Conference Description
This conference — Post-Digital Letterpress Printing — aims to reflect on the current status of letterpress practice and research nowadays. As in other international contexts, in the last few years, we have been slowly witnessing the revival of this technology in Portugal, mainly due to the surging interest of the modern printers and typesetters — the current generation of graphic designers and visual artists. With or without formal training, they have been experimenting, learning and merging this craft into their digital processes “reinvigorat[ing] traditional letterpress values from a design perspective” (Clouse, Voulangas, 2009), following the trend of international graphic designers.
By focusing on the activity held in the portuguese territory — by the letterpress workshops, artists and works produced — within a more global international trend, we aim to gather researchers and practitioners of this traditional practice in the current post-digital editorial design context of the XXIst century’s activities and technologies.
The conference is being organised by the i2ADS in partnership with ID+ and uniMAD. We also rely on the collaboration of our partners from the EASR, ESE and ESAD—Idea to organize and to host the workshops together with them.
Venues
The conference will be held at the gallery of the Museum of FBAUP (on the third floor of the main building).
The workshops will take place at:
Dates
The conference will take place in the final week of january: 30 and 31 Jan, 2020.
15 December: Call for submission final deadline (new date)30 December: Notification of acceptance (new date);10 january: Deadline for the submission of works;25 january: Registration deadline.
History & Context
This conference is being organized in the context of previous similar initiatives, such as the Typography Meeting (the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th editions). The idea of organizing such an event took place during the conference “Letterpress Printing: Past, Present, Future” that took place at the University of Leeds in 2018.
Although the scope was wider and more traditional, it was there that we were confronted with the need for a similar discussion to take place in Portugal.
This topic of interest has also been highlighted in “Imprimere”, a major Design exhibition and massive catalog about the production of books, organized by ESAD also in 2018.
And more recently, in the “Tipo: um encontro de Impressores Tipográficos” that took place in October 2019, in the Azores.
These initiatives have been focusing on the traditional approaches to the technology. In this conference we want to highlight the current post-digital practices that take advantage of letterpress, whether for commercial production work, education or for research.
Program
During the conference, we will hold several activities:
- Warm-up & Conference workshops on traditional letterpress or current post-digital practices;
- International keynotes conferences;
- Oral communications of research and practice (result of the call for papers)
- Exhibition of works;
In order to do so, we will conduct a peer reviewed call for submissions of:
- Artworks and editions (for an exhibition during the conference);
- Communications (for the conference);
- Workshops proposals (prior or parallel program to the conference).
We will publish the accepted extended abstracts as a conference proceedings’ book, with an ISBN register number, prior to the event. We will exhibit the accepted artworks during the conference.
Also resulting from the call and conference presentations, authors will be invited to extend their submissions into a full book chapter to be published after the conference. The accepted artworks will also be featured in a special section of the book.
Conference Program
Day 1: Thursday January 30
09:00 Registration (at workshop venues)
10:00 Workshops (parallel sessions)
Gillotage: Exploring a mid-nineteenth century relief printing technique. Graciela Machado (FBAUP / i2ADS), Marta Belkot (FBAUP, DAP) & Sandra Costa Brás (FBAUP, DAP). FBAUP (Printmaking workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h).
SuperVeloz: Work with a selection of the Super Tipo Veloz typographic system modules cut with laser in methacrylate. Andreu Balius (TypeRepublic / EINA) & Roberto Gamonal (Familia Plómez / UCM). ESAD, 10h00 – 13h00 (3h).
P22 Blox printing system: A modular letterpress printing system for lettering, experimental letterforms and pattern making. Amelia Fontanel (RIT / CGAC) & Richard Kegler (P22). EASR (Printing Workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h).
Letterpress and almost-revolutions
Rita Carvalho (Delli - Universidade Lusófona), Jorge Araújo (ESE-IPP). ESE (Printing Workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h).
13:00 Lunch Break
14:30 Workshops (cont.)
17:30 Conference opening session
18:00 Keynote Session:
Catherine Dixon
(Central Saint Martins / University of the Arts London)
Session will be held at oMuseu FBAUP (Museum Gallery)
19:30 Exhibition Opening
On the first day, participants should register and attend the workshops directly on the specified venues. In the end of the day, the conference opening, keynote session and exhibition opening will take place at the conference main venue — oMuseu (FBAUP Museum gallery)
Day 2: Friday January 31
09:00 Registration
09:15 Opening Session
09:30 Communication Sessions
Anti-Amnesia: Articulating design and media towards letterpress printing’s heritage preservation and value creation. Jorge Brandão Pereira, Heitor Alvelos, Abhishek Chatterjee, & Susana Barreto
Gillotage. Exploring a mid-nineteenth century relief printing technique. Graciela Machado & Marta Belkot
Resisting hyper-digitalisation: the re-appropriation of the printed object in contemporary design. Lucrezia Russo
Super Tipo Veloz: From letterpress to screen. Learning from a modular type system. Andreu Balius, Roberto Gamonal
i.E. Magazine: experimentation and learning out of classes. Miguel Sanches, Bruno Gomes & Rita Oliveira
Letterpress is (not) a serious business: experiments in a design course. Rita Carvalho
Letterpress as education platform. Jorge Araújo
11:30 Coffee Break
12:00 Keynote Session:
The Seven Lives of a Typeface.
Richard Kegler (P22 Type Foundry) & Amelia Fontanel (RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection)
13:30 Lunch Break
14:30 Communication Sessions
The post-digital letterpress print exchange: Methodological Innovation in the Exploration of Contemporary Letterpress Practice. Chris Wilson
A Digital Typeface For a Reimagined Field of Post-Digital Letterpress Printing. Ana Sofia Mariz
Contemporary print in the museum: innovation in unexpected places. Charlotte Biszewski
Orlando Erasto Portela: relations between creative process and letterpress printing methods of an (almost) unknown designer from mid twentieth century. Nuno Coelho
Nonsense Poetry Book. Tadeu Costa
Typography and artist's book. Emilio Sdun’s experience. Antonio Alcaraz Mira
Letterpress out of nothing. Alexandra Korolkova
Expression of Power through Wood Type: Newspaper Headings. Sumanthri Samarawickrama*
16:30 Coffee Break
17:00 Keynote Session:
The Standing Letters
Jorge dos Reis (Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon)
18:30 Closing Session (Workshops Results)
On the second day, all the activities will take place at oMuseu, the conference main venue (FBAUP Museum gallery). *Although the authors were'nt able to attend, their abstract was pubished and is available in the Book of abstracts.
Registration
Assistance
10€: Assistance to the conference, to the communications and to the keynote speakers. Registration will entitle assistants to receive the support documentation and obtain a certificate of participation in the conference. Assistants may start registering now.
Registration is now closed
Workshops
Starting at 10€: Participation in the warm-up and conference workshops. Each workshop has specific requirements and will be charged accordingly. Registration will entitle participants to receive the necessary workshop materials, have access to the workshop facilities and to obtain a certificate of participation in the workshop. Participants may start registering now in selected workshops.
Registration is now closed
Participation (Communications)
50€: Authors that have their papers accepted for presentation must register at least one author per paper. Additional authors benefit from a 50% discount. Registration will entitle participants to be featured in the conference program, to receive the support documentation, to have their abstract published in the book of abstracts and to obtain a certificate of participation in the conference.Participants are required to wait until the notification of the paper review/acceptance result before registering (december 30).
Registration is now closed
Warm-up workshops
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Monday, Wednesday & Thursday 20, 22 & 23 of January 2020 (FBAUP, PA301), 14h00–18h00 (12h). More info & workshop details. Photography record of the workshop available online.
Letterpress: being post-digital and beyond post-digital
Friday, 24 january & Monday, 27 january, at the Tipografia Damasceno. More info & workshop details.
Photography record of the workshop available online.
Digital vs. Analog
Saturday, 25 january 2020, ESE (Printing workshop) 10h–18h (6h). More info & workshop details. Photography record of the workshop available online.
Conference workshops
Gillotage
Graciela Machado (FBAUP / i2ADS) & Marta Belkot
Thursday, 30 january, FBAUP (Printmaking workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h). More info & workshop details.
SuperVeloz
Andreu Balius (TypeRepublic / EINA) & Roberto Gamonal (Familia Plómez / UCM)
Thursday, 30 january, ESAD, 10h00 – 13h00 (3h). More info & workshop details.
P22 Blox printing system
Amelia Fontanel (RIT / CGAC) & Richard Kegler (P22)
Thursday, 30 january, EASR (Printing Workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h). More info & workshop details.
Letterpress and almost-revolutions
Rita Carvalho (Delli - Universidade Lusófona), Jorge Araújo (ESE-IPP)
Thursday, 30 january, ESE (Printing Workshop), 10h00 – 17h00 (6h). More info & workshop details.
Keynote speakers
Catherine Dixon
BA in Graphic Design (1992); PgD in Communication Design; PhD Central Saint Martins, 2003); Pg Cert in Teaching and Learning in Art and Design (2010) from CLTAD.
Catherine Dixon is a designer, writer, researcher and teacher. As a designer she works with text-based projects, including typographic covers for the award-winning Great Ideas series for Penguin Books, Phaidon, and on several projects with Phil Baines. As a writer she writes regularly on letterforms in environmental contexts, contributing to the website publiclettering.org.uk and co-authoring with Phil Baines the book “Signs: lettering in the environment” (Laurence King 2003). As a researcher she has a particular interest in letterforms, her Doctoral thesis focusing on the problems of describing typefaces. A regular contributor to Eye Magazine, Matrix, and other Journals. She has coordinated events and conferences at the St. Bride Library for many years has had an advisory role at the Library since 2003. Senior Lecturer at Central Saint Martins (part of the University of the Arts London) where she teaches typography on the Graphic Communication Design programme and co-curates the Central Lettering Record with Phil Baines. External Examiner at Lincoln University. From 2011–12 she was a Visiting Professor at the University of São Paulo in Brazil.
Amelia Fontanel & Richard Kegler
Amelia Fontanel is a curator at the RIT Cary Graphic Arts Collection, a renowned library that collects on design, typography, and the book arts. As manager of the Cary technology collection, she is responsible for teaching and maintaining some 23 different presses and thousands of fonts of metal and wood type. She is actively involved in the American letterpress community, holding board positions with the American Printing History Association and the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.
Richard Kegler is the founder and lead designer of P22 Type Foundry. As founder of the Western New York Book Arts Center in Buffalo NY, Richard combined an interest in traditional crafts along with an entrepreneurial background to help create a self-sustaining community organization. The new P22 studio in Rochester, New York focuses on both digital and analog printing and typography.
Jorge dos Reis
Jorge dos Reis (b. 1971, Unhais da Serra), Graphic Designer.
He was an apprentice typographic composer of a National Press first officer in the former Cais do Sodré Typography. He began his career by collaborating with the designer Robin Fior in Lisbon and with the typographer Alan Kitching in London. He settled his own studio in 1996. His work is extensive and diverse, having a dual activity as a designer and as an artist: he makes graphic, and typographic designs; exhibits drawings, and paintings.
He attended the National Conservatory in António Wagner's singing class studying with the composers Jorge Peixinho and Paulo Brandão while graduating in Communication Design at FBAUL. Jorge dos Reis has a Master of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London, a Master in Sociology of Communication from ISCTE, and a Doctorate from the University of Lisbon.
He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, where he founded and directs the Master of Contemporary Typographic and Editorial Practice.
He was a visiting professor at the Norwich University of Arts; Univerza v Liubliana; Berlin Universität der Kunste; Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin; Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna; Aalto University Helsínquia; Tampere University of Technology; Karel de Grote University Antwerp; Marmara Üniversitisi Istambul; Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia; Politecnico di Milano; Kunst Universität Linz; Hochschule RheinMain University of Applied Sciences Wiesbaden; Cardiff Metropolitan University; Universidade Estadual de Minas Gerais, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Universidade Federal do Piauí e Universidade de Brasília in Brazil.
His published works (monographs, catalogs, books) include: Escrita das Escritas (Estar); Das Letras que Moram nas Palavras (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal); Depois de Gutenberg (Politécnico de Castelo Branco), O Cultivo das Letras (EPUL CML); O Bilingue Tipográfico de Macau (Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau); Terra Beirã Terra Tipografada (Câmara da Guarda); Uma Terra Uma Letra (Câmara da Guarda); Trânsito Local Trânsito Vocal (com Américo Rodrigues – Luzlinar); Codex – Palavra e Simulacro (Diferença Comunicação); Visible Speech (Teatro Municipal da Guarda); Uma Caligrafia Insular (Museu de Angra do Heroísmo); Escrevo Risco (com Américo Rodrigues. Luzlinar); Tipograma Topograma (Teatro Municipal Joaquim Benite); Livros de Provas (Faculdade de Belas-Artes); Libro Panóptico (Cevmo, Salamanca Morille); Seis Alfabetos Para Paul Klee (Universidade de Aveiro); O Desenho da Escrita em Portugal (Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal); Da Epigrafia à Caligrafia da Tipografia à Poesia (Centro Cultural Raiano); Caderno de Campo da Serra da Gardunha (A Moagem Cidade das Artes, Câmara do Fundão); Compositori Tipografici Geografici (com Alberto Casiraghi, Edizioni Pulcino Elefante); Fragas Falantes (Universidade Beira Interior); Folding the Text Lines of The Book (Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra). Terra Plana (Casa da Cerca). Tipografia Identidade Teatralidade (Instituto Politécnico de Tomar).
Call for Submissions
The PDLP conference is open for submissions of:
-
Artworks and editions (for an exhibition during the conference); -
Communications(for the conference and later publication); -
Workshops (prior or parallel program to the conference).
Submission of proposals is now closed
Topics of interest
The topics of the conference and later book are organized into three main sections:
- Letterpress history. Including, but not limited to: Historical reviews, or state of the art reviews, past and current operating workshops, current practices and authors;
- Letterpress education. Including, but not limited to: current and traditional curricula of schools, workshops’ practices; letterpress role and influence in the graphic design education context;
- Letterpress practice. Including, but not limited to: authors, designers and general practitioners; documental or artwork analysis.
Communications
Please submit an abstract between to 300 and 1000 words (see template below). The final selection of accepted submissions will be the result of a double-blind peer review process.
We will publish the accepted extended abstracts as a conference proceedings’ book, with an ISBN register number, prior to the event. We will exhibit the accepted artworks during the conference.
Also resulting from the call and conference presentations, authors will be invited to extend their submissions into a full book chapter to be published after the conference. The accepted artworks will also be featured in a special section of the book.
All of the above should be relevant to the current post-digital graphic design framework, and include letterpress as a central topic or technology.
Submit you extended abstract via the easyChair platform. Please see instructions template.
Submissions are now closed.
Workshops
We will be hosting several short-term workshops before and during the conference , that focus on the use of traditional letterpress printing techniques in the current post-digital design workflow.
Due to a high volume of proposals and compromises with all partners, we are no longer accepting workshop proposals.
Exhibition
We are interested in designing and presenting an exhibition that can demonstrate how letterpress as a main, or relevant technique within a print production process, can have a relevant role in today’s editorial or graphic design artifacts. We aim to have a heterogenous and truly international body of work on display.
We are looking for Posters, Books & Booklets, Flyers, or other printed materials. We are also interested in showcasing experimental printing/production processes (either traditional, or hybrid approaches).
The works must include or reference the letterpress printing technique, in its different approaches (ranging from the commercial, or traditional works to the more artistic or experimental ones). They may and should include other techniques or relevant production processes. You may submit up to three works by author/studio. They will be selected according to the exhibition space available and the number of participants.
To submit a proposal, please fill this form: https://forms.gle/ymsLeqSuX4ihqQ6H9
Due to a high volume of proposals and the available exhibition space, we are no longer accepting exhibition proposals.
And send in your printed works (one copy/print per project) to the following conference address:
PDLP Conference / Pedro Amado
Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
Avenida Rodrigues de Freitas, 265
4049-021 Porto
Portugal
The deadline for the submission of works is january 10, 2020.
Contacts
The conference will take place at FBAUP, specifically at the Museum gallery (Main building, top floor). The workshops will take place either at FBAUP (Printmaking workshop, or the Museum gallery), or at the partner institutions such as EASR, and ESE.
Faculdade de Belas Artes da Universidade do Porto
Avenida Rodrigues de Freitas, 265
4049-021 Porto
Portugal
Committees
Executive Committee
Ana Catarina Silva (IPCA / ID+ CAOS)
Pedro Amado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Vítor Quelhas (ESMAD.IPP / ID+ / uniMAD)
Secretariat
Amanda Midori (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Margarida Dias (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Media
Patrícia Almeida (FBAUP)
Museum Curator
Luís Nunes (FBAUP)
Exhibition Committee
Graciela Machado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Rui Vitorino Santos (FBAUP / ID+)
Volunteers
César Martiniano (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Francisca Lopes (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Giuliane Sampaio (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Irene Peixoto (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Luísa Silva Gomes (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Mariana Cardeal (IPCA)
Miguel Moreira (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Patrícia Afonso (P.Porto / CCIC)
Pedro Fonseca (P.Porto / CCIC)
Vânia Oliveira (FBAUP / MDGPE)
Organising Committee
Ana Catarina Silva (IPCA / ID+ CAOS)
Ana Mota (ESE / FBAUP / MAP)
António Modesto (FBAUP / ID+)
Eduardo Napoleão (UFSC / Univali / FBAUP)
Graciela Machado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Jorge Pereira (IPCA / ID+)
Jorge Araújo (ESE / FBAUP)
Pedro Amado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Rúben Dias (ESAD / ESAD—Idea)
Rui Vitorino Santos (FBAUP / ID+)
Tiago Assis (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Vítor Quelhas (ESMAD.IPP / ID+ / uniMAD)
Vítor Teixeira (EASR)
Scientific Program Committee
Ana Catarina Silva (IPCA / ID+ CAOS)
Andreu Balius (EINA / Type Republic)
Catherine Dixon (CSM-UAL)
Claudio Rocha (Tipoteca)
Eric Kindel (UR)
Gerry Leonidas (UR)
Graciela Machado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
James Mussell (CHoP ULeeds)
João Bicker (UC)
Jorge dos Reis (FBAUL)
Jorge Pereira (IPCA / ID+)
Manuel Diogo (O Homem do Saco)
Manuel Sesma (UCM)
Miguel Sanches (IPT)
Nuno Coelho (DEI-FCTUC / CEIS20)
Oriol Moret (UB)
Patrick Goossens (AEPM)
Pedro Amado (FBAUP / i2ADS)
Rafael Neder (FUMEC / SENAC)
Roberto Gamonal (UCM)
Rúben Dias (ESAD / ESAD—Idea)
Vítor Quelhas (ESMAD.IPP / ID+ / uniMAD)