THANKS

Amy Redmond / Amada Press
2022

Marker sketch showing proof of concept. The goal was to create new letterforms from pre-existing glyphs found in my collection of wood & metal type, that when composed & overprinted form the word "Thanks".
The two type forms were locked up together as a "work & turn" layout, allowing them both to be printed on the same page at the same time.
Inked registration proofs of the type forms on mylar, testing how the marker sketch translated into a physical composition of wood & metal type. The was a critical step in the process, repeated several times until the desired alignment was achieved.
View of the type forms in the bed of the Colt's Armory Platen Press. The left side shows the print after the first pass; the right side shows the results of the second pass, after the paper was rotated 180 degrees and the same forms were overprinted.
Video showing the overprinting of the type forms, after the page was rotated 180 degrees. Printed on a Colt's Armory Platen Press using a split fountain of ink color.

THANKS is a chromatic composition that reimagines glyphs as building blocks for new letterforms. The handset metal type is composed as two separate forms, each void of meaning until one is overprinted upon the other and the message is revealed.

The forms were locked up together in the press bed as a “work & turn” layout so that once a page went through the press it could immediately be rotated 180 degrees and run through the press again — creating two copies of the same design at once. A split fountain allows for the simultaneous inking of both forms in complementary hues, creating a nuanced chromatic print that emphasizes the underlying structure without sacrificing unity. Once dry, the pages were cut in half, yielding two prints per page.

Production Notes: Letterpress printed in a limited edition using wood and metal type on a 1903 Colt’s Armory platen press. The typefaces used are No. 510, Huxley Vertical, Gothic Condensed, and Bernhard Gothic.

Design / Typesetting / Letterpress Printing
Amy E. Redmond
Project link