Helen Ingham

This course caters for beginners as well as those with some previous experience. It is suitable for anyone with a passion for typography and printing who wishes to get back to the physical skills of producing hand-made text and image-based artwork, or simply wishes to try letterpress with supervision on hand in a friendly, relaxed environment. A small group of students are taken through three areas of letterpress work. Following an introduction and examples of other practitioners' work, there will be an explanation of hand setting of moveable metal type, and a joint project will be set. The next project will be to set type and image blocks with a view to printing a small run of greetings cards. You are welcome to bring letterpress printing blocks of your own for use if suitable; these can be wood, metal, lino or photopolymer. Under supervision, blocks and type will be set for printing on proof presses. More experimental processes such as monoprinting, hand inking and overprinting will also be covered. The final session will involve using an Adana 8x5 tabletop printing press. There will be an overview of the press and what can be achieved, with demonstrations of setting type for a business card. You will be provided with notes and additional suggested reading and will produce a selection of distinctive printed items.

Helen Ingham is an established letterpress printer who has produced work for a varied client base all over the world as well as on her own projects. She is the letterpress technician at London Metropolitan University and an associate lecturer on the BA Graphic Design course at Central Saint Martins.