Art Workers Guild Christmas Fair

We will have a stand at the Fair where we’ll be selling our Christmas cards, posters and books. We hope to see you there.

Mark Twain poster

Mark Twain is a bit of a hero around here. He’s best known as a writer, of course, and a great one. We really like his description of his time as a cub pilot on a Mississippi steamboat.

Less well known is that one of his first jobs was as a compositor. He found it such drudgery that he later invested a lot of money in a type setting machine. Sadly for him his investment wasn’t a good one.

He was also a wit, of course, and when we found this quote we couldn’t resist it.

As usual, you can find this in our ebay shop.

The return of Tutti Frutti

Tutti Frutti is back! We were thrilled with the response to the original print and both pleased and sorry that it sold out. Sorry because it was a limited edition, so nobody else could get it. We obviously couldn’t do a straight reprint, but we could do a new version, and that’s what we’ve done. The layout is changed, and Rosa chose a stunning new set of vibrant colours. What’s more, we haven’t signed or numbered them, so we’ve brought the price down.

Tutti Frutti is in our ebay store and at Ben Pentreath now, and Keep Calm will have it next week.

God is in the details

We’ve always preferred the idea of god being in the details to the alternate version, where it’s the devil. We try to pay attention to the details in our work, which is why we chose to make this poster.

Once we had decided to use metallic inks on black paper we knew we had to under-print them to bring out their brilliance. There is opaque white under the silver and yellow under the gold. We used Fabriano Ingres 160 gsm paper, trimmed on two edges to 700 x 500 mm.

Like most of our other posters, you can find it in our shop.

What we did at Whittington

Like last year, we were put in charge of Whittington Press’s FAG proofer on Saturday. It’s the same model as our own one, so we prepared this poster beforehand, a touch of the Blue Peters.We don’t get to use our 18 line Gill Sans wood letter very often, so this was a good opportunity. We were told afterwards that it was quite a site to see lots of people walking round clutching the copies that they had themselves printed.

Whittington Summer Show

We will once again be at the Whittington Summer Show this year. It takes place on 5 September, and you can see the gorgeous poster here. The illustrations were hand stenciled by Miriam Macgregor, and we think it’s worth going just for the chance of picking one up.

As last year, we’ll be on the proofing press. We are currently putting together some type for a poster which we’ll be taking with us so that those who want to can print their own copy. We’ll have other posters too, as well as books and cards.

New edition

Letters Are Letters was one of our first poster, and it has sold very well at Ben Pentreath’s shop. So well, in fact, that it we have reprinted it. The first time round it was in black and red, so we made the second colour green this time.

The text is a quote from Eric Gill’s Essay on Typography, and it’s something that is central to the way we design things.

Letters Are Letters is available now in our store.

Eric Gill poster

A new poster. This quote from Eric Gill’s ‘An Essay on Typography’ has long appealed to us. It was a natural to use our Gill Sans wood letter for it. We printed it on Somerset Book Soft White 105 gsm paper, an acid-free mould-made. Soft is a description of the white but it might also refer to its silky feel. We have kept its two deckle edges and torn a third one.

It’s available now from our shop for £50 plus p&p.