Long-Distance Letterpress: Just My Type

Why you should take this class

Designing with movable type is a great way to explore the ways we can engage a viewer or inspire change. The message may be personal, promotional, or practical, but it should also be clear to the viewer—which doesn’t mean it has to be basic or boring. We can tell a story, accentuate a message, and communicate our personal style all without compromising the thrust of the text. If you want to find new ways to use type and contribute to a live print design process, this course is for you.

What you’ll learn

Discussion-focused, process-oriented, and collaboratively-centered, this edition of Long-Distance Letterpress will examine why designing with movable type in the letterpress shop can be fun, non-linear, frustrating, impactful and satisfying—all at the same time. Over the course of two inspiring hours we’ll cover:

• How to refine and edit your message to focus your design
• Finding the crux, and amplifying it through type design
• Creating quick thumbnail sketches as a way to iterate ideas
• Adding depth to the message through design & layout
• Selecting appropriate typefaces from your collection
• Working collaboratively to produce a print together

Prerequisites

This workshop consists of a live demonstration and interactive Q&A, with no advance preparation or supplies necessary to participate.

Who should take this class?

Letterpress printers, designers, typographers and people who put Comic Sans on everything.

Will this class be recorded?

All of PiP’s online classes are live and unrecorded — we find it’s a lot more fun and interactive this way. They are closed captioned using Zoom’s Live Transcription feature; to make the most of this tool, update to the most recent version of Zoom.

Visit our FAQ page to learn more about PiP’s class policies.