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Video presentation is allowed to be used for educational purposes.
Applications of digital fabrication—cnc milling, 3D printing, laser engraving—are no longer novel methods for the creation of moveable type for letterpress. Work such as Nick Sherman’s Intercut, Novo Typo’s translation of their Bixa typeface Typewood, and the numerous laser cut typographic ornaments and borders fabricated by Scott Moore are just a small sampling of how designers have employed digital fabrication technologies to create moveable wood type for letterpress printers.
At TypeCon in 2017, Peter Bella and Caleb Fairres suggested that there was untapped potential using digital fabrication technologies to create moveable type. Have we realized this potential yet? Are there unexplored opportunities, functionally and aesthetically, that exist when using computer-controlled fabrication methods? As digital fabrication technologies become more ubiquitous what does that mean for the design of letterpress moveable type and where do we go from here?
This presentation will showcase a number of personal, and a couple of student, experiments and typefaces created in attempt to answer these very questions. It will also pose questions for educators to consider as they introduce digital fabrication into the letterpress studio.
Ryan Molloy is an interdisciplinary designer and educator currently teaching graphic design at Eastern Michigan University. His creative work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and has received several awards including an Art Directors Club Young Guns award, a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Art Works grant (with Leslie Atzmon), and a Sappi Ideas that Matter grant (with Leslie Atzmon). His current creative work explores the application of digital fabrication techniques to the production of letterpress wood type and type design for pen plotters and cnc routers.
