VERSO PRESS

The Bridge.

I wanted to liase with a commercial printer and was offered the chance to do so by Brian Smith of Rufford Printing Co. Brian has been a printer for 50 years. Apart from running a successful and ongoing affair he has a love for traditional type and original presses.  The workshop has many original machines:  a Heidelberg Press, an Intertype Machine, an Arab press and a Vandercook 4C Proofing Press in addition to numerous Adana 8×5 presses.

I created 50 copies of this pamphlet based on the Bascule Bridge on the Dock Road in Liverpool  – a well known land mark in the city. The pamphlet consists of pp 12. There are two original Linocut prints printed on 25gsm Kozo paper which have been  tipped in. The text was hand set in 12 point Caslon and is printed on 170 gsm  Zerkall paper. It was printed on the Vandercook 4c Proofing Press.

The pocket was screen printed at Hot Bed Press, Salford. The whole was sewn, bound and created by hand.

Dust cover for ‘The Bridge’ pamphlet

This  little book was printed last year as the final work to come out of Juniper.The type is hand set in 10 point Gill Bold and my original photographs to accompany the text are tipped in. The front cover has been created using thermographic powder (which has the effect of raising the text)  and was printed on 170gsm Zerkall paper. The dust jacket was printed at Hot Bed Press in Salford and the book was sewn and bound by hand. It was printed on a Stephenson Blake  Proofing Press.

Darklands :

‘The winter was hard to endure, bringing melancholy and anxiety. ‘Where are we going?’ I asked myself. And its not clear. Greed, exploitation and over consumption are all around. The pace of technological change goes ever faster, leading us into the unknown.

I fear that man’s capacity for hubristic overreach is killing him’

§ It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness… it was the winter of despair.§

Charles Dickens

A book about the times we live in

The next project…

Some time ago I was wondering…. if Shame was an emotion any of the people who have led us into this dark place  ever experienced…

Series of digital pamphlets related to the Megastructure book….

The pamphlets have a written piece contextualising the subject and a map printed on tracing paper… the image is the ‘centre fold’. Dark grey cover and mid grey  for the image…

Reading from L-R

The Barbican, the Institute of Education, the Hayward Gallery, the Kingsway Tunnel Ventilation Shaft, the National Theatre…

and below, the Royal College of Physicians, Trellick Tower, the Cathedral of Christ the King, Preston Bus Station and Liverpool Sugar Silo.

Bit of an understatement …  Screen printed at Hot Bed Press, Salford and over printed with wooden type at Juniper Press, Liverpool.

Nothing is new… George Orwell’s observations now  seem prescient of our times…

Finally…

All the pages were printed at Silver Birch Press on a Vandercook press. They were sewn by hand and  trimmed at Thomas Loughlan in Liverpool.

I screen printed the front cover at Hot Bed Press and the text is Gill Drop Shadow.

The wrapper is printed with a simple red Gill ‘O’.

The Lino cuts for the book

Bexhill 1

Bexhill 2

Cantilevered stairwell from outside

Stairwell 1

West end

East end

Lights and spiral staircase

Towards the light

Situated in Bexhill, East Sussex, the De La Warr Pavilion was one of the  first Modernist structures to be built in Britain. It was designed  by Serge Chermayeff and Erich Mendelsohn and opened in 1935.

This book was created  for an exhibition celebrating the 200th anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in April 2018.

It was printed by letterpress in a limited edition of 15 copies at Juniper Press, Bluecoat, Liverpool. It was hand set in 12 point Bembo (Roman and Italic) and printed on 250gsm Fabriano Unica paper which was digitally printed and ripped to size.

The hard cover was hand made using book cloth and Nepalese Batik Rustic paper and bound using Japanese stab  binding. The dust jacket screen printed at Hot Bed Press, Salford.

This book  was finished in early 2018. It was printed by letterpress in a limited edition of 25 copies at Juniper Press, Bluecoat, Liverpool. It was printed on Victorian hand-presses on loan from National Museums , Liverpool.

The text was hand set in 12 point Caslon and printed on 170gsm  Zerkall paper.

The  lino cut  illustrations were created and printed 20 gsm Gampi Silk paper.

The cover was created and printed digitally on 270gsm Colorplan paper and the text was hand set in 22 point  Caslon.

It was sewn and bound by hand.