I loved this brief because of its' restrictions. The size limit and the fact we were each given a single GF Smith Colorplan colour meant that the delivery and design had to be quick and succinct.
An extra deliverable was to make use of a traditional print process, avoiding flat digital print if possible. As soon as this was mentioned, I began thinking about the facilities I hadn't yet made use of in the university, namely letterpress printing, both metal and woodblock.
Only a week or two previous to this, I'd come across the sublime work of Alan Kitching. Having somehow avoided his work for years, it turns out Alan has been instrumental in turning letterpress from a practical pastime into an undoubtedly artistic one. His prints are colourful and evocative for purely typographical pieces. He's not precious about the process and slaps the ink on the rollers with abandon. This gives his work an almost punk aesthetic; something so far away from the traditional stasis of letterpress as a practice.
Kitching's chunky type inspired me to go down to Vernon St. and see their collection of larger wood typography. I'm drawn to the wood type over metal - the wood collects its age and wears it on its' sleeve.
Funnily enough, as soon as I was given Candy Pink as my colour, my thoughts went to a play on the word candy, stylised as C&Y. Woodblock type was the perfect medium to explore this. My thoughts went to some kind of sweet texture in the vain of a humbug or similar but I felt this was being overthought. A quick and snappy idea should be executed with similar vigour and spontaneity, With this in mind, I chose a wide sans for the C and Y and a lovely serif ampersand to sit between them. I added white ink and centrally aligned them, giving the joke room to just sit there and be.
A lovely brief and one that has me interested in learning the craft of letterpress.
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