Handmade and Letterpress Projects
Having a deep appreciation for and interest in all things analog design, I sought to develop my skills even further by taking a letterpress course. Learning how to set type, ink plates, and roll paper through the letterpress was a wonderful opportunity to connect with previous designers through the thousands-year-old tradition of letterpress. However, I have not only learned how to use letterpress—the importance of hand-crafted goods was also strongly emphasized and practiced. Everything was done by hand in this class with the exception of using an ink printer on two projects. Below are some of my favorite projects.
Handwoven Sketchbook
One project was to create sketchbooks and give one to every member of the class. I wanted to have a meaningful handmade quality, so I decided to weave the covers. The sketchbooks use two gradients to further elevate the design and are finished with a pamphlet stitch and deckle edge.
Cheese Trading Card
The prompt was to create a cheese trading card but not use any literal cheese imagery. Instead, I created a “cheese” block from the quote “Grate things take time,” alluding to the idea of cheese through the quote itself, by making the quote visually similar to a block of cheese, and by literally including an image of a cheese grater.
Triptych
Tasked to create a “triptych” with the guidelines to only use three pieces of paper and three words that tell a story, I created this sculptural take on a triptych. I used the phrase “Came to pass” and added dimension to the work by constructing a unique standing form.