Last night I drove the hour and a half to my old college town. My home for 4 years. I got to say, I love where I’m at right now – location and in life – but it was a bit somber being back in Logan. I hugged and high pitched my voice whenever I would say, “Heeey!” because that’s how long I haven’t seen everyone, and that’s how much I’ve missed them. It was overwhelming for sure. And not only because of the people, but the prints. I felt a little bias because I didn’t get to see the work in process and develop, hear the background story or even know who made them. And not to sound like I think the world revolves around me, but having been apart of this event with these people for the past 4 years was weird to see as an outsider. They’ve moved on without me. Dumb, right? The best I can describe it is as much like a break up and seeing that person has moved on. You’re happy for them, for sure, but what you had with them is gone and it ain’t comin back sister.

Needless to say, I will miss that part of my life. Good ol’ college.

On to lighter news, here are the amazing prints I walked away with.



Adrienne Smart. Yes, she’s a seamstress too.



And Sunshine Cobb.

I have a few prints for sale as well and the sale goes on until the end of today at Utah State University in the Chase Fine Arts Building, room 106.

I spent this whole morning in the BAP studio. I’m contributing to a postcard exchange focusing on type. The edition is 60, which I think has to be the largest edition I’ve ever done for an exchange. I decided to not only do a play on words, but a play on printing. There are 2 types of impressions in letterpress – a deep impression (embossed or in my case, de-bossed) or a kiss impression where the artwork barely touches the paper. It took my awhile to come up with a good layout that supported this idea. You can see the last “e” on impressive is about to kiss the “k”. The type is script and runs off each side so that the kiss between the two words can have even more tension. The best feedback I got on this was, “That’s impressive.”

“Oh gee. Thanks.”

Printed on unbleached Lettra, wet pack.

While printing this I got inspired for my next project where I will be printing completely blind (no ink – not blindfolded or anything). Stay tuned!

Just went to a screening of Typeface directed by Justine Nagan. The event was sponsored by the Salt Lake City Chapter AIGA.

“Typeface documents the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, the only such institution dedicated to the preservation, study, production, and printing of wood type. With 1.5 million pieces and more than 1,000 styles and sizes, the Hamilton’s is one of the premier wood-type collections in the world. The museum, however, is not just host to static holdings of preserved artifacts behind glass, but rather is an active educational center for letterpress workshops for designers and artists from across the Midwest and around the country, and a place where the last generation of skilled men and women who once created these intricate fonts—now in their seventies and eighties—can share their knowledge of this enduring craft.”

Here is an interview with Justine. I’m pretty impressed that this was Justine’s first film, but I gotta say – wrong choice in movie title. The movie seemed to be strictly about the on going debate of the development in letterpress technology. Setting type, carving blocks vs. making plates (digitally). I think “Under Letter Pressure” would have suited the film much better. But you can’t use it because that’s the name of one of my teabags!

Check out the events going on with the Salt Lake City Chapter AIGA. And become a fan on Facebook here!

Class is over. Dang, those 4 weeks went by fast. But all worthwhile for I have a second love. Letterpress shouldn’t mind since Holga is more of a hobby than a way of life. Here are my favorites from the last assignments:

Eva taught me a lot. Where to get film developed the cheapest, always experiment, make sure you know if you’re on the Bulb or Normal setting, have fun, and reminded me of some basic photo knowledge. I am going to start carrying my holga around with me everywhere I go. I think I want to sell my CFN (the flash doesn’t even work) and get the basic N so I can attach my own, stronger, flash. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.

Before I said goodbye to Eva and reminded her that I would drive all the way to Heber to rack if she needed help, she told me her and her husband are taking Sycamore Street Press on the road for about a month and hitting up craft fairs along the west coast. One that struck me was, The Renegade Craft Fair. One of the biggest all hand made craft fairs that I know of  traveling from Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco about twice a year. They’re headquarters are in Chicago. I’m in awe. But I can’t just sit here and be in awe. In fact, I’m due for another vacation. And San Francisco ain’t that far.

I’m going. Obviously not as a vendor. But as a customer, spectator, and someone who has ambition to one day be apart of it as well.

It’s a plan Stan.