If you are going to the HOW Conference this Saturday make sure to keep an eye out for the above bookmark courtesy of Be A Design Group and yours truly. They will be in the Goody Bag so you might have to dig to find it. I ended up printing 3,500 bookmarks on a hand operated Vandercook proofing press. I don’t plan on letterpressing that high of a print run again, but it was worth it. Each bookmark has a BA sticker placed on it by our honorary contributors (my wife and her mom). They spent hours and hours placing these little stickers. I owe them. If you happen to get a bookmark, there should only be around 40 exactly like yours, on account that we used over 100 different BA stickers.

A big thank you to Neenah Paper for donating the paper and sponsoring us. The bookmarks are printed on the New Eames Paper Collection (Eames Natural White, Furniture 120 Double Thick Cover, in case you were curious). The paper took the letterpress and debossing marvelously.

In order to have a little more information for my upcoming HOW Conference session reviews, I have been reading books by some of the presenters. Hatch Show Print: The History of an American Poster Shop is my second installment. My own experiences with letterpress printing is one of the many reasons that I am attending Mr. Sherraden’s session.

I have only been doing letterpress printing in my spare time for less than a year, and currently I have only done small and precise work. Hatch Show Print’s posters have spurred me into getting a 1920′s 12″x18″ Chandler & Price letterpress and four trays of wood type. I am already looking for an excuse to print a letterpress poster.

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William B. Vaughan, 1922-2005

The man that taught me letterpress died of a stroke last week. I’ve known him less than a year, but I will surely miss him. It is sad to see all of the knowledge that he had go away with him, but I am glad I learned what I could from him. He seemed happy to pass it on. Printers like Bill have seen and adapted to possible career ending changes time after time. His father printed a local newspaper and and at one point so did Bill. He saw all the changes from hand-set letterpress all the way to today’s digital technology. He lived through the depression and hardly ever threw anything of value away. I think that is why he still had all of his letterpress equipment. He didn’t do all that much letterpress anymore, but I’m sure he loved seeing the type trays and those beautiful old presses on a daily basis. He even had a working linotype machine. When I was talking to him about being a printer and the long hours and weekends he spent in the shop he replied, “I’ve never had a reason to complain.” He worked in the print shop until his death at 82. I don’t think he would have had it any other way.

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The act of creation has been resonating with me lately. Through my art and letterpress work I have been enjoying creating without a client or a specified goal. I have found it to be therapeutic and rewarding. I am beginning to understand the idea of designer as author. After reading “The Designer as Author” by Michael Rock in *Eye*, no. 20, I began thinking about design outside of clients or even money. As designers we put so much stock in “real” projects and budgets. These are a part of our everyday lives, but are they necessary elements of design? As designer we don’t have to wait to execute someone else’s business plan. We have the power to do so much with our available knowledge.

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Adrian, my wife Suzanne and I currently have an art show up at the local college’s art gallery. These are the postcards that I letterpressed for the show. Although the printing isn’t up to par with some of the “high-end” commercial letterpress printers like Rohner Letterpress, I am still proud of the printing. This process is time consuming and sometimes frustrating, but the reward is well worth it.

If you happen to be around Hastings, Nebraska anytime until November 19, try to stop by the gallery. Of course everyone is welcome to the reception on November 7 at 2pm – 3pm.