, both wooden and metal, which we set by hand and print on Albion presses. The components and technique of this method of printing have remained unchanged for over a century so we are very proud to be able to keep this beautiful process alive.”

The New North Press

A very limited number of these posters can be purchased directly from Bradley at  bradley [at] hotsonstudio.com.

‘Advice for the Road’ letterpress poster by Bradley Hotson

Bradley Hotson preparing the printing forme on my Farley 24a proofing press

“I never had the pleasure of meeting Mr Kelly before his passing in 2004, but his 1969 book American Wood Type: 1828–1900 influenced my initial interest in the topic more than anything else. The book is by far the most definitive source of information on wood type, and I find it hard to imagine anyone else surpassing Kelly’s level of dedication to such research.

Beyond his research and writing on wood type, Kelly is known for his role as a graphic design educator, among many other things. My goal here is not to write his biography though; I am by no means an authority on his life’s work. I only wish to acknowledge his influence on my own interests and endeavors. With that in mind, I’m dedicating this new journal to Rob Roy Kelly.”

Specimen Book of wood type from the Silver Buckle Press

“I’ll be using this platform to record thoughts and observations – both of my own and of others – on topics such as wood type, large-scale lettering, decorative typefounding, sign painting, penmanship, poster printing, engraving, etc. While these subjects are decidedly historic in nature and often lead to research-based projects, part of my goal in beginning this journal is to also frame these things in a contemporary context. The proverbial dust covering traditional graphic arts is being cleared away more and more by changes in technology and how people adapt and reinterpret obsolete design paradigms. As such, it only seems appropriate that this new journal is being published digitally.”

“Achieving anything even close to the work of Rob Roy Kelly is far beyond my goals; but to honor his memory I will attempt, in my own way, to at least begin to pick up where he left off.”

Inky hand and woodtype samples (image by Nick Sherman)

The range of type styles is matched by the wide range of woods from which the letters are carved and each alphabet has its own unique qualities and cutting style. Some of the older wooden typefaces within my collection are even hand carved, rather than having been routed on a machine such as those used in the woodletter factory of DeLittle’s of York.

The type styles shown on this sample sheet are as follows: Gill Sans, Latin Elongated, Old Style Grotesque, Expanded Antique, Elongated Sans Surryphs, Decorated French Antique, Decorated Sans Surryphs, Pointed Antique, Antique Old Style Bold, Expanded Grotesque, Bold Latin, Ornamented Wide Latin, French Antique and Grotesque.

Letterpress cover by JMG, for the Winter (96) edition of Le Cool

Jon Kielty and Ross Shaw, aka JMG.

Ross, Jon and myself collaborate under the guise of  The Occasional Print Club, along with Pat Randle, producing experimental letterpress work in addition to maintaining our own solo and joint projects.

Le Cool magazine is a free, weekly magazine presenting a selection of concerts, djs, exhibitions, odd movies and other cultural events and happenings. It is intriguing that a magazine that will only ever exist in digital form should feature a cover created entirely by hand using the ancient craft of letterpress, although this is further evidence of renewed interest in the process.

All of these cards are now available for purchase via our website at  http://www.typoretum.co.uk/christmas_letterpress_cards.html and a brief rationale for each design can be read here.

Design No. 1:
‘NOEL’ Woodletter Christmas card

Design No. 2:
Antique Woodletter Season’s Greetings card

Design No. 3:
‘Christmas Greetings’ Woodletter Concertina card

Design No. 4 (colour option No. 1):
Floral ornament snowflake card in red and gold

Design No. 4 (colour option No. 2):
Floral ornament snowflake card in blue and silver

Our letterpress cards are lovingly hand typeset and printed onto the finest quality 100% cotton 300gsm Somerset Textured printmaking paper. All of our cards are supplied with a high quality soft white envelope and the inside of each card has been left blank for your own message.

We also offer a personalisation service for all of our letterpress Christmas cards and we are pleased to provide quotations on request. For more information about personalisation of our letterpress cards, please contact us.

It was printed on my manual Farley proofing press, directly from an assortment of wooden letters, ornaments and printers’ rules, in an edition of 45 (of which I only have one copy left) onto Zerkall cotton paper. Creating this print was a great deal of fun and required creative use of spacing material and every single angle quad space that I could lay my hands on!