Letterpress Studio
Letterpress Studio
Letterpress provides a vehicle for Visual Communication Design students and others in the School to simultaneously understand the history of typography and printed matter through movable type and hand-operated printing presses while fostering departures for contemporary design practice through bookworks, page layout, and poster design.
In the Letterpress Studio, students’ fingers touch three-dimensional letters, eyes choose from the myriad of typefaces available, and minds set written ideas, becoming print books and posters of their own design. Along the way students learn typeface classifications, explore the relationship between form and content, and develop a personal connection to the history of type and printing, as they take this versatile and expressive media forward through the 21st century.
"I came to grad school [and] fell in love with letterpress. Not just letterpress for the look/quality of printing, but the act of setting type, manually printing for endless hours, and the history behind the art form." —Ashley Freeby (MFA 2018)
Facilities & Resources
Current Collection of Vintage Presses
- Vandercook Universal 1, Vandercook Universal 1AB, Vandercook #3, Vandercook #4, Vandercook 1
- Two Chandler and Price platen presses
- Two 19th century tabletop presses for business cards and small invitations
- Number of type cabinets: 30
- Number of type cases with type: 534+
- Number of typefaces/type families/fonts: 126
The collection includes a wide range of monotype and foundry type in classifications that include serif, slab serif, sans serif, script, black letter and decorative, and an entire case of ornaments, some dating from art deco and art nouveau periods.
Courses Offered
Our fully equipped letterpress shop invites students to take beginning and advanced-level courses including:
- Letterpress Bookworks: Students in this course will design and produce visual communication via the letterpress method, with emphasis upon the integration of materials, structure, and content.
- Letterpress Broadside Editions: Students will develop their own contemporary interpretations of the poster form by writing, designing, revising, and printing broadsides via letterpress.
Learn more about Visual Communication Design courses.
Student Work
I Like Turtles by Tim Lu, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Ornament Oracle by Demah Alfaiz, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Muskaan Dhingra, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Drifting by Tania Liu, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
All I Do Is Look At You by Arthur Thompson, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Auto-Cannibalism: The Art of Eating Yourself by Maria Winters, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Planets by Yafei Wang, a student in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
Ruins by Stephanie Wang & Mary Philmlee, students in SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
An example of student work produced in SAIC's Letterpress Broadside Editions course.
See examples of student work from SAIC's Letterpress Bookworks and Letterpress Broadside Editions courses in the image gallery above.
Schedule a Visit
Letterpress Studio visits are by appointment only. Please reach out to viscom@saic.edu. You can also take a virtual tour here.