For the past four years, ARTCRANK has worked with Neenah Paper to offer our artists access to new choices in fine papers for screen-printed and letterpress posters. In 2014 we’re following four artists from each of our U.S. shows as they develop their ideas and print them on a Neenah Paper stock. We’ll post these behind-the-scenes poster stories after each event, and share more exclusive content on Neenah Paper’s Against The Grain blog, as well as The Beauty of Letterpress.
Printing it old school
With a veritable armada of vintage presses, a staff with a penchant for pushing the envelope of ink on paper, and clients ranging from multinational corporations to scrappy start-ups, Studio on Fire has made a name for itself that carries far beyond Minneapolis. It’s a place that’s been known to make even the most jaded, cynical creative types fall in love with print all over again.
Fittingly enough, Studio on Fire designer and ARTCRANK Minneapolis vet Sam Michaels describes herself as “one of those annoying people who loves her job.” As she puts it, “We make stuff. Actual stuff. At the end of each day there’s a physical product, which is supremely satisfying.”
That “stuff” includes letterpress, foil stamp, engraving, embossing, diecut and duplexing. “A lot of times, the hardest part is reigning in everything that we could do for a project to what’s most appropriate,” says Sam.
Listen to your mother
Sam’s personal work is often language-based, and her 2014 poster is no exception. In our conversations, she revealed that after making posters for the past three ARTCRANK Minneapolis shows, she’d planned to take the year off. Until she remembered something she couldn’t get out of her head.
“Have fun… And be safe.” These are words that Sam’s heard from her mother throughout her life. She reminisced that even going for extended periods without hearing it, it’s still stuck with her over the years for one reason or another.
“I didn’t read into much when I was a kid, but as an adult, I appreciate that her sentiment always started with the ‘fun’ part,” says Sam. “I think this could apply to most things in life–biking and beyond.”
Sketch to Infinity
It wasn’t until recently that Sam even considered thinking of herself an illustrator. “I always thought to be an illustrator you had to have all this formal training and an armada of fancy Micron pens with a preference for tip size,” she says. “While those things don’t hurt, I’ve been lucky to have friends who have pushed me to incorporate hand-drawn elements.”
Initially for her ARTCRANK design, Sam looked into sign painter-inspired fonts, but found them to be too static. After writing “Have fun” over and over on pieces of loose-leaf paper for several days, she got the rough look she was going for. “It seems like half of it was wearing out the brush pen to get it to look sloppy enough.”
Making assets out of limits
From the start, Sam knew that she wanted to use letterpress, her go-to printing medium. As she points out, while letterpress has restrictions, it also allows her to combine her strengths and aesthetic preferences with the strengths of the medium.
“All designers need to consider final production methods into their design work,” says Sam. “It just so happens that my love of white space and type plays well with letterpress. There are material restraints with this kind of printing, so there’s no room for bullshit. But it doesn’t need to be a weakness. I bathe in white space.”
Sam printed her poster with Studio on Fire’s largest Heidelberg KSBA, an antique cylinder press capable of accommodating a 21″ x 28″ sheet with a 19″ x 25″ image area. To get the color combination she wanted, Sam used a printing technique called split fountain, which involves hand-blending multiple ink colors directly on the press. And that’s where things started to get tricky.
Sam Michaels – Printing “Have Fun” from ARTCRANK on Vimeo.
“You can’t control a split fountain 100 percent,” she says, adding “The gradient is going to change over the course of the run, and the blend between colors is going to do what it’s going to do.” When initial test prints proved unsatisfactory, Sam and Studio On Fire presswoman Jeanine Pitra decided to add orange to the rollers, creating the stellar sunset effect that makes the type jump off the paper.
“Have Fun,” by Sam Michaels. Printed on CRANE’S LETTRA® Cover FLUORESCENT WHITE, by Neenah Paper.
NOTE: Sam’s poster and the rest of the posters in the ARTCRANK MSP 2014 show are on display and for sale at Handsome Cycles and One On One Bicycle Studio in Minneapolis through Saturday, June 28. Details on the ARTCRANK MSP page.