Intervening the everyday

Intervening the everyday

I've been thinking about this a lot recently. I printed another 30 odd posters to spread around the Secret Garden Party festival but accidentally left them on a train, so if you find a green leather covered poster roll (snaffled from my graduation ceremony) on your travels let me know.

I like helping people, and I like to help people feel better, so I set out to create positivity for the people around me.

I wanted to steal a moment from their routine to show them that they can feel happier, better more optimistic, that there are reasons to smile. I wanted these moments to come from them, from their emotions and feelings in response to something I had given them. I did this by creating messages for them to see.

I started with a few posters that developed at a fast pace adding new messages and concepts. I had a camera by my side and a pile of posters ready to go up at all times. The initial interest in my posters inspired me to find new ways of intervening and intercepting the everyday in my neighbourhood. I designed stickers, badges and business cards. These designed pieces spread my messages to people by giving them something different and questionable.

When my community became Barcelona I took it there. I measured and documented the intervention though photography and created a book of my photographs and the stories behind the images.

Officially employed!

Next week I am going to start the first steps into my new job!

The contract has been signed and the studio is about to me built so after a couple of months waiting it's really going to begin!

Luke Pendrell the course leader of Graphic Design at the Unversity of the Creative Arts, Epsom asked me to set-up and run a letterpress studio at the Uni. It starts off that I work in an existing letterpress studio one day a week and spend a second day at the Uni setting up a studio with the press there. When the studio is up and running I'll be the technician of sorts and I'll be running workshops with the students.

I think it may just possibly be my dream job! Re-visiting what I had written as my career plan five months ago (here) reminds me of how perfect this job is. It's great to be doing something I am really passionate about as well as have access to a studio and running workshops! I am starting off my training with two days spent at Hand & Eye next week, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to those little letters.

Letterpress printer

Me at Hand & Eye Letterpress in March, photo by Rosa De Carlo.

Here is something I found on my computer. It comes at a good time to re-read it. I wrote it as a career plan for my final project for my degree back in April. Take a read...

I am going to work in a letterpress workshop, I will learn the craft and skill of printing and the technique and beauty in good typography.

I have done a two week placement at Hand & Eye Letterpress and enjoyed it so much, I have never learnt so much so quickly and easily. I even enjoyed cleaning the windows and dissing (putting away in the correct place) tiny type for hours on end when there was no printing to do.

I spent long days standing up with short breaks and no pay whilst sleeping on a sofa, but I really felt right being there. I like the tactile type, the beautiful prints, the impression of the type on the paper. There is so much to consider all the time, there is always something going slightly wrong or unexpected which needs to be corrected. There is such a sense of achievement when something is completed, and things are completed all the time. There is no panic or stress when things go wrong, I was packing 5000 letterheads to be send to the client when Phil realised one line had been positioned wrong. We threw them in the bin and they had to be printed again, that’s two days work for one days paycheck. But these things happen, letterpress is a risky business and it is part of the process.

I have always been driven by process, and feel that one of my strengths is my interest in learning new processes and techniques constantly. I immerse myself in as much information about something as I can and I try things until I come up with something I like. My passion for traditional print techniques began in the very early days of my degree, and I feel more than ready to get into the world and start really working with print.

I’ve only been away for two days but I already miss the routine, the people and the type. So I think I’ll try and find a press to work in, maybe as an intern, maybe part-time, maybe on a casual basis, maybe in America where the presses are bigger, better and further away.

As it is very hard to find working and busy presses who are able to take on staff or interns I will be looking for jobs and internships in all areas of traditional printmaking, paper and publishing. I have a few ideas, such as London Print Studio who featured in my design investigation are a really interesting charity organisation built on an amazing ethos of community, people and printing. They have internships starting in November and are in the process of installing letterpress equipment.

I dream of having my own letterpress studio filled with tiny metal type and giant wooden lettering and beautiful colour inks and a vast array of paper stock with the radio playing and people dropping by for cups of tea.