Design in the mind

In my endeavor to explain as many printing processes as possible I have now come to the most common method - Offset printing or Offset Lithography Printing (Lithography meaning the process of printing from a flat surface treated so as to repel the ink except where it is required for printing).

Here’s an attempt to explain it in detail: Offset printing is a technique during which an inked image is transferred, or “offset” from a plate to a rubber blanket, then to a printing surface. Offset printing is often combined with lithographic printing, which uses the repulsion of oil and water to produce a flat image carrier. This is often referred to as offset lithography.

Offset lithography is the most common type of color printing for high-volume jobs.

Each of the primary colors used in printing - cyan, magenta, yellow and black - have a separate plate.

Offset printing process

The ink gets to the paper through a process that uses oil to repel ink. The ink is dispersed to the plates by a series of rollers. On the printing press the plates are dampened by water rollers, and then ink rollers. The rollers disperse the ink onto the plates.

The plate’s image area picks up the ink from the ink rollers and the water rollers keep the ink from transferring to the non-image areas of the plate. Each plate transfers its image to a rubber blanket that in turn transfers the image to the paper.

Offset printing presses are made up of printing bays - each bay prints 1 colour, so the one colour GTO press pictured below only prints one colour, the one beside it has 12 bays and prints 12 colours. Typically, printers will have 5 colour presses, the 4 process colours of Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black and the ability to print a fifth colour which can be an addional spot colour or a machine varnish. These days though, with press time being paramount for printers, they are opting for larger presses, like the 12 colour below - these are known as perfecting machines - they are able to print the 4 process colours + 2 specials on the 2 sides of the paper in one single pass.

Advantages of Offest Printing

Consistently high quality images. Offset printing makes images and lines sharper more easily than other printing methods because the rubber blanket is flexible and therefore can conform to the texture of the printing service.

Production plates can be made quickly and easily.

Longer printing plate life. The plates last longer because there is no direct contact between the plate and printing surface.

High speed and high volume printing.

Costs less the more you print. Most of the price of printing is wrapped up in the preparation of the production plates and anything else that happens before the first page is printed. Once everything is prepared, the more you print will only cost you the price of paper and ink, which is minimal compared to setup costs.

I was cruising around Vimeo and came across this lovely interaction of type and new wave motion editing, wanted to note it somewhere and thought I’d post it here - enjoy

Flickermood 2.0 from Sebastian Lange on Vimeo.

More fun examples at mynamewasgod

Ralph Steadman is a legend - legends are often those that have been around for a while and Ralph goes back to the 60s and probably earlier with his illustrative work.

Let me just get the introduction out of the way as I just want to talk about Ralph’s fantastic mastering of pen and ink.

Steadman is renowned for his political and social caricatures and cartoons and also for illustrating a number of picture books. Awards that he has won for his work include the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award for Alice in Wonderland, the American Society of Illustrators’ Certificate of Merit, the W H Smith Illustration Award for I Leonardo, the Dutch Silver Paintbrush Award for Inspector Mouse, the Italian Critica in Erba Prize for That’s My Dad, the BBC Design Award for postage stamps, the Black Humour Award in France, and several Designers and Art Directors Association Awards. He was voted Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979. - Wikipedia

I have admired Ralph’s work for such a long time, from my teens when I was drawn in (so to speak) by his amazing expressive visuals, often grotesque, always confronting, rarely pleasant and more often disturbing - but that’s where the beauty lies - there is a freedom in his expression and an amazing use of pen and ink - the lines themselves do most of the talking, the serendipity of a spatter - his use of space - his somewhat over use of line to then to allow for quiet with fewer lines - it has a sense of volume - an amazing and an eccentric illustrator/artist.

Here is a reel of images of Ralphs work

See more at www.ralphsteadman.com

On to more modern design, design that is seen everywhere and on the chests of many people is the explosion of T-Shirt art - well, when I say explosion, T-shirt art has been around for more than several decades now - starting out as under garments the on to the 60s where it became the standard dress of the youth with their tie-die experiments, through to the 70s and 80s where they became a personal billboard that expressed the opinion of the owner, through to the 90s and 00s where they seem to express more about peoples personalities and attitudes.

We are now seeing design and illustration explored in depth through applications to Ts and some of the best examples of illustration adorns them - sometimes irreverent, sometimes whimsical, often humorous and always engaging.

There are many T-shirt companies that are reaping the glory with all this glorious illustration that is being generated by talented image makers. One such company is Threadless from America - certainly worth visiting for inspiration next time you want a T or want to create for a T.

T-Shirt design from Threadless

This video features a launch for a range from a art group called Black Rock Collective - with plenty of their examples filtered through it.

Black Rock Collective @ Threadless from Threadless.com on Vimeo.

More Ts at www.designbyhumans.com
And for a Melbourne focus go to Red Bubble

Another designer who is a big name in the visual design industry since the early 90s is David Carson. He has had a large influence on breaking the formal rules of design and breaking away from the conventional and proving that aesthetics still work when these conventions are defied.

He was not formally trained as a visual designer and discovered his passion for it while teaching. He found his own visual voice through his involvement with being a professional surfer and studying Sociology and art directing several skate boarding and surfing magazines - breaking magazine layout rules along the way - most notably with the magazine RayGun.

Ray Gun magazine cover

He had a strong influence on many young designers of the 90s, if not with his actual work, with his attitude and playfulness with design. He visited our university in 1992 and he was certainly inspiring and entertaining to listen to - things appear not to have changed - see this video from the TED website of Carson talking about design - description from the site:

“Great design is a never-ending journey of discovery — for which it helps to pack a healthy sense of humor. Sociologist and surfer-turned-designer David Carson walks through a gorgeous (and often quite funny) slide deck of his work and found images.”

It appears I need to get some printing techniques out of my system - perhaps I’m just yearning for a job to come along so I can use them.

Here’s a print process that is quite rare, expensive and unique - Flocking. Flocking can have several applications, more typically on clothing ie T-shirts, but can also be applied to paper - it is the application of small fabric fibers adhered to a surface which gives it a felt appearance - soft to the touch.

Here are some examples of Flocking to paper

And a video of a Flocking machine in action - enjoy!

Your business card would be your most important piece of visual communication you can have - it represents you and/or your business in a bite sized high impact device - it leaves an impression with the person you are introduced to, even if it is for only 30 seconds. It belongs with the first impressions people will have of you, like wearing that Hugo Boss suit or the shoes that match your outfit - the fine attention to detail is all taken in to account.

So the effort to make your business card suit your business philosophies is important to get right - it’s more than a bit of paper with your contact details on it.

If you are looking for inspiration for creating a business card or to consider what printing methods can be adopted, a good starting place is at are some of the website that showcase them, such as cardobserver.com - here you will find many samples and excellent printing examples including letterpress, embossing, foil stamping, laser cutting, die-cutting, gloss varnish, metals, plastics and even sewing machine stitching. There are certainly countless ways to impress with your little first impressioner.

Spotted this video the other day - nicely done and gives an introduction into the finer details of typography with a bit of retro tongue-in-cheek.

Through this blog we will also be talking about the other passion we have - print! Some may think this as weird as a passion for Vista Sans, but no design can sing without the means to present - like looking at a website with 16 colours as apposed to millions - if that analogy works!

I’m sure most have heard of offset printing and digital printing - but what we intend to do in this blog is to discuss the types of printing out there and also give a little insight into how it works and the benefits and limitations of each process.

For this entry I’m just going to jump to one of my favorite printing methods - “letterpress” - also referred to as “relief printing”. If only we could apply this to more jobs - it’s such a beautiful tactile effect that brings dimension and light to the flat surface of paper.

The process uses the left over technology from the birth of printing where movable type was used for printing (typically metal but were also wood). The surface of these letterforms would be inked and the pressed into the paper - the more pulpy the paper and with enough pressure you get an embossed appearance.

These 2 videos help explain the process of letterpress - excuse the American reporting droll

Typography seems to be that thing that you are either passionate about - falling in love with every swash, counter and loop - or - haven’t got past that they are simply letters to read as words and are black dots on the page.

Typography encapsulates all that is visual design - beautiful abstract forms which have been given meaning - they are the designer’s tool of the trade, like a dog - always there for you, dependable and a lot of fun to play with.

Since starting this blog I have realised that it takes effort to keep them moving and relevant and I am inspired by those designers who dedicate so much resources to their blogs and creating fabulous resources for the rest of us. I would certainly love to create a blog solely dedicated to typography - yes, I fall into the passion category - but alas - I can leave a lot of it to so many others who have done such a stellar job.

So within this blog we will show you some of our passions and examples, but we will also direct you to some great blogs out there that are well worth the visit by either those who are passionate or wander if insanity is connected to this passion and question “what is the difference between Helvetica and Arial?”

So for the first link to a blog whos name says it all - “I love Typography” http://ilovetypography.com