Tybecast

No, that's not a typo above. Actually, it is, but not because I don't know my right pinkie finger from by left pointer.

Last night I took my first class in Letterpress, an extremely intricate art form that I've long admired. The teacher, Lisa Hasegawa, gave us a ton of information and led us through "setting the type" for the first time in the course. We were to choose a type case that did not have a label and make one. As you might guess from the picture above and my type-oh-oh, I had '18 pt. Garamond Light.'

I was worried about placing the letters in reverse order before I got to class, but Lisa explained how the type has little cuts in it to help us. All the cuts go on the top. No sweat, I did that. But I didn't realize that there were b's in the d tray, and lo, there's my 'Garamonb.'

My mistake aside, I really enjoyed the class. It's been a long time since I learned something completely and utterly new, and I forgot how difficult that is. And how much I've craved it. We set type, saw how Lisa locked it down, then inked and ran the press. The word 'impression' has a new dimension for me now, as I run my fingers along the card with our printed type.

Next week we'll start designing our project. I've started collected ideas for what to print-it's so exciting!

You can see more about Lisa and her work here.