Friday, July 17, 2015

DESIGN: Ponc Press Commission


I recently was commissioned by Ponc Press, a lovely little letterpress company based in Dingle, to create a series of images our most famous resident, Fungi, the dolphin. It was a lovely project to work on, and a great excuse to go out on a boat, and catch up with our own Fungi, all in the line of research.  A beautiful day when we set out on the boat...



Then the mist rolled in, and the stillness was nothing short of beautiful...




Designing for letterpress printing, is very different. The drawings have to made into plates, suitable for printing, in this case on a beautiful original Heidelberg 1955 Platen Press. Its more akin to lino printing, so the drawings had to be simple, with bold strong lines. After uploading them to photoshop, I played around with the size, to make sure they fitted an A4 sheet correctly, (with crop marks, of course!). Saving the files is important, and each block maker has its own criteria, in this case, EPS files.


Ponc Press, has just been taken over by a new collective of 3 local business owners and book lovers. It was previously owned by a Puca Press, you can read about the history of the press and the beautiful letter sets they have here: http://thesalvagepress.com/index.php/journal/puca-press/

Here are two websites, that explain the process of letterpress printing very well:




I look forward to seeing what will come off the Ponc Press soon!!





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