Letterpress: Playful Type PPRD

This project allowed me to think much more about composition, as I was able to spend a long time concentrating on how an individual letter would look on a page and how, when put together, words could create different meanings by the way they are presented. Working with letters so intensely made me think more about their shape and variations in size and typeface. Mixing typefaces and sizes created an interesting miss-match effect whilst letters from the same set created a uniform effect; combining both resulted in an equally interesting composition. As well as thinking more about the way the letters are arranged it also made me think about colour, which colours worked well together and, through experimentation, which did not work so well. The pieces I am particularly pleased with are those that are most simple and convey a message clearly. I have only had three sessions working with letterpress, so with each mark I have made I am still finding out what works well and what does not. Given more time I would experiment in much more in depth and create many more images of what worked well, using a variety of different backgrounds. I enjoyed using letterpress as it was unlike anything I have done before. I also loved the work of other artists who used letterpress; Alan Kitching and David Carson particularly stood out. I think letterpress can be very effective giving an almost vintage feel to text.