Graphic Design Students Explore Hand-Setting Type During Workshop At Historical Pressroom
Graphic design students in the College of Performance, Visualization and Fine Arts learned to set type by hand during a fall workshop in the Historical Pressroom in the Sterling C. Evans Library Annex.
Students were learning about the history of typography in the class taught by Jill Honeycutt, instructional associate professor and senior associate program director in the Visualization program.
Each group of students was able to produce prints with traditional printing methods used until the beginning of the 20th century. They learned how to hand-set type by placing individual letter shapes and printing their text on paper with a historic press. Honeycutt said this was an exciting learning opportunity for students to work with something hands-on.
“We take for granted the history of typography — now we have access to so many fonts at the click of a button,” Honeycutt said. “It was fun to see students hand set their type, ink their designs and then print them. One of my students told me, ‘I feel so productive.’ This was a great opportunity for them to learn firsthand. I am very glad they are getting to use these available resources here at Texas A&M.”
Students followed instructions from Madeline Keyser, the book arts and historic pressroom librarian. In groups of three to four, students were given a wooden composing stick, which held individual letters, punctuation and spacing. Each composing stick holds up to four lines of type. For this class, students were using Caslon Old Face Roman, 12-point. The letter shapes are made out of lead, antimony and tin.
Keyser helped students transport the type from their composing sticks to a galley, a tray that holds the type on the press. After students had locked their type in place to hold it together, they learned how to print on a Nolan-proof press, a vintage tabletop press from the 1950s. Keyser then placed a damp piece of paper on the press, and let each student print their work by rolling a bar across the sheet of paper to press the ink onto it.
Students chose lines from the “Aggie War Hymn,” “A Fox in the Dark” by Mary Oliver and “Linger” by The Cranberries to print on individual sheets of paper. The tiny, intricate letter shapes led to inevitable mishaps and misspelled words. Students chuckled when they saw they had used a capital letter instead of lowercase or placed letters upside down.
Keyser said she enjoyed working with the students because of their excitement in using the equipment, and their desire to learn in a new, practical structure.
“I was excited to have students in here using the space,” Keyser said. “I also loved seeing how thrilled they were when they got to see the final results of their work. I think students benefit from getting experience with the analog precursors of what they are doing digitally.”
