Traditional Letterpress Projects (2018)

TRADITIONAL LETTERPRESS PROJECTS
/2018

Traditional Letterpress/ Typography/ Print Design/ Western and Chinese Typesetting/ Metal Type/ Crafts
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With grateful thanks to my mentor Yao Yu from Typesetttingsg

Project 1: Personal Project (Poetic Interpretation of Bible Verse)

Project 2-4: Quotes from The Little Prince, book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (SPH Singapore Book Fair 2018)

Project 5: Materials for Chinese Letterpress Workshop and Exhibition at Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre

(SCCC Cultural Extravaganza 2018)
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This is a compilation of projects produced during my 2-week internship at Typesettingsg. In the words of Eric Gill, designer of the sans-serif typeface Gill Sans, Typography (in the context of typesetting) refers to "the reproduction of lettering by means of movable letter types, originally done by pressing the inked surface or 'face' of letter made of wood or metal against a surface of paper or vellum." Through this internship, I was taught the process of typesetting by hand and letterpress printing— picking up metal types from type cases, arranging them on a composing stick with spaces and quads (upside down, left to right), locking up the form in a chase, inking the platen press, test printing and positioning of paper in the press, packing the press for appropriate print pressure on paper with varying thickness, printing, and cleaning of equipments. Besides practising the different approaches to Western and Chinese typesetting, I learned how to operate the Adana 8 x 5 Press, the Chandler & Price 6 x 10.5 Pilot Press, and the Showcard 7 x 11 Proof Press. Familiarising with different typefaces and the pica/ point system is necessary for sorting out the right metal types to use and for planning and composing a design prior to printing. Type specimen books, collections of typographical writings and good typography designs were made available for reference. The historical and cultural context of letterpress printing was also shared during the course of the internship.