Letterpress Adventures!

Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum's Second Wayzgoose Week in November 2010

2011-01-09T14:53:00.000-08:00

Still riding the high of 2010’s Hamilton Wayzgoose, I put off posting this sooner, as if to tarry at the party a little longer . . . the reality is: The party doesn’t end. There are prints to be made, languages to learn, books to be read, friends new and old to keep up with, and more letterpress printing adventures to plan, all inspired by this weekend!

It did not seem possible after all the fun I had at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum’s first-ever Wayzgoose that there was any plane higher, and I only hoped for an equally engaging weekend of geek-bonding and enjoyment regarding all things printing, wood and type, but with the second Wayzgoose . . . Zowie! To the moon! And, the love of wood type and design and print was well-represented by visitors from around the world to boot!

This year a three day Educators Conference was introduced to the schedule. Letterpress printing is experiencing a renaissance in college curricula – in both the art and design departments, though usually independently, which is curious – and the group included motivated college students who want to make sure they are getting the most out of their print studio, instructors continuing their education, and studio or print shop owners and managers interested in discovering ways to engage with their communities that keep their studios and shops vital. Everyone was ready to exchange ideas – the best preparation they could have done!

Sandro Berra whisked everyone to Italy first thing. He is the curator at the Tipoteca Italiana fondazione, a ten-year-old museum of Italian printing history. He shared how Tipoteca gathered the collection, housed it, and have engaged both the community and artists as well as scholars to create work with or based on the Museum’s holdings.

April Sheridan spoke in great detail about what it takes to set up, run and maintain a large community shop in a university setting, such as they have at Columbia College Chicago Center for Book & Paper. Eight Vandercooks, one Heidelberg windmill and an offset press! Always running. She shared a list of resources that has helped Columbia, and it was clearly welcomed.

The afternoon was whiled away with many discussions among smaller groups, all over the Museum, getting into details of the day’s topics, and what is a day at Hamilton without a little printing? Type specimens and selections from the Globe Collection were available in the press room for play. Snacks representing Wisconsin’s favorite foods – smoked fish, cheese, fall fruit and a beer here and there kept the attendees going until dinnertime at Two Rivers’ Brau Haus, Kurtz’s.

It would have not been a proper Two Rivers (or Midwest for that matter!) experience without it, so Thursday began, appropriately, with freezing temperatures and snow. It eventually cleared, of course; weather can move quickly across the lake.

Day Two began with a book arts session with Tracy Honn of Silver Buckle Press at UW Madison. Through the basic stitches and discussion of paper choice, class formatting, etc., she conveyed how every decision is rooted in the need to think long-term and big picture, developing or practicing your personal or shop or studio’s methodology, and that as a shop or studio manager or owner or creator of work, we’re making conscious decisions every step of the way, and that it is also okay to let some things go that can be let go (and it may be necessary to do so!).

Jim Sherraden, the manager and permanent artist in residence of that little ol’ print shop in Nashville, spoke in the afternoon about Hatch Show Print’s internship program and shared a spectacular array of prints that runs the gamut from restrikes of blocks carved in the 1940’s, 50’s and perhaps even earlier and top-selling rock music posters of years gone by, to the work that is currently being put out by Hatch Show Print staff and the interns they bring in throughout the year.
Jim Sherraden moved to the press room to share some Hatch prints he brought along, and Juliet Shen, a Wayzgoose speaker, had set up a type specimen of the Lushootseed face that she had designed (see last year’s event write up for more about her work with the Tulalip tribes of the Pacific Northwest) – amazing! And, while attendees were once again enjoying some tasty tidbits (snacks) of the Midwest, Jim Moran and Jim Sherraden talked blocks (old blocks from the Globe Collection – more on that from last year’s write up too), and Rick Griffith shared his print workshop plan with Jim Moran.

Dinner was at The Remedy, a relatively new local sports pub. The group took over the second floor, and while the food was really secondary to the all the talk (in multiple languages! English, Italian and Spanish!), they basically had enough room for everyone there which is great. Some even continued their conversations into the wee hours . . . .

Friday was a free day for the Educators. Some went off to Sheboygan to visit the Kohler Art Center and Museum, others stayed in Two Rivers to be in the Museum and absorb it all, and Rick Griffith captained a team of printers and designers to lay out the print projects for the Wayzgoose. Hamilton Volunteer Georgi Leisch arrived and since she is learning how to cut type from her father, Norb Bryslki, she was immediately pulled into a discussion about type cutting with attendees. The Museum was in perfect flow, as the center for all of these folks to orbit, some taking advantage of the location, others accessing the living museum via the press room and others taking in the history of the factory. Awesome.

Throughout the day Wayzgoose attendees arrived, and that added to the buzz. Goody bags were stuffed full of great paper-related materials (including a Pop Tone swatch book!) from French Paper (plus flying discs!), very useful books from Scout Books and helpful designer cards from Pinball Publishing, a beautiful type catalog from Font Bureau, and an awesome commemorative poster printed by Jim Moran. Just like last year, people who had only known each other by name or shared discussions online were meeting each other in person for the first time, and others already acquainted with one another were catching up. Everyone was clearly excited to be there, among like-minded typophiles and printers.

Before the first talks of the weekend, printing demonstrations were offered in the press room by the Western New York Book Arts Center (Rich Kegler and Chris Fritton), on pressure printing and type Chris cut himself. John Downer, a sign painter, letterer and typographer known by many type designers, delighted many througout the weekend with demonstrations of his work. Typecutting demonstrations by Volunteer Mardell added a nice hum to the evening. Rick’s finalization of the printing pieces for his workshop, serious appetizers (which means they made a great dinner for many!) provided by Brian Moran, libations via the Lighthouse Inn and lots of mingling kept the Museum warm.

Nick Sherman discussed the importance of wood type on type design in the digital age, and included more than one anecdote about his rebel youth (‘losing’ a library book that he couldn’t find anywhere else . . .), and let us know that there’d be more interesting news to come on the digital-wood type topic later in the weekend. (Did you hear that shoe drop?)

David Shields discussed the work he is doing with the Rob Roy Kelly Collection at UT Austin and the formidable task he has set himself to carry on Kelly’s original idea of a comprehensive (or as complete as possible, given the materials available) catalog of American type history. The official word for it is a conspectus. I imagine he has something of an understanding of Samuel Johnson’s general state of mind in the years leading up to 1755.

We were treated to innovative use of print and film: Judith Poirier from the University of Montreal has created a four minute film using type printed on 38 millimeter film. The sound for the movie was created by the type that printed on the sound track of the film (the soundtrack is literally part of the film, such that when it is processed during the movie editing/production, the soundtrack is also processed), which is fascinating. It hummed, it spat, it stuttered, but most of all, it sang! Just amazing.

For some, the evening concluded with pool and laid back banter at Berserker’s , a local locals bar. No fights actually broke out, though there was a bit of muscle-flexing here and there. . . though, I am not sure if that was to make the spider web tattoo move or what . . . and I don’t know how many of the women present were impressed by it.

Saturday dawned brightly. How could it be anything but, with the day to come? A rotation of four sessions kept everyone plugged in and warm.

Paul Gehl from the Newberry Library in Chicago, IL, discussed the spectacular chromatic type specimen catalogs they have in their collection, explaining their purpose and use, and the recent find of a roll of posters tucked away for many years for safe-keeping. The Newberry Library has many type specimen catalogs and one sheet flyers, as well as an incredible collection gathered around the theme of the history of printing.

James Clough, a calligrapher of international renown, design instructor and author, discussed the history of Italian wood type, surprising the audience with typefaces that, if you are a woodtypophile, are exactly what you’d hope the most fantastic wood type would be but you had hardly conceived that it actually could be this fantastic. Truly. At least one book on the subject is forthcoming – stay tuned!

Sandro Berra, the curator from Tipoteca Italiana fondazione, discussed the first ten years of his museum of Italian printing history, from collecting the type, presses and ephemera, to generating awareness about the Museum. It has already been decided among some of the attendees that a future Wayzgoose-like event must be held in Italy. There are certainly enough presses and type to keep the pressroom humming for a few days at least! (The wood type looks to be incredible too, from an American perspective. Check out some of the photos on their site here: ) Molto bene!

Rick Griffith, of Matter in Denver, CO, ran the print workshop. He spent a day with a group of attendees – a mix of designers and printers and artists – to lay out two pieces that showcase the great collection of type at the Museum, and that’s what the participants then printed. Combined with his color sense (there was transparent ink, a split fountain or rainbow roll, and just edible colors) and joy of teaching, the projects made great posters and great interactivity for the crew.

Saturday night included dinner, three shows, live music and a movie! Nick Sherman unveiled some samples of the Bryslki typeface he is designing to be cut in wood, named in honor of everyone’s favorite Hamilton character (and one of the stars of the movie Typeface), typecutting Volunteer Norb Brylski. Juliet Shen brought us an upate on the Lushootseed type, including some great photos of kids printing with the type, and a teacher clearly happy to see her students engaging with their cultural heritage and breathing life into it. Jim Sherraden of Hatch Show Print told the story of one of America’s oldest print shops, and its not-always-smooth road to becoming the shop it is today, reminding us along the way of how anything that is good must be actively engaged with to carry on. Jim Van Lanen, the Museum’s founder and a leading local businessman, played a violin he made for the audience, and spoke ever so briefly about how glad he is to see all the Hamilton love (he did not exactly put it that way). Rich Kegler closed the evening with a screening of his documentary about Jim Rimmer, a type designer and maker (not many of those around!), and his process from inception, through drawing, to engraving, to pouring hot metal into matrices to make the final product, metal type. Jim Rimmer was clearly a bit of a character too!

Sunday morning started, as is the tradition, with a casual jam session among the Moran brothers, including Paul, Pat and Bill, and then a bit later, Jim Sherraden joined in. Music, wood type, printing, good cheese, beer and coffee -- that plus someone to do the laundry and dishes is all I'd need to live and be happy.

It was clear that even the speakers were feeling quite fortunate that they had agreed to join us all in frozen Wisconsin for a few days . . . on Sunday morning, James Clough gave another, previously unscheduled, presentation on Italian movie posters. Accompanied by nothing less than a soundtrack of Italian opera, he wowed us with slides of gloriously designed and printed posters. I do believe another book is in the offing!

Meanwhile, the more printerly types of the group had set out stuff they had printed (or made - freshly cut type was there too!) and wanted to trade. So much style, and so varied! It was great, and only cemented our notion that we have yet more to discuss and create, visiting each other and meeting up again in Two Rivers. I hope I see everyone again soon!

Note: All photos with people in them, with the exception of the last photo, were taken by A.J. Lorrigan, a Volunteer at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum. The rest were taken by me.

Hamilton Wayzgoose 2010

2010-11-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

I am still coming down from the amazing long weekend in Two Rivers, WI. First bit of news: A new wood typeface! Designed by Nick Sherman, named in honor of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum's resident typecutter extraordinaire, Norb Bryslki!

More to follow!

2010-04-21T06:23:00.000-07:00

FROM THE HAMILTON WOOD TYPE MUSEUM DIRECTORS:

Help protect a Printing Treasure: Hamilton Urgently Needs Your Help.

Dear friends of wood type, Hamilton has an unprecedented opportunity to qualify for a dollar-for-dollar matching grant from the "Save America's Treasures" program which has a deadline of May 20th, 2010.

This gives Hamilton 30 days to raise enough money to apply for a $25,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. We're excited to have already raised over $5000 for this vital program that will help us archive, preserve and digitally document our collection of over 2000 vintage advertising plates and our 1.5 million-piece type collection.
But we can’t do it without you.

What can you do? We have 3 ways for you to give:
1. Become a member of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum online today (http://www.woodtype.org/museum_information_membership.shtml). There are 4 levels to choose from with sweet incentives that let you take a little slice of Two Rivers back to your home or office wall. Your membership dollars go a long way toward helping the museum fulfill its mission of preserving this amazing piece of printing history. All new membership dollars generated between now and the grant deadline will go directly to our matching funds effort.

2. If you're already a member you can simply donate at a level that suits your budget! Our recommended donation base is $50 and every dollar you give goes to protecting this typographic gem. (http://www.woodtype.org/museum_information_membership.shtml)
3. Shop at our Etsy Store! All proceeds for the next 30 days go directly to Hamilton’s “Save America’s Treasures” efforts and we'll be adding more merchandise soon. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/HamiltonWoodType)

Finally, we ask that you pass this message along to at least 2 people you think might become friends of Hamilton. Time is of the essence. We'll be keeping you updated with our progress in the coming month. Thanks for supporting wood type.

Sincerely Jim and Bill Moran

Become a fan of Hamilton on Facebook to keep up with the effort: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=lf#!/pages/Two-Rivers-WI/Hamilton-Wood-Type-Printing-Museum/134980253287?ref=ts

Printing Workshops at Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum

2010-03-30T11:29:00.000-07:00

Spring was about as a dozen designers, artists and printers gathered at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in Two Rivers, WI, the first weekend in March to expose themselves to the new processes and techniques of letterpress printing in a one day workshop. Sometimes, on the weekends in the winter, the Museum gets a bit chilly. But once these workshoppers got started, their enthusiasm and creativity warmed up the print shop nicely!

I had the joy and privilege of assisting Jim Moran with this workshop. He is the Museum’s Director, Master Printer, Jack of All Trades, Living Tome of Sometimes Obscure Knowledge, and Dry Wit to Boot. He started the group off with a tour of the Museum, as many of the students had never been to the Museum before -- they’d only seen it at the movies. Seeing the vast collection and how it was made can familiarize you with the space and get ideas popping.

The tour included a stop at this month’s exhibit at the Museum of poster work from Mohawk Press at the Western New York Book Arts Center, where Jim had also put out a selection of Hatch Show Print posters. Excellent fodder for printmaking! Both sets of posters show its best to embrace color and get it on the paper and to consider every inch of paper-spread the ink out!
A brief but information-packed introduction to mechanics of working in the shop, that covered the best habits for pulling type, mixing ink, locking type quickly in sign press beds, inking blocks, layering blocks and color on the paper, cleanly running the presses . . . what else? Many details – take the workshop to find out more!

The group was amazing to watch in action. From song lyrics and poetry, to abstract forms created with layers of blocks and ink and abstractions of everyday language layered and technicolored, everyone pursued distinct ideas and aesthetics and did not hesitate (too much). That bears repeating as a bit of advice: when given the freedom to work with such a great set of materials, don’t hesitate (too much). Just go go go!

Though there was a great selection of cuts from the Globe Collection, these printers were characteristically oriented – lots of wood type, large (over a foot high) and small (less than ½” inch high), was used on paper and cloth. Jim offers a unique fabric printing technique that is both effective and fun.

Fueled mid-day by pizza and homemade brownies, the group kept going all afternoon, really getting a lot of good ink on the paper. Jim continued offering techniques to add yet more color and depth to the printers’ works, and I worked tandem: more ink is more than likely going to be better, especially with letterpress printing and especially when you are trying it for the first time. Then you can reflect on what you’ve done, and determine how to either move it around to be more effective, or even perhaps take a bit away, and go into your second print session that much more print-wise.

Since the workshop, I have heard that wood type has been procured by workshopper(s), there may be a few more people in the market for a sign press (or another press? Jim demonstrated the use of the C&P motorized platen press, which is quite an expression of coordination and timing that never fails to awe anyone; and I was sharing as many Vandercook tips and tools as I could) . . . find out where all the inspiration and excitement was born—get to a Hamilton workshop soon! For more information about upcoming workshops, or to create one for your own group, contact Jim Moran at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum, jim.moran@woodtype.org.

More photos on flickr.

Rob Roy Kelly book to be re-issued!

2010-02-17T07:41:00.001-08:00

Liber Apertus Press is re-issuing the Rob Roy Kelly book, American Wood Type: 1828-1900.

It will be an exact reprint. If you're interested, you can order it directly from Liber Apertus Press on their site.

Hatch Show Print at Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum

2010-01-09T20:38:00.000-08:00

The words Hatch Show Print bring to mind a distinctive style of poster art: Weathered type and ornament, wrangled onto the press as if they were a bunch of rabble-rousing rockers annoyed to be awake so early in the day, coming together in an awesome ensemble just as the ink hits the paper.

A workshop with Jim Sherraden of Hatch is not for learning how to print a rock poster. Instead, Jim will endeavor to get you to let go and play, see what comes of it, and work some more to really make something that, well, rocks.

A great group of designers, printers and artistic types met up in snowy Two Rivers, Wisconsin, at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum in mid-December to get their hands inky and have some fun in the Museum’s print shop (which is a great shop, if you’re interested in renting time there – enough presses, ink, and wood type to keep you going for months, at least!) with the folks from Hatch Show Print and Hamilton’s Jim Moran. It was awesome! Everyone really printed with some amazing work.

We were also fortunate enough to be able to use a selection of blocks from both Hatch and Hamilton’s Globe Collection (see my write up on Hamilton’s Wayzgoose Weekend for more on this collection), a real treat.

This workshop is quite a printerly experience, and I think I got a lot out of it by not worrying about lock up and make ready. I did not use a press the entire weekend. I found that by letting go of the technical aspects of getting the ink onto the paper in a pre-measured spot, that portion of my brain was freed up to be re-focused, to really look at the paper and the ink going on it and the blocks being used to carry that out and worry less about the exactness of the end result and instead enjoy the building of layer upon layer of color and shape . . . . Yep, that’s a hard one. Don’t plan! Just go! And if you just go long enough, you can work with enough blocks and ink and paper to work out some tricks and methods that add dimension to your printing.

Of course, some of the other printers were using presses and making some beautiful stuff as well (which you can see at the Museum in a group show and on their flickr page). I am just a slow learner, so I try to stay focused.

All the while, Jim and his assistants – we were fortunate enough to have Mary Sullivan, Hatch’s production manager, and Katie Collins, a former intern – are there to encourage, talk you into leaping into the fray of ink and rollers and paper and blocks, and to help you see when something’s really working well. And there was quite a bit of that happening!

In addition to paper, printing on cloth, tee-shirts mainly though there was some beautifully colorful printing being done on canvas in this workshop, is covered with very specific and invaluable tips for inking, lining it up and pressing.

The techniques we learned? Blending . . . coloring . . . stenciling . . . puttin’ a damn border on it . . . . The stuff of kindergarten, it might seem, but to see how well it works, you really ought to get in on one of these workshops – and I hear there might be another one at the Hamilton Wood Type Museum sooner rather than later!

There's a group show of the posters created by the printers now on display at the Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum. For more photos visit Hamilton's flickr page!

2009-12-18T13:39:00.000-08:00

Wood type, two passes on the press. The star is about 4 inches wide.

Zowie, this was quite the lockup adventure, in a test-of-your-patience-when-something-you-love-to-do-suddenly-gets-quite-tedious-for-a-moment sort of way. Fortunately, the end result (as it always goes in the printshop for me) made it sooo worth the aforementioned while.

Unfortunately, the type is not marked (and there's a slim outside chance it's a veneer), but that just means a type identification adventure!

Warm, merry and bright holidays to you!

Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum Wayzgoose Weekend, November 20-22, 2009

2009-11-27T15:39:00.000-08:00

Is it novel, this idea of throwing printers, artists, designers of graphic things printed or virtual, typographers and type designers all together, mixing things up with some printing, typecutting, lots of talk and a gentle stream of libations and sustenance? It was so stimulating, inspiring, energizing and fun that I hope it becomes a ritual that’s celebrated again and again.

I am referring to Hamilton Wood Type & Printing Museum’s first-ever Wayzgoose Weekend, that took place November 20-22, 2009, at the Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.

I quickly lost count of how many times people who had known each other only virtually or by degree finally met face to face. It happened to me more than twice, and I am relatively new to this corner of the world. I am happy to recognize that all our various tools for production and distribution and communication, useful as they are, do not warm the body or mind the way simple in-person conversation and interaction do. And of course, a nice glass of wine or a Spotted Cow certainly doesn’t hurt either.

The weekend started on Friday night with a welcome party and two presentations, then Saturday was jam-packed with four sessions around the Museum, Saturday night included a nice family-style dinner at the Lighthouse Inn with more type talks, a panel discussion, and the screening of the movie Typeface. Sunday was left open for more casual type talk, poster swapping and printing.

The evening presentations mainly revolved around issues of type design and its place in this time of the beginning of the 21st century. Rich Kegler opened up with a discussion on “A State of Type,” tracing his early investigations of type design as a student, the establishment of his foundry P22, and forward to the development of the Western New York Book Arts Center in Buffalo. In addition to creating typefaces, P22 has revived and updated for digital use short-lived typefaces or fleshed out partial type styles that iconically represented art movements or esthetics (think Arts & Crafts – Dard Hunter and Roycroft, for instance). And, as a bonus (!), P22 has some scripts worked into some of their typefaces where specific combinations of keystrokes will yield surprises for the user. Does it get any better than good design that is both functional and fun?

Juliet Shen’s discussion of her work with the Tulalip Tribe in the Pacific Northwest to create a typeface to match their dying language and oral tradition, Lushootseed, was really a thoughtful reflection on what is nearly a Sisyphean task. I am sure many of the designers in the audience could empathize with how much of any project hinges on the success of the interaction between the designer and client. But oh my. The Tulalip have social mores and a structure that are entirely self-contained and completely unlike anything Juliet had encountered before. Never mind the fact that she is not merely re-creating an existing typeface, she is creating the first-ever written set of characters for this language. No pressure. Based on the efforts to date that include a “universal” character set that encompasses the “translation” of all oral languages into writing (really just a band-aid) thus far, Juliet had nowhere to go but BETTER and she really went there. Her type design is elegantly humanist and easy to read.

Sumner Stone’s discussion was a two-parter, and I must admit I cannot recall the first part, but the second part was thought-provoking. Considering the idea that the eye wants to be able to move over type fairly easily to take in the information but that it shouldn’t move so easily that it is free to let the mind behind it wander, how can you offer it something to really read? (this is my summary) Sumner’s answer is: Instead of just one face with some ornamental characters, how about families of faces that can be used together? He has created some that allow the user plenty of ornamental characters for titles/headlines, etc., but he’s also created related text faces that blend wonderfully for the eye’s delight. This is something I ponder often. It’s a little different when you’re working with old wood type, because the mixing of typefaces within the same word (as Sumner demonstrated) is usually more jarring than I like, but when I work with metal type and in some cases wood type, how would the communication change if the faces were mixed up a bit? I think it may require a knowledge of typefaces that I don’t have yet, and of course Sumner works in digital type, so I won’t be seeing his typeface families in a Hamilton case anytime soon, unfortunately!

Matthew Carter narrated (live!) a 14 minute movie following a master typecutter whose name I did not write down, unfortunately, in Haarlem, The Netherlands, in 1965. Matthew apprenticed with him during his training in type design. Amazing. The process of carving master type requires near-perfect (if not perfect) precision. From the character carved in steel, the mold will be created (by stamping the steel carving into brass) from which each piece of metal type will be cast, and that’s what the printers used. Imagine carving 12 point (or smaller!) characters, one by one. Hoo hah. Precise work on a ridiculously small scale. I understand that Matthew is or has recorded a voice over for the movie, and it is to be released more widely at some point in the future. I’m not sure if Matthew made any summary statements about this, but for me it is a reminder that no matter the era of typeface design, there is a strong human connection to each typeface. Whether a master carver is turning out one letter a day (?) in metal or the designer is manipulating splines on the computer to get the right curve, or a typeface is being cut into wood, choices are made to design typefaces that serve the purpose of more effective communication, and more communication.

And I should note here that without Richard Zauft (at Emerson University), Matthew’s wood typeface may not have come about. He was an early (the first?) “caretaker” of the Museum, and knew that it needed to be a living museum (for which I cannot thank him enough!), and that it would also be a vital next step to revive the production of wood type.

There was a panel discussion with Juliet, Sumner, Rich and Matthew, the upshot of which is that we are living in a great time to be involved in type design and the use of type design. The work these four alone are doing exemplifies that. From creating a typeface where none existed (Juliet) and creating his first wood typeface (Matthew) to creating typefaces that have added scripts in the software to provide brilliant surprises and reviving historical faces that should never have dsappeared (Rich) and typeface families that can be used together in the same word (Sumner), there’s a lot going on here. Boggles the mind.

Saturday’s in-Museum sessions were, mainly for me at least, jumping off points for future investigation. I have some sets of type that I’d like to identify, and though it will probably not be as exciting a search as what Paul Brown (from Indiana University, that I understand has a great archive of type specimen catalogs as well, in the Lilly Library) went through with the Darius Wells type that the Museum has, it does mean I have a very good reason to visit the Newberry Library in Chicago. What can I say about the Globe Collection of cuts of old posters and ads except “Omigod.” and that I look forward to helping in any way I can with it, and learning more about it. The (newly named) Van Lanen Latin Wide is beautiful, and I cannot wait to see it in production and wide distribution (and to perhaps even own it myself! Wow!). The more people Norb Brylski can share his typecutting skills with, the more they will get passed along. Time is slipping away though!

Saturday night they screened the movie Typeface, that has an updated ending. It’s hard to avoid the statement that with the presence of Jim Moran in the Museum (as the Archivist and Printer and Day-to-day Director) and the support of Bill Moran (as the Artistic Director), things have really taken off in an exciting and proactive direction. So I will record it here. . . . It may be what the plan was all along, that somehow got watered down or shelved to face more immediate concerns. As it is today, every time I am so warmly welcomed to the Museum, I see improvements and enhancements and that only impels me to go back again.

Sunday’s poster swap was fun. I only really had the chromatic specimen sheet I pulled from the Columbia College collection, but it generated swaps with some other amazing printers that I might have been too shy to talk to otherwise. And!! David Shields from U Texas at Austin (keeper of the Rob Roy Kelley type collection) was able to identify it instantly, a favorite moment of the weekend for me. A mystery solved (I will have to find longer and more complicated typeface identification adventures elsewhere!), with a great bit of insight about specimen sheets in general: They are good to print because there were really no full alphabetic sets reproduced by the typemakers, either for their records or for their catalogs. Having copies of the full sets can further scholarship and help others in the community access it as well. That sounds all-good to me. The excitement and exchange of ideas and stories through the whole weekend is just inspiring. This keeps happening: the more I delve into this world where the shapes of letters and history and ink and paper rule, the more I find I want to do. Anyone need a poster printed for them? ;)

I so look forward to next year’s Wayzgoose. I will be amazed if Jim and Bill, who assembled this year’s event so beautifully, can improve on it, but if anyone can pull off such a feat, they can.

For photos of the event, visit my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/47506789@N00/sets/72157622740312889/) and the Group Hamilton Wood Type Museum on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/groups/hamiltonwoodtypemuseum/.