Post-Digital Letterpress Printing Research, Education and Practice

This book presents an overview of the convergence of traditional letterpress with contemporary digital design and fabrication practices. Reflecting on the role of letterpress within the emergent hybrid post-digital design process, contributors present historical and contemporary analysis, grounded in case studies and current practice. The main themes covered include the research on letterpress as a technology and medium; a reflection on the contribution of letterpress to arts and design education; and current artistic and communication design practice merging past, present and future digital fabrication processes. This will be of interest to scholars working in graphic design, communication design, book design, typography, typeface design, design history, printing, and production technologies.

Foreword Johanna Drucker Introduction Part I:Research The Seven Lives of a Typeface: Material and Immaterial Convergences Amelia Hugill-Fontanel 1. Appropriating printing Caroline Archer-Parré 2. Orlando Erasto Portela: relations between the creative process and letterpress printing methods of an (almost) unknown designer from the mid-twentieth century Nuno Coelho 3. The Mark on The Wall Ane Thon Knutsen Part2: Education Poiesis and purpose: lessons in making Catherine Dixon 4. The role of the letterpress workshop Rúben Dias & Sofia Meira 5. From letterpress to screen: Learning from a modular type system Roberto Gamonal Arroyo and Andreu Balius Planelles 6. PDLPX: The Post-digital Letterpress Print Exchange. Methodological Innovation in the exploration of contemporary letterpress practice Chris Wilson 7. Letterpress experiments in a design course Rita Carvalho Part 3: Practice The Rising Letters – Seven criteria for the typographic design of a letterpress archive Jorge dos Reis 8. Digital Fabrication: Expanding Access to and Preservation of Letterpress Printing Erin Beckloff 9. Resisting Hyper-Digitalization Investigating Hybrid-Practices in Contemporary Graphic Design Lucrezia Russo 10. Computational Design Letterpress: from procedural programming to modular printing Pedro Amado and Ana Catarina Silva

Pedro Manuel Reis Amado is Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Porto, and member of the i2ADS Research Institute. Ana Catarina Silva is Assistant Professor in the School of Design at the Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, and member of the ID+ / CAOS Research Institute. Vítor Quelhas is Assistant Professor in the School of Media Arts and Design at the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, and member of the ID+ / Unimad Research Institutes.