Making of a poster: virtual printing simulator by MoMA

Today we would like to remind you some good tool, which is a must in our "Making of a poster" series. If you don't know it yet, and you want to know more about printing methods, there's a great opportunity to see the virtual printing workshop and to expand your knowledge in nice and interesting way. Museum of Modern Art prepared special interactive project, which demonstrates main printmaking processes: woodcut, etching, lithography and screenprint. Each step is described and shown through an animated image. 

Additionally, it includes pictures of more than fourty prints from the Museum's collection so you can also see the effects of use of each technique. 

Check and try this project here.

Posted: Nov 09, 2015 | Tagged: lithography, making of a poster, poster, print, printing process

Making of a poster: Lithography

It's been a while since we started our journey across poster creation and printing methods - after letterpress printing and poster stories it's time for another printing technique, lithography, which was often used by poster makers from the past. The name comes from Ancient Greek; Lithos means "stone" and graphein - "to write". The print is, in fact, placed on a stone with a smooth surface, which is a basis for this type of print. It was invented in early XIXth century and for that time it was a main method of commercial color printing until it was replaced by offset lithography - says Kate Desforges, visual artist and printmaker working on a stone lithography print at the Leicester Print Workshop. - It’s a very intuitive process. (…) I think that the intuitive part of it challenges me and I like that. (...) In any other printmaking technique is a certain physical boundary between the image and the artist's mind and the reproduction of this image on the matrix in front of them. In lithography there is no intermedium, there is brain, hand, stone. 

You can listen to this story and see the whole process here:

Posted: Oct 30, 2015 | Tagged: lithography, making of a poster, print, video, vintage posters

Poster stories

Posted: Sep 30, 2015 | Tagged: collecting, collection, making of a poster, poster, posters, print, vintage, vintage posters

Making of a poster: Letterpress

After our series about vintage typography, we're starting a little journey across printing methods, poster design, working process and all which is related with making of a poster. First - letterpress. Below - the story (and process) of this beautiful printing technique. As you'll hear during watching this short movie, it was invented about 1450 by Johannes Gutenberg. Contemporary letterpress is based on traditional printing process and printers often use old renovated press.

Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

As elements and compositions are carefully hand pieced, this method is labor-intensive but it gives really nice and unique effect. Each piece has its own character so letterpress is often treated as good opposite to the digital printing. It's also great for vintage projects.

Another special thing is that letterpress gives an opportunity to obtain convex elements, using very tick paper. In this case noble cotton paper + old printing machines is a really great connection. That's why letterpress, even though it requires more patience and takes more time, is still valued by many printing lovers. 

More about letterpress:

For Print Only (A Division of Underconsideration) - place with a lot of inspiring printed projects (not only letterpress - you can search for your inspiration by print method or project type)

Vintage Letterpress - Facebook Page and Dawanda Shop with beautiful letterpress printing plates

More about printing process on Oh So Beautiful Paper

Letterpress* - Facebook page in Polish but with a lot of inspiring photos, which you can check here

Posted: Jun 23, 2015 | Tagged: letterpress, making of a poster, printing, vintage, work in progress