Showing posts with label Johannes Gutenberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Johannes Gutenberg. Show all posts

Wednesday 31 May 2017

Land's End to John O’Groats on a printing bike!

Nick Hand is a graphic designer based in the west of England and has appeared on this blog previously with his work for Howies and the Do Lectures. More recently he's turned his hand to being a letterpress printer and established an open access letterpress project in Bristol called The Letterpress Collective in 2013.

In 2014, Nick commissioned his workshop neighbour, bicycle maker Robin Mather to build a printing bike capable of carrying an Adana 8x5 printing press, together with inks, paper and type. Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, Nick travelled from Bristol to Mainz, which is where Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with moveable type in 1440. Along the way he collaborated with artists, writers and poets, printing along the way.
The printing bike has now hit the road again!

Following yet another successful Kickstarter campaign, earlier this month, Nick set off from Land’s End winding his way up the spine of Britain to John O’Groats seeking out the makers in towns known for making one particular thing. He plans to visit towns such as St Ives, Yeovil, Cheddar, Walsall, Stoke-on-Trent, Northampton, Nottingham, Halifax, Harris and Dufftown. In celebration of each craft and town, he will print a set of cards on the Adana 8×5 press mounted on the back of the bicycle.
My best wishes to Nick and I hope the weather is fair, both for both cycling and printing. According to his twitter feed @nickhand Nick is in Wolverhampton today.

You can read more about the adventure here: http://theletterpresscollective.org/blog

www.theletterpresscollective.org
http://www.departmentofsmallworks.co.uk/
Posted by Justin Hobson 31.05.2017

Wednesday 6 August 2014

Printing Bike Project

This is a really interesting project I just had to tell you about.

Nick Hand is a graphic designer based in the west of England and has appeared on this blog previously with his work for Howies and the Do Lectures. More recently he's turned his hand to being a letterpress printer and established an open access letterpress project called The Letterpress Collective, which I wrote about earlier in the year:
http://justinsamazingworldatfennerpaper.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-letterpress-collective.html

His latest project is a Printing Bike!
Adana 8x5
Through being neighbours at Centrespace workshops in Bristol, Nick and bicycle maker Robin Mather hatched an audacious plan to build a printing bike capable of carrying an Adana 8x5 printing press, together with inks, paper and type. When the bike has been completed, Nick will ride it through the south of England, France and Germany to Mainz, which is where Johannes Gutenberg invented printing with moveable type in 1440. Along the way he will be collaborating with artists, writers and poets, who will describe the journey in illustration and word ...and of course, Nick will also be printing and sending back some print - mainly potscards, I imagine.

The project has been fully funded through Kickstarter and you can see the campaign, together with the excellent film (by Emma Lazenby)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1298088718/the-printing-bike-project

The bike is being built right now and Nick will be setting off in September. Good luck and safe printcycling!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1298088718/the-printing-bike-project
www.theletterpresscollective.org
http://www.departmentofsmallworks.co.uk/
Robin Mather: http://apracticalguide.wordpress.com/
Posted by Justin Hobson 06.08.2014