Category Archives: hot metal

Banging Out – Fleet Street Remembered.

A documentary film, by  www.digital-works.co.uk, based on oral history interviews with former printers and journalists. “There used to be a tradition in Fleet Street newspapers called “banging out”. It involved an employee, on the day he retired after a life-time’s stalwart service to his chosen rag, being walked by his colleagues through the presses in […]

Los Ultimos – Letterpress printing in Argentina.

Endless Letterpress is a documentary about present of woodtype presses in Argentina, filmed by Nicolás Rodríguez Fuchs. Sadly I discovered this film after the fundraising effort had ended but more information can be found at fb.com/losultimosdoc “Buenos Aires deepest suburbs, July 2013. Three old print shops disputes the printing of cumbia and boxing posters. Second […]

I am the leaden army that conquers the world. I am type.

Of my earliest ancestry neither history nor relics remain. The wedge-shaped symbols impressed in plastic clay by Babylonian builders in the dim past foreshadowed me: from them, on through the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians, down to the beautiful manuscript letters of the mediaeval scribes, I was in the making. With the golden vision of […]

Jesús Morentin’s Bunkertype typography & letterpress studio.

Over recent months I have greatly enjoyed following  Bunkertype on Pinterest –  http://pinterest.com/bunkertype/ – in part due to our common admiration and respect for the letterpress work of  H.N. Werkman. Based in Barcelona, Jesús Morentin’s  Bunkertype letterpress studio produces beautiful and experimental letterpress work in small editions manually from metal and wood types. Bunkertype on […]

‘The Wit & Wisdom of Leopold Bloom’ – a letterpress book project.

Fresh from his three-month placement at  Typoretum, Jamie Murphy, a Dublin-based designer and letterpress printer, is seeking funding for an exciting letterpress book project – a limited edition of The Works of Master Poldy. The book will be printed by hand from wooden and metal types at  The Distillers Press in Dublin, where Jamie is […]

Pencil to Pixel – Exhibition of artifacts & artwork from the Monotype archive.

The history of  Monotype dates back to the late 19th Century, when it introduced groundbreaking new technology that revolutionised the production of metal type for letterpress printing.  Tolbert Lanston, the inventor of this technology and founder of The Lanston Monotype Machine Company, patented this mechanical typesetting system in 1887 and introduced the first hot metal […]

Presstival & Whittington Press Open Day, 1st September 2012

Located five miles east of Cheltenham in the shadow of an Elizabethan manor, the family-run Whittington press (established by John Randle in 1971) will be throwing open its doors on Saturday 1st September, accompanied by Presstival, an annual event for the delectation of printing and typography enthusiasts. Pat Randle, mastermind behind the event, has printed […]

Lewis Mitchell – Typecaster for life

A delightful short movie by the San Francisco Chronicle showing Lewis Mitchell at work, casting type on Monotype machines in the basement at the  Arion Press in San Francisco. “I thoroughly enjoy the sound of the machines turning, and seeing the type come out is a joy,” Mitchell said. He can tell by the sound […]

Silent Poster Sale – 2nd May 2012

This event is a collaboration between  St Bride Foundation and BA Graphic Design students from Central Saint Martins to fundraise both for the Library and for the 2012 Graphic Design Degree Show. Wednesday 2nd May 2012, 6.30-9.30pm, in the Bridewell Hall of the  St Bride Library. More information can be found at  http://stbride.org/events/silentpostersale and  http://silentpostersale.tumblr.com/

‘Ink & Paper’ documentary by Ben Proudfoot

A short documentary about the  Aardvark Press, one of the last letterpress printers in Los Angeles and  McManus & Morgan Paper, Los Angeles’ oldest artist paper distributor.