Connect to Art and change in Northern Ireland

touch.... about the project

This international exhibition will consist of eighteen print works with a thematic core of work inspired by the word and letters of touch.

This project was initiated by Tricia Treacy and Ashley John Pigford as a collaborative exploration of the interplay between venerable/archaic and experimental/modern technology in the effort to produce a hybrid form of typographic design where the production process is ingrained in the product. Ashley’s experience in physical computing, interaction design and letterpress, Tricia’s experience in digital media, graphic design and letterpress, and the duo’s enjoyment of collaborative, creative processes are fundamental to this highly experimental endeavor.

collaboration

We have produced twenty sets, (five letters each), of Vista Sans Wood Type, (in 2 different sizes and in various hardwoods), that is being distributed to letterpress artists/designers around the world. We have asked each artist to make an edition of their prints so that each artist will receive an edition of all prints, and we have some for various exhibitions.

process:

We started with a contemporary Emigré typeface, Vista Sans, designed by Xavier Dupré, because it was created as a blend of, to quote the designer, “the rhythm of blackletters; big contrast, emphasis on the vertical, graphic and strong looking” and “humanist shapes”. This mix of graphic/mechanical form and a styling rooted in the human hand is paired with a similar production process: the mechanization of a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) router and the anomalous (human) nature of wood type and letterpress printing. We emphasize the grain of the wood in the printed letterforms, choosing to mostly use side-grain or low-quality plywood instead of traditional milled/planed end-grain wood, to infuse the material with the meaning.

venues confirmed:

January 2012
Presentation at the College Book Arts Association annual conference in the San Francisco bay area.

April – October, 2012
Exhibition at the Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library Special Collections at Yale University

March 2012
Exhibition of select prints at Press Street’s Antenna Gallery as part of the annual Southern Graphics Conference.

September 8 – December 10, 2011
Wood Type, Evolved: Experimental Letterpress & Relief Printing ...

Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College, Chicago

Participants

Megan Adie, Basel, Switzerland

Katie Baldwin, Aurora, NY

Kyle Van Horn & Kim Bentley, Baltimore, MD

Inge Bruggman, Chicago, CA

Angela Driscoll & Yuka Petz, New Orleans, LA