12+1

Come to our Pop-Up shop where I’ll be selling my...

beanaboutown — Thu, 31 May 2012 13:17:08 +0100

Come to our Pop-Up shop where I’ll be selling my letterpressed postcards!

Photo

beanaboutown — Mon, 21 May 2012 00:17:17 +0100

What's this all about?

beanaboutown — Sun, 20 May 2012 21:14:31 +0100

Society has become so much flakier and ruder when compared to years ago before this technology boom occurred with mobile phones, laptops, Facebook, etc. It’s gotten so much more impersonal because of this barrier; people are cancelling and rescheduling on you left, right, and centre, unlike earlier when if a date was set, you would meet at that agreed time and location. People are always coming up with excuses or blaming technology saying they never got your message – why have we lost this sense of etiquette that earlier generations had? I looked into 1800s ephemera, which influenced my typographic choices, and the lifestyle before anything like TVs and computers came into play, when looking through your collections of stamps or cards was a past-time. I’ve created a set of 3 RSVP postcards for people to send to say they can’t come to any kind of event they were invited to, to act as more of a gift as the cards are hand made and letter pressed. It’s the idea of bringing tradition and etiquette back to our modern world in a humorous and almost ridiculous way by making fun of ourselves in the excuses we’ll make.

Putting the sets together and sealing with my wax and initial!

beanaboutown — Sun, 20 May 2012 16:39:07 +0100

Putting the sets together and sealing with my wax and initial!

FINALS - the set of cards packaged and sealed

beanaboutown — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:24:49 +0100

FINALS - the set of cards packaged and sealed

FINALS

beanaboutown — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:17:00 +0100

FINALS

final experiments with the wax seal on my letterpress printed...

beanaboutown — Sun, 20 May 2012 12:05:09 +0100

final experiments with the wax seal on my letterpress printed bands

Setting type in the letterpressing workshop to print on the back...

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:25:00 +0100

Setting type in the letterpressing workshop to print on the back of the band that I’ll put around as packaging for my cards. the front will be sealed. It says:

RSVP POSTCARDS (size 14 baskerville caps)

Printed by letterpress

Alissa Fulton (size 10 italics baskerville)

On friday morning I’ll be letterpressing the bands and then putting everything together!

Some pictures of my prints in the 3 different colours and the...

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:20:25 +0100

Some pictures of my prints in the 3 different colours and the back printed on off-white

Some pictures of the past 2 days letterpressing my work

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 23:13:30 +0100

Some pictures of the past 2 days letterpressing my work

Here are my line blocks that I got custom made from my PDFs in a...

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:21:32 +0100

Here are my line blocks that I got custom made from my PDFs in a place in hackney! They look super cool. Nick was saying that this was the easiest way for me to do this since

a) He doesn’t have a large selection of display type faces (my project is all about different kinds of type faces and how they will fit well together and look fun)

b) It would take loads of time to set 4 different frames and get them all printed etc.

c) It’s alot less hassle and time consuming and I get to print exactly what I want and have been working on for quite a bit (even if I knew it would change a lot when I went to go letterpressing, I’m quite happy I got to print this design.)

The place I got it done at is:

Studio Tone LTD

Unit 6/8 Crown Close

Crown Business Center

London E3 2QJ

Final prototypes before getting my line blocks made for printing...

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 22:08:07 +0100

Final prototypes before getting my line blocks made for printing in letterpress

Experimenting with which colour combination I want to go...

beanaboutown — Wed, 16 May 2012 21:55:14 +0100

Experimenting with which colour combination I want to go with!

I went through so many different combinations it was crazy! I kept changing my mind or having to find enough stock of the papers I want was a bit of a mission and ended up affecting my final decision as I couldn’t find enough of some colours, etc. I then finally I went to the Graphics Center and decided on this bright pink, this cardboard paper (that i have to back-up with thicker card since its so thin) and this mustard yellow. All the cards are from different companies and different thicknesses so I have to compromise and make-up for it by for example backing up the brown thin paper with off white card. I really like my final colour combination though, I think it works really well together.

I’m planning on using the brown thin paper as my ‘packaging’ by creating a band that goes around the 3 cards where I seal it at the front with my more simple wax seal in deep red, and at the back letterpressing some information about it.

Some things I’ve picked up - postcards in a nicely printed...

beanaboutown — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:52:01 +0100

Some things I’ve picked up - postcards in a nicely printed old style, with the back having a witty fill in the blank thing like what i’m doing.

Tea bags - because of the colour combinations - a dull/beige/cardboardy colour with a pop of a bright colour. I really like some of the mixes here or the general feel.

This is the sugar sachet that inspired me for the cardboardy/recycled paper feel

Some logistics...

beanaboutown — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:26:18 +0100

If i do 3 cards per set: 3x13 = 39 cards to make in total

13 cards = 7 double cards of each colour (space for 14)

0.45p each.

+ the band that goes around it (13 of those)

So - these are the 3 updated versions of the text for the card...

beanaboutown — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:23:00 +0100

So - these are the 3 updated versions of the text for the card fronts so far after editing them about. I’m quite happy with them the way they are but it’s subject to change depending on how letterpressing goes!

Here’s the selection of colours I chose for my cards -...

beanaboutown — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:17:00 +0100

Here’s the selection of colours I chose for my cards - I’ll try out which colours work best together and what the situation is with colours you can print with in the letterpress studio, etc tomorrow. There’s also the roll of the nice cardboardy material i bought (i got the inspiration from a brown sugar sachet when I was having breakfast out)

Also, theres the wax seals I bought and some experiments done in my sketchbook with the two different colours and stamps to see what works well.

Today's update!

beanaboutown — Mon, 14 May 2012 03:11:00 +0100

So today I went and got materials to start letterpressing tomorrow. I bought some wax seals and two different colours of wax - gold and dark red to try out and I bought two different stamps in different styles of font to see what would work better. I wanted to get an ‘A’ for Alissa but they were out of A’s so I thought I’ll get it on amazon, but then I thought it’s probably better to use my last name initial (Fulton) so that’s why it’s an ‘F’. I also went to the Graphics Center to buy paper. I figured out what colours I really liked and some great colour combinations - I bought double cards (that you would fold in the middle) but I’ll just cut them in half so I can use two for one since one half is about the size of what I’m aiming for in my test prototypes. I thought if i do coloured cards then the form or back i’ll do in white and just spraymount them together. I’ll have to test that out though. I just bought a few different colours to try out tomorrow or the next day, and i really wanted to find a colour of like recycled paper, that cardboard browny colour but I couldn’t find it in the card section so i bought a roll of wrapping paper (for when you’re moving) that I’m hoping i can cut and although it’s not very thick, maybe it will be fine once I’ve backed it up with the white card on the back. I’m thinking of sticking with around 3 colours for all of the cards, so I would have either for example, a mustard, cardboardy, and a deep red and then use similar colours of ink on top on each of them so theyre a set but still interesting and different.

If i do 2 colours maybe i should have one unifying colours in all of them so it fits together?

beanaboutown — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:32:48 +0100

If i do 2 colours maybe i should have one unifying colours in all of them so it fits together?

Experimenting with colour - I’ll be letterpressing on...

beanaboutown — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:25:00 +0100

Experimenting with colour - I’ll be letterpressing on monday so thinking of what colour schemes to use (so all 3 versions work well together). Also, simplifying from previous colour schemes ive tried with 3-4 colours, now only a maximum of 2 colours. Ive tried just one colour, and I’ve tried 2 very similar colours together (the darker red with brighter red), and then 2 different colours in more of a block sectioning way (red with turquoise). Then I played around with 2 opposing colours to make it pop more.