Good afternoon, inkheads and happy Throwback Thursday!
Surely you’re in awe of the fine craftsmanship known as letterpress printing.
Before the days of digital printing and even offset, letterpress ruled the ink scene.
The letterpress technique adds a unique tactile element to your design similar to that of dembossing. Yet the intricate process makes mass production nearly impossible.
You see each letterpress piece must be made individually with care by a skilled press operator, which means that bulk i.e. large quantity projects are either out of the question or quite costly.
For this reason, 21st century technology nearly destroyed the art of letterpress…
But us print and design geeks won’t let that happen.
And we’ve got an amazing ally in Neenah Paper.
You can save letterpress history for only $5
The fine folks at Neenah Paper are rallying the print community to save the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The Hamilton museum contains all kinds of awesome stuff, such as over 1.5 million pieces of wooden type, antique equipment, and classic advertisements from as far back as the 1930s. Of course, the museum also offers guided tours, educational workshops, school field trips, internships, and artist residencies.
Hamilton needed to move back in November of 2012; the lengthy process involved raising almost $250,000 to relocate those delicate historical pieces, and there’s still more work to be done.
The good news is that you can help. Your donations are tax deductible, and Neenah’s even created an irresistible incentive to tug on your heart strings—exclusive letterpress prints!
It was a tough decision, but I finally chose this $5 Issue Six Print designed by the award winning creative studio Design Army. The gorgeous graphic appears on 100% cotton aka tree free paper printed with Pantone colors (PMS 485 Red & PMS 317 Mint). I think you’ll agree that it was worth every penny:
Best of all, Neenah will donate another $15,000 towards the cause if you in the community order prints, too. They’ve already raised $30,000, and every penny goes to support Hamilton.
Want to contribute? Order a print today!
Be sure to tell’em Katherine from PrintFirm sent ya! And you’d better come back to let me know which print you purchased in the comments below!