Letterpress lusciousness

After attending a workshop at Harrington and Squires, our designer Angie was enthused and lucky enough to get her hands on a classic 8 x 5 Adana table-top letterpress machine.

Letterpress is the original printing process, as invented by Gutenberg. Today it’s rarely used by most commercial printers but a growing band of aficionados have fallen in love with the hands on, textured feel of the process. There is something inherently satisfying about wielding a compositing stick, metal type and some cornerstone quoins that you just don’t get from other print processes.

The iconic Adana Eight-Five was launched in 1953. They continued to be produced in Twickenham until 1999 and rumour has it that a copy of the Adana is currently being made in Japan. Digital is often sited as being the future of printing but not many digital presses can print onto 700gsm card, blind emboss, cut, perforate, crush your fingers and produce some beautiful print…