On Thursday 27 April, armed with my backpack and a large map full of letterpress printed posters I headed to Atelier t in Bierbeek. To prepare everything for a three-day workshop and run some tests before everyone arrives.
As some of you might have read in one of my previous posts, Atelier t was founded by Katleen Vereecken and Niels Goovaerts a few years ago. And in the spring of 2022, a new, spacious and well-equipped print studio was built. Over the years, a large amount of wood and metal type was collected. In the Spring of 2022 all the – often newly cast – foundry type from LetterpressAmsterdam was purchased, thus creating an extensive high-quality type collection. The studio is equipped with 3 quality proofing presses, an Eickhoff, a FAG and a Korrex Stuttgart and is an open workspace for slow printing, various workshops and tailor-made guidance for your project.
Thomas Gravemaker from LetterpressAmsterdam who has been closely involved in the setting up of the working space is frequently teaching various workshops in Atelier t. Such as 'Poetry on the Press' with a focus on typesetting and printing poetry with lead type, the finer details of spacing words and lines and the position of your text on the page. Or the yearly summer course.
And this time Niels came up with the idea of organising a workshop focusing on making posters with wood type, so I was invited to teach a three-day workshop to create complete chaos in the studio. With the assistance of Niels of course. Haha.
On Friday morning, after welcoming 5 participants (from BE & NL) with coffee and biscuits, I gave a short presentation of my work and Niels guided everybody through the studio informing them about the practical details. The theme was 'Typographical landscapes' or using the wood type in a slightly alternative way, by building illustrations from it. We prepared the galleys and the working space for each of the participants and the work had begun. After sketching the ideas and going through the drawers full of wood type, lead type and ornaments the participants started to build up the composition on the galley. A forme for the first colour, second colour, and leaving some space for the eventual third colour in case we would have time for it and if the prints would be dry. It was quite interesting to see how everybody works in a completely different way: using thick wood lines to build bold shapes or meticulously working with thin plastic (bakelite) lines to construct a tree with leaves and fruits. Creating type compositions or using white space to create tension on the page.
The morning was spent on testing and defining the composition and building a forme. Finding the right furniture and locking up the tree created by Anje proved to be a bit challenging as it was built from bakelite lines of weird sizes of 7, 15 or 25 points. But after a lunch break, we managed to finish the lock-up of the tree and make it ready for the proofing on the following day. Meanwhile, beautiful creations had been growing in the print studio: from bold experiments with bottles and patterns made from wood ornaments by Ellen to mountains rising from the lead type. Not to mention a tiny house composed by Begga from geometrical shapes and cleverly covered with tape by Niels to achieve a black shape without the visible lines of the borders.
At the end of the day, we managed to make a print proof of 4 works from 5. Adjusted the layout and slightly rebuild the compositions. Time for dinner and reflection.
The next morning, after a good breakfast and cup of coffee, Bert made the exact colour everybody had agreed upon and me and Niels helped the participants with the composition as well as with the lock-up. Again, a few proofs had been made until the actual printing could begin.
The rest of the day was spent on production: printing the first colour, making the second one and carrying one with printing in the late afternoon. The last day we spent finalizing the prints, making extra colours as some participants manage to make a 3-colour print and dissing the material. In the late afternoon, we printed extra A6 cards, typeset from lead type and were chilling under the sun sipping coffee, eating biscuits and chatting about type.
These were very creative three days. Thank you for having me!
more pictures here
