This week I launched my new blog: CCCCAREER. It’s a site designed to publish articles providing real-world support for creative industry newcomers including interviews with established creative industry professionals.
I just published a very inspiring interview with Mark at Blush – Bespoke and custom letterpress printing in the UK.
Letterpress in the 21st century and career beginnings – Blush
Here’s an excerpt:
CCCCAREER: I get a lot of intense happiness by getting involved in any physical print process. What’s your personal history in printing and what keeps you in the industry today?
MARK: My interest in printing goes way back to a John Bull printing set my parents kept on top of the kitchen cupboard. Small rubber type placed in a small red plastic holder. Press the assembled type on the ink pad then stamp it onto the paper and hey presto! Business cards for the whole family.
I became interested in other printing techniques at art college, lino and woodcut prints, mono prints and etching. My first letterpress experience was at a jobbing letterpress printers. I remember it all so clearly, walking in through the door to the front desk the first to hit was the smell of ink and machinery. Looking beyond into the press room, Heidelberg and Thompson Auto Platens were the letterpress work horses, guillotine and paper racks at the back wall and Multilith 1250WL and Rotoprint to the right. The composing room was upstairs, filled with cabinets of wood and metal type some of which we still use now. I remember the Linotype near the window in a small room, one of the most impressive contraptions ever invented.
Now I spend my time surrounded by letterpress. Working with antique machinery to create tactile prints on beautiful papers that never fail to impress. I’m a lucky chap!
