Our Letterpress Prints

A Patriotic Bouquet

We found this delightful Memorial Day rose plant at Trader Joe's. This can easily be recreated as a fun centerpiece. We hope you are enjoying your holiday weekend!

A Delicious Brunch

For our Letterpress Workshop lunch break, Stuart suggested that we eat at Evening Star Cafe, a gem that sits on a cute block of neighborhood restaurants and shops like an oasis in Alexandria suburbia. We snagged the boxed window booth and indulged in dirty bloody marys and the cafe's popular mimosas. We both ordered from the brunch menu - I had the most amazing lemon-buttermilk pancakes with blueberry compote (seriously, I have never eaten pancakes with lemon - incredible!). Eric captured the plate of beauty here:

Eric enjoyed his gravy biscuits smathered with eggs on top! A pile of deliciousness. We are huge breakfast fans. Evening Star was a real treat; though I must add that no one can top homemade breakfast burritos with Sriracha hot chili sauce made by this wonderful man!

What is your favorite brunch food and do you have a special recipe to share?

Design Spotlight: Carry Hope Tote Bags

In the market for a new tote? Print Magazine invited 12 of their favorite designers to submit tote designs to be sold in support of their chosen charities. All 13 limited edition designs are available at MyDesignShop.com, and more can be purchased at partofit.org. The 1-2 color designs are simple but strong in their use of type and image. I wanted to share a few of my favorites here:
Design by Daniel Eatock for the International Dyslexia Association

Winning Design by Stardust for British Heart Association

Design by James Joyce for Save the Children UK

Design by Laurent Fetis for World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)

Design by Büro Destruct for Greenpeace

Also, check out this month's PRINT cover, designed by design superstar, Milton Glaser! Yes, he is The Man who designed the iconic I heart NY graphic!

playing with blocks

Here are more photos of woodblock letters from our letterpress workshop!

Letterpress Workshop in Alexandria

We had an awesome experience at a letterpress workshop this weekend. We had reserved a full-day class with Stuart Bradley of Railway Station Press in Alexandria, VA. We spent the day learning the basics of letterpress using the Chandler and Price tabletop press in Stuart's home studio. The beginner class covered terminology, the process, maintenance and materials.
We went with an emerald green ink for our prints. With the large selection of type and ornaments, Eric printed stationary for his photography business using metal type, and GA used wood blocks to create a typographical poster. Eric used a vintage 1930's camera ornament on his stationary. The wood block letters that GA selected would normally be printed on a larger format press, but we wanted to experiment! They required extra ink, so we added a bright red to the mix.
Stuart also shared valuable resources that will help us when we purchase our own letterpress. Since we normally work in the digital realm, we enjoyed the tactile sensation of this hands-on process. We highly recommend this workshop to anyone who is curious about letterpress and who would like a day of creative learning.

We'd love to hear about your letterpress experiences too!

Design Spotlight: Sculptor Michael Jones McKean

Michael Jones McKean just won a Guggeinheim Fellowship. This is especially exciting to me because he is a sculpture professor at my alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University. According to richmond.com, "His work goes from the monumental - such as using 2,000 pounds of clay in one sculpture - to the ephemeral. His latest project, "The Public Rainbow Project," seeks to create rainbows over public buildings. He already started by creating a rainbow over his studio on Mulberry Street" in Richmond, VA.
"A recent installation includes a ghostly re-constructed riverboat that gives the illusion of being 100-feet long. The same installation, entitled "Riverboat Lovesongs for the Ghost Whale Regatta" includes an 800 gallon acrylic water tank, a 10 horsepower three phase special effects fan, a 1986 Super Jumbo boom box and a Hall and Oates soundtrack." Check out some images from MJM's Riverboat installation. The final image, a photo of his studio, illustrates his Public Rainbow Project.

Volunteering at the Virginia Fine Arts Festival

The 2010 Virginia Fine Arts Festival, produced by GRACE, is being held this weekend at Reston Town Center. This morning, GA+ E and some of GA's work colleagues joined the fun in the children's tent. There were four kinds of crafts, including a Calder-inspired mobile-making station and a magnet-moving paint station! For a fun and rewarding experience, we recommend seeking out volunteer opportunities with your local art organizations. If you have one that you love, we'd be happy to feature it on our site!

Our vote for Best in Show goes to Jenny Pope, an eco-conscious printer whose woodcarvings of endangered and invasive species are both bright and thoughtful.