A recent printing exhibition at Massey University’s Wellington campus gave visitors a look at student’s work with both old and new printing methods.
The display of typography work came from fourth year design students who presented work using digital and hand-printing methods. The students completed the work as part of new a paper called Contemporary Letterpress. To assist students, the university created a new printing workshop in the college of creative arts, housing a range of machinery dating back over a century.The students responded to the course with enthusiasm. Design student Kate Arnott created a poster promotion for hangi food using hand printing.
As part of another assignment, students used a variety of printing techniques as a response to their observations of an urban space and its inhabitants. Brian Lammas, another design student, made a grid of wooden blocks and type to represent people packed into an apartment building. In relation to his choice of older printing methods he says, “I could have achieved a similar effect using a computer, but it would lack the texture and subtlety of the manual print. If I apply too much ink to the block, or apply too much pressure to the press, I get a different effect.”
Annette O’Sullivan, typography lecturer at Massey, says students like Arnott loved using the traditional printing techniques, which allowed them to experiment in ways not possible on a computer.
The students quickly learned the advantages of studying in the workshop. Lammas concludes, “You learn in the master and apprentice style, not from a book or at lectures.”
