PILLOWFACE PRESS is a small printmaking studio I set up to experiment with handset typography and photopolimer. Until recently, ours was one of the most traditional and conservative trades. For five hundred years, the tools and techniques of assembling type have not changed. Fonts were discreet, tangible things, you experienced on a physical level. In every letter, every space and ruler, there was a trace of the creators hand. Computers changed everything. Typesetting became easy and responsive, type choices became infinite, and the layout possibilities became limitless, bound only by the the imagination of a designer. But some people still cling to the old ways. They long for the harmony of a line justified by hand, and the slight bite that the metal blocks leave on the paper. They rejoice in the tiny variations between prints, and the smell of fresh ink. I’ve gotten into design because I fell in love with computers. I’ve gotten into letterpress, because I fell in love with design.¶

Carte de Visite — a petite version of the better known Cabinet Cards.
Printed letterpress on a 5x8 Kelsey with brown oil-based ink.