Recently updated on February 10th, 2021 at 06:07 pm
Many designers are getting caught up in the resurgence of this form of printing. Often, the style of letterpress is adopted by digital designers and reproduced via state of the art lithography for a mass audience. For those who are enthusiasts and for those who simply wish to gain an introductory knowledge of this art form, we announce these upcoming opportunities to learn and grow.
Contemporary Studio Letterpress 14 weeks. Tuesday nights, 7–10.
September 13 – December 13, 2011.
Art Center College of Design, Archetype Press, South Campus. Sponsored by Art Center at Night.
950 South Raymond Avenue, Pasadena
Digital Letterpress 10 weeks. Saturday afternoon, 1:30–4:30
September 10 – November 12, 2011.
Introduction to Letterpress 10 weeks. Thursday night, 7–10.
September 15 – November 17, 2011.
Project-Based Studio Letterpress 10 weeks. Sunday afternoon, 1:30–4:30.
September 11 – November 13, 2011.
Otis Continuing Education will hold its Fall 2011 Open House on Sunday, August 21st from 1 to 3 pm at Goldsmith Campus. Discounts on registration are available at this time.
Otis College of Art and Design, Otis Lab Press,
Goldsmith Campus. Sponsored by Otis Continuing Education.
9045 Lincoln Blvd, Los Angeles (Westchester)
Gerald Lange is the proprietor and founder (1975) of The Bieler Press, a small printing, and publishing firm specializing in studio letterpress, typographic design, and the publication of finely-printed limited edition books and related matter. Lange provides instruction at Art Center College of Design (since 2000) and Otis College of Art and Design (since 1997).
From 1986 to 1993, he was Master Printer at the USC Fine Arts Press. While at the University of Southern California, he was also editor of the scholarly journal Coranto. Lange has also taught workshops/coursework for California Institute of the Arts, Minnesota Center for Book Arts (Master classes), Scripps College (Frederic W. Goudy Workshops), Kent State University (Blossom Visual Communication Design Workshop), University of Minnesota, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Q: What presses do you have in your shop, and of those which do you prefer?
GL: Two presses, a Vandercook SP-15 and a Vandercook Universal III are currently in the shop. In the last 35 years, I’ve had maybe a dozen Vandercooks but these seem the best by far.
Q: Do you remember the first full font of type you owned? Do you still have it?
GL: The first brand new type I ever bought was Goudy Old Style. It’s long gone. As I switched over from metal to digital in the 1990s I went from some three dozen cabinets down to four. I hung on to the new European foundry type.
Q: Is letterpress a kind of materialist fetish, or will it keep its value as a trade and craft?
GL: The recent interest has been fostered by the web. If one seriously considers the future of letterpress it doesn’t look all that promising. It is limited by the very nature of its current attraction; its material basis. There are no new presses being built, there are no more commercially viable metal type foundries. Letterpress is “hot” right now but trends evolve. Then again, no one can, with any certainty, predict the future.
