Making an Impression

Its surprising how many common expressions are derived from printing, and specifically letterpress terminology. For example " to quoin a phrase" "making an impression" "mind your Ps and Qs" (lower case ps and qs being quite similar and easy to get mixed up when setting the type which is done upside down.) Indeed, the terms "upper case" and lower case" are more examples, and refer to the locations of the trays in which the type was kept. "Getting the wrong end if the stick" is apparently another one as are "stereotype" and "out of sorts". I could probably go on... I wonder if its possible to get them all into one sentence ? Anyway, last weekend I attended a wedding up in Scotland, the invite of which was done by letterpress ( can you see a theme emerging?) It was a great weekend away despite the dampness of the weather. The following day we visited Robert Smail's print works which is in Innerleithen near Peebles. It is a printing workshop and office which has been bought by the National Trust of Scotland to preserve it. It remains pretty much how it would have been in Victorian times, and as Robert Smail never threw anything away it has a fantastic archive of letterpress stuff. You can tour the works and have a look around, and even better do some actual printing. You get to make a bookmark. I'd recommend this place if you are in any way interested in printing. The tour is very interesting and informative and is free if you are in the National Trust - always a bonus.

By co-incidence, last week I discovered an app for the ipad or mac computer which is a kind of virtual letterpress thingy. Frustratingly though I can't use it as stone-age computers like ours are not supported. You can get it here (if you have the right equipment) By all accounts its quite good. But I will have to wait until our computer properly breaks before we have an excuse to get a new one. In the meantime I'll just have to make do with the old John Bull printing set.

Brideshead Revisited- Revisited

We have been watching the ITV 1980s production of Brideshead Revisited, which makes for good viewing. It is also something of a tweed-fest. Regular readers of this blog will know we are currently undergoing a tweed craze in this house. I say "we" but really mean the other half, as I haven't quite gone down the Miss Jean Brodie route myself! (yet) . The series inspired me to pick up the 1970s copies of Evelyn Waugh's novels that we have and I was reminded of how great these covers are. The cover design is credited as Bentley/Farrell/Burnett . I also did a couple of little drawings myself of the Brideshead characters.

Herve Morvan Book

My Herve Morvan Book has arrived from amazon and I am very excited about it. If you like his work, then this is essential. Its always a bit of a gamble buying art books when you can't look inside them, so I was a bit worried that it wouldn't have much of the stuff that I like, but I am really pleased as it has loads of really strong work in it and lots that I hadn't seen before. Great ideas , lots to like . Very inspiring. There hasn't been much published about him really, the only other book that I've come across has always been nigh-on impossible to get hold of as its out of print and nowhere seems to have it. I had the idea to compile a book of his work myself and if I hadn't been beaten to it, it would probably have looked very similar to this. He's obviously got a bit of a following in Japan as this is published by a Japanese company. My only criticism is that it doesn't give you much background information and what there is isn't brilliantly translated Perhaps a case of Japanese whispers. Visually a treat though.

New Arrival

A matchbox label from Poland. I just love these tiny screenprints. I've no idea who the artists who designed them were, but the simple graphics are great.Would look good as posters. I think they date from the 50s and 60s. I have some others which I will post as and when.

Fit of Enthusiasm!

In the last couple of years I have managed to get myself quite excited by 1950 and 60s poster artists so here are a few images gathered together for your delectation and delight!


Most of them are French. Favourite artists include Herve Morvan, Jean Colin, Bernard Villemot and Lefor Openo.

You'll probably be familiar with some of their work already. Villemot did a lot of those very famous Orangina adds and Herve Morvan did the illustrations for Banania which is I think the French equivalent of Nesquick. I would really like to do a bit more research on this lot, one day hopefully I'll get the time. These few images here are by Herve Morvan and they are really just a taster - this is definitely a topic I'll be returning to.