We ♥ Letterpress

Or maybe it should be a question like "Why love letterpress?"  I wanted to make a poster specifically for this exhibition because it featured letterpress printing (which is my occupation) and was being shown in Cleveland (which is my "home" city).  I ended up with two posters which will begin a series that I'll call "Heavy Machinery".

I started by taking photographs of my grandfather's tractors on his farm south of Wooster, Ohio. I was interested in the machines' surfaces, moving parts, hoses, electrical lines, signs, nameplates and labels, because I wanted to make a visual relationship with the printing presses I use everyday.

I think letterpress printers usually love what they do for a combination of reasons. Part of it is the end product, but part of it is the process: the problem solving and the satisfaction of making something either with your hands or with a machine which you can see the workings of.