| J E F F P U L A S K I | Director and Professor of Graphic Design, School of Art, Design and Creative Industries, Wichita State University   |
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This project involved printing both sides of hand cut wood type on top of each other. One side had a partial image and the other side had a letter form. A digital sheet within the ten prints contained the following description: Letterpress printing thrived in the early part of the 20th century. Commercial printers specializing in signs and posters utilized large wood type as a printing surface. Individual letters were put together to form the desired advertising message. When a printer wanted the type to become more illustrative, to be reversed out of another color or if they needed an image, they would cut their designs by hand into wooden blocks. These wood blocks were used as the plates needed to print each individual color of their design and every color had a corresponding block. After the advertisement was printed and the block was no longer needed, it was recycled. The block was flipped over and a new design was cut into the reverse side. Sometimes the block was cut down into smaller pieces and individual letters were cut, adding to the printer’s inventory of type. I recently acquired part of a collection of hand-cut type and as we cleaned it, discovered some wonderful craftsmanship on the flip side of several letters. Flip Side
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