Talk Over Print

I was delighted to be asked to contribute to TALK OVER PRINT, a recent publication produced by Foundation Press.

TALK OVER PRINT was a collaborative publication made for/during BALTIC Self Publishers Market, April 27 2019. 

TALK OVER PRINT is a collection of thoughts, both from those sharing books at the market and from self-publishers invited from outside of the northeast. 

Contributions by: Holly Argent (Women Artists of the North East Library), Steven Appleton, Giles Bailey, Elsa Bajracharya, Paul Becker, Holly Birtles, Jessie Churchill, Craig Pound (Dizzy Ink), Freya Dooley, Theresa Easton, Peter Falkous, Marc Fischer & Brett Bloom (Temporary Services), Barry Fox, Annalisa Furnari, Cath Garvey, John Harrison, Samuel Hasler, Ann Jarmolowicz, Pete Kennedy, Robin Kirkham (An Endless Supply), Annette Knol, Leeds United, Leonard McDermid, London Centre for Book Arts, Olisa. L.Osanakpo, Paper Jam Comics Collective, RISOGRAD, Riso Soup, Sabrina Schmid, Rosalie Schweiker, Helen Shaddock, Cherry Styles, Richard Swan, Julia Vogl, Matthew Walkerdine, Fritz Welch, Thomas Whittle, Andrew Wilson, Megan Winstone.

Foundation Press at Pop Recs, Sunderland

Last week Foundation Press were setting up and displaying risograph posters by Foundation Press and collaborators made for the upcoming gigs at Pop Recs in Sunderland.

I had participated in a couple of the sessions with Foundation Press to create the typography and the background imagery for the posters, and look forward to seeing the full range of designs over the next few months.

 

Colour blending with Foundation Press

Following on from the weekend typeface workshop at Pop Recs, I went to the home of Foundation Press in the National Glass Centre, Sunderland to join them for some riso printing.

Foundation Press are collaboratively designing printed posters for upcoming gigs and events at Pop Recs, the independent record shop / cafe / arts space / venue in Sunderland. They will print a new set of posters exploring the colour blending possibilities of risograph printers and hand-made experimental typefaces. 

Today we began making printing templates for the poster backgrounds using geometric shapes, patterns and colour blends. 

The risograph printer resembles a photocopier, and works in a similar way. A colour drum is inserted into the riso. The riso prints one colour at a time. A greyscale image is placed face down onto the photocopy bed, and the riso copier is programmed to make a master template. The image is transferred onto the roller, and then multiple copies can be made. Every time the colour is changed, the master template needs to be transferred onto the newly inserted roller. 

Riso works really well for layering different colours on top of each other, and it is possible to create interesting colour blends.

Here are some of my tests using 3 colours: teal, fluorescent pink and yellow.

We also tried some other designs.

Then began to incorporate the text that we had done at the weekend.

Some were more successful combinations than others.

Foundation Press Workshop at Pop Records, Sunderland

The weekend got off to a great creative start as I participated in a workshop run by Foundation Press. Foundation Press is an experimental printing press, operating as a space for testing collaborative approaches to printing and publishing. It is currently run by Debbie Bower, Adam Phillips and Joe Woodhouse with students from the Foundation Diploma Art & Design course at University of Sunderland.



This was the first of two workshops to collaboratively design printed posters for upcoming gigs and events at Pop Recs in Sunderland, an independent record shop, cafe, arts space and venue.

Inspired by simple but iconic text posters like those made by Colby Poster Printing Co in L.A – Foundation Press will print a new set of posters exploring the colour blending possibilities of risograph printers and hand-made experimental typefaces.



Our initial challenge was to come up with our own band name. There were a number of photocopied bits of text that we could cut up and mix with other words to form interesting band name suggestions.

We were then to create hand-made letter sets, using a cut and paste method with photocopies, glue and scissors. We each picked a set of images that had been photocopied, and with these we were tasked with creating an alphabet.

The selection of images included various food items such as vegetables, meats and candy-canes, hair, bears, clouds, bubbles and more geometric shapes like the set I chose.

This is how my alphabet turned out:

Here are some of the other alphabets created in the workshop:

 Using candy-cane and hair imagery

 Using images of vegetables

 Using an image of a bear

At the next session we will be printing from these typefaces and will experiment with colour blending techniques. I'm looking forward to some riso-action!

On Saturday 18th November the finished posters will be displayed along with cut-offs and experiments in an exhibition at Pop Recs.

Talking design ideas with Unstapled Press

At my last meeting with Unstapled Press we agreed that we would all begin gathering ideas for the design of my publication, and discuss these when we next met. During this period, Rene and I visited the Artists Bookmarket at the BALTIC where we looked carefully at how different text-based books had been produced.

  


We were very impressed by the work of Foundation Press, a Risograph press and publishing facility run by the Foundation Art and Design Programme at the University of Sunderland. We spent a long time talking to Joe Woodhouse about the process and the opportunities for artists to use the resource. It seems like an ideal process to use for printing relatively simple designs at reasonable prices and fairly quickly. The simple designs worked well, a colour for the background image and a different colour for the foreground text or image. I'm keen to explore the potential of using Foundation Press to print my publication.

Holly brought along Print Control, a publication showcasing the 'best printed matter from Poland.' Some of the examples within the book, and also the format of the book itself, gave me ideas for my own work.

Cathy's socks provided inspiration for colour schemes.

We began to draw ideas of possible designs and layouts, and in the next week we will share our ideas with each other and go from there. Exciting times!