A photo showing people sitting in an art workshop.
Students learning how to use a press to make colorful posters.
Students learning how to use a press to make colorful posters.
A photo of three people sitting in front of a white screen that shows a hand.
A photo of two girls smiling.
Students behind a white table with different paint color samples on it, used for making posters.
Colorful yellow, blue, red, green and brown posters depicting key words in different languages
The posters samples on a table surrounded by the students.
Colorful posters hanged with laundry clips on a wire, above a working bench.
Student putting some posters to dry on a wire.
Brown, black and white poster alongside a press that made it.
Student adjusting the paper on a pressing bench to make an imprint.
Student hanging some fresh pressed posters to dry on a wire.
Cheking the imprint on a poster after a pressing process.
Student adjusting some paper on a pressing bench.
Different samples of images used for pressing bench.
Students working on a pressing bench and making posters.
Student working at a lever for the pressing bench.
Student meticulously working on a conic seashell design on paper.
Students meticulously working on different drawing designs while talking to each other.
Student wearing white gloves and meticulously working on a flower design on paper.
Students checking the design for the press.
Different metal letters used for the press benches are stored in a drawer.
Showing a design pattern, used for bench press, to the students.
A photography of a man and behind him a screen that shows an old book.

Workshop Day 10: For The Love Of Wood Type

Jun 22 2017

By Michelle Ng

At 9:25 AM, with high-contrast photos and text selected ahead of time, we headed to RUFA – Rome University of Fine Arts – for the letterpress workshop.

When we arrived, we were given a warm welcome by Mario Fois, Mario Rullo, Maria Pina Bentivenga, and Livia Oliveti. Mario (Rullo) first gave us a lecture on the Bodoni typeface and its history. We learned that having trained in Rome as a typesetter at Propaganda Fide press, Giambattista Bodoni dedicated his life to perfect his work and he impressively created over 25,000 punches during his lifetime (which now are at The Bodoni Museum of Parma). A versatile typeface that is exquisite as headline while works well as body text, Mario pointed out that “Bodoni doesn’t have the time sensitive baggage as other typefaces.” Perhaps that was the reason why it is one of the only five typefaces that legendary Massimo Vignelli used.

After the lecture, Maria Pina and Livia helped us prepare our images for the lithography process using computers, printer, and scissors. Then, they demonstrated how to transfer an image onto a polyester plate and helped us individually to prepare our plates. We could further enhance our images by drawing on the plates with markers. Then, Livia helped us to put a layer of synthetics so that the plates would be reusable.

With our plates prepared, we then put together our text using Aurora and Forma wood and metal type. Hand-setting type does require lots of patience – from finding the letters in the type case to adjusting and tightening the type into place in the trays. As Mario joked, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

Once we set the text and grabbed a quick lunch, we proceeded onto printing our images onto the postcards. Using a color of our choice (red, yellow, blue, or black), we rolled the ink onto our plates and cleaned the negative image with water and sponge. We then transferred the images onto the postcards by running them through the press.

With our litho images ready, we selected a different color (any color – even gold and silver) for printing the text onto the postcards. After 8 hours of work, each of us produced three prints at the end. Everyone’s work came out marvelous. And we were very thankful for the kindness from Marios, Maria Pina, and Livia.

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