We had a lecture by Jim Williams today, he of 'Type Matters' fame. He graduated in 1982, when the tool of the time was Phototypesetting. This sounded horribly complicated, and subsequent research confirmed this - the advent of the digital age must have saved loads of time, though probably at the cost of loads of jobs. His salient point about it was, though, that he had to get it right first time, as corrections cost both time and money. Hence, you had to know about typography.
(Incidentally, the typesetting apprenticeship took seven years.)
Now I've got his book. But I haven't read it. I've always found typography uninteresting. But when Jim started explaining the historical context of typographic terms, I succumbed, as usual, to the lure of the old.
Letterpress, he says, is seeing a rise in popularity. Outfits like Apple are "Looking backwards to see forwards", or as I call it, strip-mining the past. But as previously discussed, I'm drawn to doing things the old-fashioned, hands-on way. Anything to get away from the wretched Adobe stuff that I have less than no affinity with. I regret missing out on the visit to the letterpress studio on last year's London trip, so I've never seen it actually done. And it's just another form of relief printing - another process I'm drawn to. It is taught as part of the Graphic Design course in some universities, though unfortunately not ours. And people are making a living out of it; Jim works with Blush Letterpress in North Wales, who print wedding invites etc.
So, a valuable lecture. I've got another archaic technique to focus on, and some handy typography hints as well. Then again, they might have been in the book. Better read it, eh?
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