Letterpress on an ipad?

As I was catching up on my daily design cup of tea, I stumbled upon a new application for the Apple iPad. It’s called LetterMpress™ “a virtual letterpress interface allowing anyone to create authentic-looking letterpress designs and prints right on their iPads.” As a graphic designer, who has been fortunate enough to have had hands-on experience of setting and printing type with a letterpress during college at the University of Arts, I was not exactly enthusiastic about this new application.

As more and more traditional design practices turn to digital formats, I have to wonder if the graphic designer has to mold into a new application as well. Do we have to conform or is there a way to save our traditional hands-on methods? From my point of view, preserving the craft of letterpress printing by making it into an iPad app is kind of like trying to preserve books with the Kindle or Nook. The new LetterMpress™ app allows the designer to virtually go through a digital letterpress environment in the same way as a real letterpress;

“you can place and arrange wood type and cuts on a press bed, lock the type, and ink the type and print. You are able to create unlimited designs, with multiple colors, using authentic vintage wood type and art cuts, as well as having the letters appear backwards in the press bed—and store your designs in digital galley trays. You can actually print your design directly from LetterMpress™ or save it as an image and then import it into other applications. John Bonadies, creator, plans to include 12 typefaces and 50 art “cuts” for the first version of LetterMpress. The way the software reproduces that good old fashioned aesthetic uneven ink distribution, funky textures, and idiosyncratic detailing is by manipulating scans of real wood type impressions. At a later stage, LetterMpress users will be able to get actual letterpress prints custom made from their designs by typesetters working with the growing collection.

– John Bonadies, graphic designer and creator of LetterMPress™

What does this mean for the creative art form of letterpress printing? In a positive outlook, it could mean the new LetterMPress™ app will act as a catalyst for people who don’t know what a pica is from a penny making them interested in typographic printing and hopefully propel them into wanting to learn more about typesetting by hand. Though, technology can be used as a destroyer and preserver when it comes to the arts. There will always be a lack of individualism and personal creativity from this new app that cannot be replaced with the feel and texture of a letterpress. It is the classic duality of man versus machine. With that however, designers have to look towards the future and take the old with the new by creating a new art form for a new generation. It worked for the digital photograph why not the digital letterpress?

As a graphic designer today, I feel that we are being mass produced at a large rate, but do not stop and get our hands dirty like our predecessors before us. Luckily, there is still a community of letter pressers and older school typesetters who preserve the art of letterform and typography in their small ink-stained studios.

As much as I would like to embrace this new LetterMpress™ app, I still believe that there is nothing like the feeling of being a part of a historical process. With it being easier and easier to have a completely digital work flow for the graphic designer these days, it’s nice to be able to touch the type and feel it on your finger tips, than it is to just click the mouse a couple of times. Having gotten my hands dirty, there is a lasting impression of being tactile that just makes it much more special and real. Would Gutenberg, the father of modern printing, be pleased with the progression of the printing press and moveable type now in this digital application? I trust there will always be a place to learn the old hands-on forms of design like moveable type along with the need of ink stained hands that come with the territory.

Links

http://laughingsquid.com/lettermpress-a-beautiful-letterpress-app-for-ipad/

Soup Is Where the Heart Is

What could be better than a steaming hot bowl of homemade soup, a big blanket, and a comfy sofa on a cold fall night?

During winter I usually look forward to cracking open my box of soup recipes, a collection I have been building over the past few years. I tend to make big batches of soup, so I can freeze quarts to enjoy on upcoming cold winter nights. I like trying new ingredients while also learning how to pair a certain soup with a particular dish, like a specific type of wine that goes perfectly with a certain dish.

Not to be a soup snob, but I have not opened or eaten a can of pre-packaged soup in a long time. I find it important to use fresh ingredients and in-season vegetables. Homemade soup has tons of nutritious health benefits unlike canned soup, not to mention the fresh yummy flavors.

My excitement at passing the time by making soup during these long winter nights has not always been a part of my life. Since I am a native Floridian, soup was not something I tended to crave, due to the lack of seasonal changes in weather. However, I have always loved soup, and it has always crept into my diet in some way or another. For instance, my mom’s chili, beef stew, and Hungarian goulash recipes were frequent staple meals made during the few “cold nights” of winter in Florida. As soon as the temperature dropped into the 60’s, my family pretended we lived in the North while sitting on our cozy sofa eating beef stew wearing over-sized sweaters and furry bedroom slippers.

After living as a transplant in Philadelphia for five years, I have come to experience and understand the changes in seasons and the food cravings that go along with them. I now have to wear the over-sized sweaters and furry bedroom slippers – not just for fun but for survival. Part of that survival, to me, is a big bowl of homemade soup.

During one of these cold snowy nights, I cannot think of a better way to embrace it than with one of my favorite soup recipes. Pasta e Fagioli is perfect on a chilly day when your body craves a hearty meal. Enjoy this recipe (courtesy of Foodgawker.com) while sitting on your comfy sofa under a big blanket on a cold day.

Pasta e Fagioli
serves 6 to 8

1/2 t olive oil
1/2 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
3 c tomatoes (peeled, seeded and diced fresh or canned tomatoes -- about 2 lbs), juice reserved
2 15-oz cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained, divided
1 qt chicken broth
1 t minced fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 c ditalini pasta
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 T fresh basil, torn

Set a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add olive oil, stir in onions and carrots, and cook for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add tomatoes and 1/2 c cannellini beans and simmer 5 minutes or until tomatoes release their juices and beans become soft. Decrease heat to low and use a potato masher to mash the beans and tomatoes until well-blended but not smooth. Add remaining beans, chicken broth, rosemary, and bay leaf and increase heat to high until the liquid just reaches a boil. Add reserved tomato juice from fresh tomatoes (strain out seeds first). Decrease heat to low and keep soup warm.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook ditalini according to package instructions. Drain and mix pasta into the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in torn basil just before serving.

Notes:
I like to add the pasta just before serving to prevent it from soaking up the soup liquid and losing its chewy texture.

If using fresh tomatoes, remove skins by blanching and shocking. Remove core from the tomato and score an “x” in the bottom. Bring a pot of water to boil and prepare an ice bath. Cook tomatoes in the boiling water for 1 minute then submerge in the ice bath. If the skin doesn’t immediately start to peel away cook it again in the water for 1 minute and submerge in the ice bath. Drain well and use a paring knife or your fingers to remove and discard the skin. Cut the tomato into quarters and remove the seeds. Dice small.