This hands-on studio class takes place in CCA's Letterpress Lab and incorporates hand-printed imagery and typography to make posters, artist's books, chapbooks, ephemera, and/or fine art editions. Students will learn typesetting with wood and metal type, printing on the Vandercook SP-15 presses, ink mixing, color registration, and relief carving for type-high blocks. We will refine our making skills alongside investigations of the letterpress and relief prints, objects, and books, as an expressive place for form and content through storytelling, personal narrative, curatorial impulses, and commentary on broader cultural and political conditions of contemporary life. The class taps into the broader Bay Area scene which is a national-loved hub for letterpress printing: take this class to access real-life art opportunities at San Francisco Centre for the Book, KALA Art Institute, SF Art Book Fair, and In Cahoots Residency, and participate in programs at SCFB and the National Museum of Women and the Art's biennial exhibition, focussing on the letterpress printing and artist's books. Essential for students in Design, Illustration, and Print Programs who want to add solid hands-on skills and the luscious properties of hand-printing with oil based inks to their art and design work.
Advanced Letterpress is customized to the student, and can incorporate any combination of letterpress, relief printmaking, and artist’s books. There will be time during the semester to propose and complete in-depth self-directed projects and receive one-on-one mentorship and advanced group instruction.
- Instructor: Anthea Black