Time to hit the books!

A little trip to the library today came to a close with a very heavy and uncomfortable walk home...

Although i was looking for 'print' research, I stumbled across some interesting looking books on Wallpapers which will aid me in understanding it better and how its produced. In the main college building there really werent any grippingly exciting print books. Was a disapointment... I shall take a look in Vernon Street.

The Cutting Edge Of Wallpaper (2006) - Black Dog Publishing.

Print room...Mono-Print.

Today I went in to do screen printing.. however there were lots of us there and so preparing the screens for print took a while with a long que. Speaking to Mick, we asked if we could possibly try another print technique and so today I learnt lots about Mono-print and found out that it wasnt really for me...As far as I could see there isn't actually a recorded history of the origin of mono-printing, but they can trace early stages in which the proofing of intaglio prints can be associated to today's method of producing a mono-print.It seems that one of the early artists who experimented with printing in color, on unusual papers (and linen), and with odd horizontal formats to emphasize the horizon, was a Dutch painter and etcher of stark, fantastic landscapes called Hercules Seghers (1589-1638).

Hercules Seghers The Enclosed Valley. 1620's. Etching with washes

Most of his images differ widely from impression to impression, and most are preserved in only a few sheets. His eccentric and irregular linework of short strokes is matched by the non-Dutch topography of his subjects. His etchings belong to the most original and impressive experiments in the history of printmaking. Not only did he use different-coloured inks and often printed on coloured or dyed paper, but the diversity of individual prints was increased by his adding accents by hand. Seghers/' paintings are rare; few are documented, a

nd many forgeries exist. Rembrandt owned

 several of his paintings and was obviously influenced by his landscapes.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) worked independently developing his own unique technique called trace monotype. His method consists of inking a sheet of paper, laying another sheet over it, and drawing on the fresh paper which received the ink in a linear manner.

Paul Klee (1879-1940) used and developed this method a few years later for his intriguing drawings. This seems very similar to the mono-printing of today.

In the workshop today we learnt what you can do with mono-print, and what the process is. You ink up a surface (we used acrylic), then to either cut out shapes or draw onto the ink and then put itthrough the press. The shapes cr eate the negative image...as you can see below.

Oh dear! This was the first mono-print i tried and it went horribly wrong. I disliked it so much that i stuck a couple of bits onto it.

When using cut out type shapes you must remember that it's reverse!

This was when I'd actually put the letters the correct way round!

This was done my drawing into the ink with a sharp edged object before putting it through the press.

Although it was pretty fun to do, I felt like I was back school, and the images that were produced and that I produced felt a little child-like. Perhaps this was because I didnt really know what i was doing. I didn't like not knowing what was actually going to be on my paper after printing it. I feel that for a certain project or an image with a certain subject it would be good to use, but i don't feel that any of the work i produce or will produce and especially not for wallpaper, that it would be appropriate to use. From exploring wallpaper, the repeat pattern and style is very structured and tidy, and i feel that you cant achieve this through mono-print.

Quality?

After reading the article in PRINT mag about quality selling, this got me thinking about how important it is to produce work that will sell and that quality counts.

Over summer i had briefly spoken to my friend Boyce who runs his own clothes range and he told me about how much money he'd had to spend because things were just not printed right by companies he'd asked. But as time went on Boyce printed many things traditionally... Here is a short film of promotion... 'Suffoca Wonderland'...http://suffoca.com/shop/

Therefore from this i believe that i should look into whether for the design i will be producing as a practitioner, if a digital or traditional print process would be better suited. There are many things to consider... time... money and trust within a digital company to do what you want them to do... as my friend found out.

Content. BUNCH of stuff.

To start of my print experience, (as I think I've already said) I am going to use a wallpaper idea I put together for my final major project. It consists of drawn barbie heads and uses more than one colour so it should be a good test for my first few prints...I hope this preps me well enough to then decide what types of printing are good for images i want to produce...then for me to create recent illustrations for wallpaper designs. 

Here is a Bunch of Stuff I want to try... although the stuff below looks a little like graphics. However I still have not found an illustrative print style i like...

This Is by a guy called Mikey Burton, who i found whilst browsing through http://yayeveryday.com/ - A site which enables designers of all sorts to share their work and things they find interesting - Good for inspiration :)

This guy has also made me think more about learning letterpress, i think its important for me to know as a designer and for me in the future designing posters and possibly entering a competition a friend told me about for a night at WIRE in LEEDS called STRANGEWAYS, in which they want an A3 poster designing to promote the night. Here's some of Mickey Burtons Poster and Letterpress Design...

So far...

Speaking to Nick, i've been told of a place called Armley Mills...

'Armley Mills contains exhibits from the 18th century to the present day and tells the history of manufacturing in Leeds, including textiles, clothing, printing and engineering. Housed in what was once the world's largest woollen mill, Leeds Industrial Museum houses a wealth of gems, nestled in a beautiful riverside location.'

http://www.leeds.gov.uk/armleyMills/

This could be somewhere I would go to understand print more.

Thus far, I have booked time in the print studio to try different types of printing with an old wallpaper image idea that i produced for my major project of barbie heads.

Ive also ordered various wallpaper samples from companies online, and would also like to ring paper houses for samples as, within the printing process, what i choose to print on is just as important as what's printed.

I also came across the magazine PRINT...'design for curious minds', full of amazing images. They also hold competition briefs. An interesting article in it was an Interview with Adrian Shaughnessy and Tony Brook

by Charlotte West. "If you produce something with quality content, a high design quotient, and at a reasonable price, then designers will buy it. Quality always sells...'

This is why i believe the print process is just as important as the digital print of today, looking through a print portfolio with the guys in print it was clear to see that through digital printing you dont achieve the same quality, and quirky look.

Print. Wallpapers?

Forming groups this week has helped me to understand that i need a project/s which will support this 'learning' process. 

I began thinking about applying the print technique to competition briefs, and from talking to David, i got a look in at some websites and groups that post briefs, but with no pressure, just a competition for space really on the website, from a previous 3rd years blog. These included...

'www.shopliftgallery.co.uk

'http://www.pocketfulmag.com/'

... although now im not sure i will deffinitly get involved with something this, i deffintly want to remember theyre there and enter some throughout the year. I will also update this list.

Something I was interested in looking into this year, which I briefly spoke about in my PPD presentation at the end of last year was the wallpaper industry. Creating wallpapers and repeat pattern has been something i've always been interested in just have no idea where to start. I've been to the guys at print and asked them a few questions regarding wallpaper and they told me that it is done there... but is tricky to produce rolls. However i only want to produce strip of my final designs.

In working with Wallpaper on a moderately big scale i will be looking into...

Traditional Printing: - Exploring availabilities in the workshop, such as lino, screen printing, etching, mono print etc.

- How it works on a time scale and pricing

- Getting opinions from my audience and what they are most attracted too. (Traditional V Digital).

- Where freelance print artists are at now and if they've been successful in their work.

... and comparing it with...

Digital Print: - What skills are needed in formatting images for print.

- Visiting digital printers/industry printers and asking lots of questions regarding price and time.

- Also creativity that may be lost in using this process and the idea of a certain quirkyness being taken from an image you have produced yourself through digital print.

Print

After a proper briefing and a quick look into the photography in TANK magazine, i have decided to leave photography alone and that to help me in becoming the designer i want to concentrate on using PRINT to the best of my ability. But i've seen photographs printed traditionally which look amazing and so this is worth looking at...

I'm also interested in the idea of Textile printing, although i do have no idea where to start on this.

'Printing is a process for reproducing text and imag

e, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing.' Wikipedia.

Im going to explore printing and how its progressed historically...Throughout this brief i will also research the ideas behind prints communication, how it's developed, how important it is to me as a designer, where it's going in the future and what impact this is going to have on society.

Throughout the brief i will research my relationship to other technology as well, this will mainly be in the form of one day projects and tutorials in CS3 programmes.

I will be focusing more on illustrative print rather than a more graphical approach, meaning that i will probably look more into screen printing, mono-printing and etching. However i would like to have a go at woodblock and letterpress to gain a better understanding of it and see if it would be appropriate for me to use in any of my work.

From what i gather the earliest dated printed book known is the 'Diamo

nd Sutra', printed in China in 868 CE. However it is suspected that book printing may have occurred long before this date.

Johannes Gutenberg...

...was a German craftsman and inventor. Gutenberg is best known for the Gutenberg press, an innovative printing press machine that used movable type. It remained the standard until the 20th century. Gutenberg made printing cheap. This is still one of it's main attractions today, how cheap it is, compared to that of digital printing.

Before Gutenberg, printing was limited in the number of editions made and nearly exclusivelt decorative, used for pictures and designs. The material to be printed was carved into wood, stone and metal, rolled with ink or paint and transferred by pressure to parchment or vellum. Books were hand copied mostly by members of religious orders.

I will investigate this futher throughout the brief... but here are some interesting screen printed images, which are in some way what i want to produce, not as pillows at this sage though.