Pull out the one below half way.
Then pull out your case
far enough to reach the back row of boxes.
[music box plays]
My name is Paul Collier.
I'm the Letterpress and Typography technician
at the University of Plymouth.
Letterpress is an old form of mass production,
an old form of printing,
invented around about 1450s by Johannes Gutenberg.
This workshop tends to work in the same way
as it did back in that time.
So by using these pre-molded, reusable letters
made of metal and wood, moveable type,
we can produce words and sentences
and paragraphs and pages of text.
This is a 500 year old process and it moves
like a 500 year old process.
It requires a greater degree of consideration
when you're using this,
mainly because there are no quick highlight and change sizes
or typefaces like we can do on the computer.
That's where technology has really pushed forward,
is that we can change things in an instant.
Here if you setup a paragraph or a sentence,
if you get it wrong or if this--
if you haven't planned your way forward through that,
then you just have to take it all apart
and start all over again.
[chaotic music plays]
Once you're there amongst it really,
because I know the layout of the case;
I'm familiar with all the letters are in the boxes.
My mind tends to wander.
I'm listening to what students are saying in the room.
I'm making sure their body language is alright;
they're not struggling with things
and bit by bit I'm putting my letters together
and I know whats it's going to look like.
I have a vision of what it's going to come out like.
I'm looking forward to seeing it basically
and getting it finished.
But the process is quite therapeutic.
You can calmly put this thing together piece by piece,
It's a very enjoyable process.
[music continues]
I think Letterpress is going through--
we're going through a revival right now.
We almost, particularly this country, nearly lost the lot
and jumped on the Lithography bandwagon
and just threw everything else away.
The equipment now is becoming a highly sort-after now.
We're in the process of people wanting to have this machinery
and get hold of it
and that's not easy now because its difficult to find.
Sometimes even harder are spare parts
and bits and pieces like that and
It's old school.
It's all nuts and bolts and highly mechanical
and that makes life a little bit easier for us really,
but there are one or two pieces on each bit of kit
that are difficult to find.
That's just the way it is.
[electronic music plays]
The quality of image produced by Letterpress is quite sort after.
The inked in depression that is the characteristic mark
left in the sheet by the letters
is something that people don't see very often
because the laser print and inkjet
don't produce that anymore and that's the familiarity.
So when they see this, it has the wow factor
and I always like to see the look
when a group of students come in for the first time
and I'm showing them how the room operates and how it functions
and how they function in the room.
It's very clear that they've not seen that before
or they really get it.
They really get what the quality of that is.
It's something that you can't really reproduce in any other way.
It's that first look at the quality of the way
that the type impresses into the paper,
It's very special.
The digital age does remove us from the tactile work,
the more hands on
and I think there is a longing in our soul to get back to that.
Even if we can't there is something about these places
that people want to occupy and try out.
Certainly as an art form, it is very appealing,
It's very current now, whether that will fade...
I think it's interesting to note
that there are other universities around Europe,
who are opening their own Letterpress studios as we speak.
That really tells a story there I think,
that this is here to stay.
[upbeat music plays]