Freaks of Fancy, or Everything You Wanted to Know About Wild, 19th-Century Printing Techniques (But Were Afraid to Ask) - OnDemand DesignCast

A strange thing has been happening lately: Designers around the country have been leaving behind their HPs and Canons and printing like it's 1899—and clients are clamoring for the stand-out quality that letterpress gives their projects. Tactile, beautiful, and vibrant, letterpress printing is a wild, ornate, escape from a filtered reality brought to you by Photoshop. But how did letterpress techniques, with their delicious patterns and curlicues, develop?

You'll also learn:

• The differences between 19th-century presses and today's presses, and how those differences can affect your own "artistic" printing.
• Fancy and odd type design, its origins and applications.
• Case studies of fantastic letterpress—how the masters did it.
• The importance of texture: Chaostype and ornament.

About the presenters:

Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas are the aficionados on the story of letterpress. They are the co-authors of a book whose title echoes the tantalizing overabundance of bygone design: The Handy Book of Artistic Printing: A Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy (Princeton Architectural Press).