久等了!
Here’s the wallpaper for February~
This design was meant for the Valentine’s Day cards for the letterpress workshop, but the graphic is too “detailed” and the plate for it couldn’t be produced in time.
So I thought it could be “recycled” for the wallpaper this month :)
❉ Go to wallpapers and download them!
Finally, letterpress is no longer just something I’ve seen in shops or read in books, but something I’ve actually done!
This past Sunday, I signed up for a letterpress workshop at a local letterpress studio–Modus. From typesetting to lock-up to operating the platen press, I had the opportunity to participate in the whole process of letterpress printing. It isn’t as easy as it may seem, and it involves a lot of patience and practice.
When I was typesetting the metal types, I thought of how people has used this method to print for centuries. And then I thought the way we type with keyboard and designing layouts with InDesign…. True, today we can save lots of time and money in printing, and make everything line up perfectly and every print outs identical, but is it necessarily better? And yes, letterpress printing can be quite tedious sometimes, and the result isn’t consistent, but I think we appreciate the crafty feeling and imperfectness that automated machines can’t achieve.
When I said tedious, it really was, such as putting the fonts together and aligning them with small metal pieces; “locking-up” the type with wooden blocks (called “furniture”) and quoins (expansion devices) into a metal frame (“chase”), and making sure it’s not too loose and not too tight; and aligning artwork on the printing plate. You really need to be detail oriented and VERY patient, otherwise you might need to start all over again.
Despite all the challenges, I still managed to print out two kinds of cards – a Valentine’s Day card and a contact card – without any major “disasters.” Now I love letterpress even more!
❉ Special thanks to Manna, the owner of Modus and instructor of the workshop.
❈ 留言的人有機會拿到 Bee Mine 情人節卡喔! 數量有限, 請在 2/7 之前寄給我妳的住址: annie[at]lemonni[dot]com
My Work in Uppercase
I received my Uppercase magazine this morning in mail, and I found that my work has been selected!!
Few months ago, Uppercase magazine had a call-for-submissions for “candy wrapper redesign.” I thought it could be fun, so I actually bought a box of chocolate Pocky and scan them. Yes, SCAN. Literally. And gave the package a new look.
I kinda thought the design was okay back then, but it still got published! I was so thrilled when I saw my name and work in the magazine :D