workshops | The Print Project

The Print Project at Small Town Ink

Posted on April 15th, 2013 by Admin

Exhibitions, Posters, Printing, Process, Wood Type, workshops

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PUSHING TRADITIONAL PRINT IN A NEW DIRECTION

Specialised, heart-warming and unique, traditional print is making a resurgence amongst young designers who have hit saturation point with the computer. Taking design back to its roots SMALL TOWN INK is hosting a traditional print day at the University of Leeds on Wednesday 24th April.

Promoted to introduce and educate young designers in traditional printing methods, this free event will include the chance to use letterpress equipment supplied by The Print Project and Richard Lawrence, who will both be giving workshops throughout the day, mixed in with talks on traditional printing methods. The day will also include a print exhibition showcasing work from a variety of local print makers, as well as a print fair to browse and pick up some fantastic pieces of work. Local workshops and studios will also be attending, providing information on what resources are available in the local area if you want to experience print for yourself.

Promoter of the event Vicky White says, “It is worrying that many educational establishments are beginning to cut down on traditional printing methods in favour of digital techniques, especially with an increasing interest in more personal hand crafted design. Young designers are desperately searching for answers as to how the distinctive and unique elements of traditional print come about and what resources are available to them in their local area. The SMALL TOWN INK print day hopes to help answer these questions, whilst celebrating and introducing more designers to the incredible world of print”.

For more details and information contact Vicky White at SMALL TOWN INK.

Email: victoriawhite.design@gmail.com

For regular updates follow us on twitter and instagram: @smalltown_ink and see our website: www.smalltownink.co.uk

SMALL TOWN INK Traditional Print Day

Venue: University of Leeds, The School of Design, Grass Studio

Date: Wednesday 24th April 2013. 10.30am – 5pm

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Still alive…just!

Posted on March 24th, 2013 by Admin

Letterpress, Process, Shop, workshops

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The interweb is great and all that but GOD it takes up FAR TOO MUCH time which could be spent outside chatting to a horned goat about which Bathory LP they prefer or chasing rabbits around a minefield wearing clown shoes. Right?

Updating this website is a complete ball-ache.

We’re on Twitter & Facebook. But Facebook completely sucks and why the hell would you want to update a website, twitter feed, Facebook page, YouTube account or whatever ALL THE TIME? That’s insane.

So if anyone has read this far and actually gives a fuck, there’s now a Tumblr page – this is an ‘online dumping ground’ for anything and everything related to The Print Project, pictures of work in progress, three legged cats, dogs wearing dresses, a printing press or two, found bits of fluff off the internet, music, videos, stuff that’s great/shit etc.

Check it out here.

The main website will stay for the time being, but if you really need to find out what is going on check out Twitter first, Tumblr second and Facebook third.

Something big and stupid is coming. It might not work out and it could all end in tears, but y’know, so what. Some big hints have already been dropped. Any the wiser? No? Don’t worry.

Some of the printed output of The Print Project can now be found at:

Nook & Cranny (Liverpool)

Made North (Sheffield)

Hotcakes (Hebden Bridge)

Colours May Vary (Leeds)

West Yorkshire Print Workshop (Mirfield)

If you want to stock anything — get in touch.

Workshops / Events / Exhibitions:

Currently the only regular letterpress workshops we are running (i.e. get your grubby hands on our wood type) are taking place at West Yorkshire Print Workshop, these courses are immensely popular. Book here

Find The Print Project at Smalltown Ink on April 24th for an all day drop in printing marathon. You’ll also find Richard ‘Pink Milkfloat’ Lawrence there kicking up a storm with his ink and type.

We’ll be doing something (yapping or printing or both) on May 11th at Just Do(ing) It, Again: The Politics of DIY and Self-Organised Culture

We’ll be at Saltaire Arts Trail on May Bank Holiday Monday 27th — drop by and pull yourself a ‘Lost in Space’ themed print.

At the end of June we’ll be at a small festival in the South West along with the Pink Milkfloat and some very big lumps of printing machinery.

The image on the top-right of this post was made for NO FLY POSTERS — and can be currently seen on the side of a boarded up pub in Manchester.

Our James Blackshaw & Shipley Alternative posters were included in the Flyposting 2 Exhibition.

Currently a number of posters are on show at the Editions exhibition in Mirfield.

And if you are due to receive a deluxe copy of The Fine Press Book Association’s journal ‘Parenthesis’ (no. 24) you’ll find a piece by The Print Project in there.

In November 2012 we had a poster included in the Letterpress: Something to Say exhibition at St. Brides Library.

The Print Project gave a talk at Leeds Print Festival in January (gulp). Cue lots of swears and ramblings and a few minor heart attacks. Being the opening act to Matthew the Horse and Alan Kitching was just a touch scary, oh and Alan Kitching ate my curry!

And lastly some of our work has recently appeared in the following: Creative Review, Design Week, Form Fifty Five and Typetoken.

And it’s only March. Things can only get worse.

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A bit of fun on a Saturday afternoon

Posted on May 22nd, 2012 by Sarah

Adana, carrying printing presses up four flights of stairs, DIY, Gill Sans Bold Condensed, Platen, Printing, self-publishing, Univers, workshops

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We don’t often run workshops, but when we do it’s great to see what people do when they run unfettered with the type. At our most recent workshop at the world famous 1 in 12 club, participants used our collection of 48 point type to print cards with slogans of their own choosing.

Besides the cards, there was a bit of unrestrained off-message creativity in effect. One participant used children’s colouring books, splodges of ink, and torn-up newspaper to create layers of colour and type upon type. It was great to see.

We are of course overjoyed to welcome a new member to the collective. We believe his having four paws will be a tremendous asset when it comes to typesetting and printing.

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Ante – what we got up to

Posted on May 15th, 2012 by Sarah

Adana, DIY, Exhibitions, Gill Sans Bold Condensed, Letterpress, Univers, workshops

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With amazing timeliness, we bring you this post about Ante Art, and what we got up to while we were there.

Ante-art was a 100% DIY arts fair, taking place in Shipley Kirkgate Market over two days of the May Day weekend. It featured exhibits by artists and collectives such as Black Dogs, Bristow & Lloyd, Knit a Bear Face, and the Caged Bird Club, among many others. The exhibition ran all weekend, with a book fair on the Saturday, and an ‘art factory’ on the Sunday.

The art factory included an “Idiot’s Lowbrow Print Workshop” and “Knitting Takes Guts“, as well as a letterpress workshop.

Participants were invited to add, typeset and print a word to go into a collaborative sentence. Here’s how that turned out.

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1 in 12 letterpress workshops

Posted on April 3rd, 2012 by Sarah

1in12 Club, carrying printing presses up four flights of stairs, Letterpress, Platen, Printing, workshops

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Last Saturday we did the first of our long-promised workshops, at the world-famous 1 in 12 club in Bradford. The idea was to introduce the interested into the bizarre and wonderful, and exhilaratingly speedy, world of letterpress. The day began in the cellar, with some exciting Arab action. (Participants weren’t able to run the Arab, but were able to watch it work as Nick printed the first colour for the cards they were later to print.)

Then it was up four flights of stairs to the library for some typesetting. Lovely, lovely typesetting. Participants had thought beforehand about what text to set, and had the choice of four typefaces to use in their cards.

Each had a compositing stick, a galley (a galley is a steel tray much like a baking tray, but you wouldn’t want to eat your dinner off it) and furniture and quoins for their forme.

Then it was time to ‘lock up’ and put the chases in the Adana.

Everybody seemed really chuffed with the end results.

Please keep your eyes open for more information on future workshops.

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