WEEK 7 - Fall 2010

Workshop : Letterpress


This class was held in the MICA Printmaking Dept, with a demonstration on Letterpress by Kyle Van Horn. Students were asked weeks earlier to take a sketch or finished piece of art from their Lab sketchbooks and devise/design artwork for a 2.5x3.5 card. They could imagine this as a business card, a tag or label for their final project. The art was sent out for negatives, and polymer plates were made by Kyle with assistance from Ida Liffner [an exchange student in the class]. Ida wanted to learn more about making polymer plates and volunteered her time. Here are the pdf's of their cards:

 


[all artwork shown here is © 2010 by each student]


Students were also asked to bring in various sheets of paper to print on. If you have an interest in letterpress, there are a number of great people who are working in Baltimore in this illustration-friendly medium:
Kat Feuerstein's Gilah Press + Design
Mary Mashburn's Typecast Press
Val Lucas' Bowerbox Press


Letterpress is one of my favorite printmaking mediums. My new business card is letterpress, 2 sides, done at Gilah, printed by Whitney Cecil:

 


I was in Toronto at the Grad Fair Day talking about my new MFA in Illustration Practice, a program that grew out of this class The Lab, and sorry to miss this demo. Pictures will be added as soon as I receive them!


HOMEWORK: Prepare for Mid-term crits by organizing your work and bringing in all of your process work, sketchbook and prototypes. Read Project Assessment document and use to write your Creative Brief. 

Art Market : Register Now

The Art Market registration form is currently live. Please register today to insure your spot at the Illustration table. http://www.mica.edu/artmarket

ALSO: Please turn in your negatives to the IL Office, if you haven't done so already. Many of you had not and we need them to burn the plates ahead of time. It takes 2 1/2 hrs to burn them...we can't do it on Tues morning, so if your neg is not in by this weekend [place it in my mailbox], you won't be able to print on Tuesday!

WEEK 5

Our guest today was Jaime Zollars who talked to the class about online marketing, DIY festivals/events, resources for making prints, shirts and card and much, much more. Jaime brought in a collection of shirts, wrapping paper, cards, and prints. She shared her enormous wealth of information and offered to answer more questions if you contact her. Her hand-outs are keepers. If you missed this class, pls see me to photocopy my set of her hand-outs. And to read more about Jaime, go to this interview in Communication Arts.

I also did a quick demo on the button-maker. An 8.5x11" Adobe Illustrator file is available with a copy line for your name and copyright info on it. It's easy to do. You can use the 1" button-maker in the IL Office. Check with friends and classmates to see if someone wants to split the cost of supplies and save money. You can buy supplies at Button Biz or American Button Machines.

HOMEWORK : Everyone should have had their negatives done for this week but most of you didn't. IMPORTANT : Please get you negatives done and drop them off to Erin in the IL Office BEFORE Friday Oct 2. Kyle needs to burn the polymer plates ahead of time so we can all print next Tuesday. Bring to class next week, materials to test out your letterpress demo on. Keep working on your project!! Also bring in work-in-progress for the afternoon review.

WHAT WILL YOU MAKE? Take a look at some of the past projects done for The Lab! More will be posted in days to come, but for now, enjoy these three books:

ELIZABETH GRAEBER'S "Second Monday at Noon" Recipe Book:

SIMONE THORNTON'S Sketchbook Anthology with screenprinted stickers:

HALI MALTSBERGER "Sleep" Book with accompanying CD:

 

During the semester we will visit small creative businesses including SQUIDFIRE, ATOMIC POP and DOUBLE DUTCH. They will give you insights into their beginnings and backstories. They'll also give you valuable advice about your project.

This is from our visit to Squidfire one year:

And our Letterpress demo with Kyle Van Horn:

And we'll have class visits including a workshop on branding with MIKE WEIKERT. Let's get started!