Project diaries: Hannah’s Letterpress X Illustration

I studied Graphic and Media Design at London College of Communication (LCC), and one of my favourite things to do on my course was to use the Letterpress Workshop within my projects. Letterpress is one of the oldest forms of printing, and as a practicing designer who has been exploring letterpress for the last three years, I love how the meticulous process creates a sense of craftsmanship through being hands-on and producing tactile and textured surfaces.

I graduated in June 2020 during Covid-19, so I didn't complete my final major projects at university, but once things calmed down, I got the opportunity to use the Letterpress facilities again in September. Letterpress is known for printing with type and letters but, I wanted to try something new, so I spent a week in the Letterpress workshop making 5-layer prints based on an illustration I drew for my Instagram illustration account. There were so many things to consider before the process even began like; what size I wanted to print, what colours I wanted, what paper I wanted to print and how many copies I wanted to make.

Drawing the digital illustration

This is a time-lapse of an illustration I made for my Instagram account. I enjoy illustrating women in cool outfits with an inspirational quote to sit beside it in my spare time. I based the illustration on a photograph I found on Pinterest, and I chose the quote ‘Slow progress is still progress’  because it always seems to resonate with me no matter what I’m working on. I used Adobe Procreate to create the illustration, and I chose to print this specific design because the girl gives off confidence, I liked the colours, and the quote is a great reminder.

Printing out the stencils

To begin the Letterpress process, I had to create stencils for each coloured layer of the illustration. This meant separating my illustration into 5 layers: 3 layers for the colours, 1 layer for the shadow, and one for the black outline. To print out the stencils, one of the Letterpress technicians used a process called Photopolymer. Each layer was printed as a film negative and then the film was used to expose a photopolymer plate; this created a relief print perfect for printing. The image above is the stencil created for the black outline.

Mixing the inks

The next step was to mix the colours. Unlike Procreate, where you can change the colour at the click of a button, I had to do a lot of mixing to find the perfect shade of pink. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be, especially because I didn’t think I’d be so fussy about what shade of pink it was! However, it was really interesting to see how a hint of red or black could determine whether the pink was more of a bubblegum pink or more of rose pink.

Printing the first layer

Once I was happy with the colour pink, I set my stencil up on the press. I had to ensure that the stencil was type height – this involves making the stencil the right height so that it meets the rollers and paper whilst printing. I also did a lot of measuring and adjusting to get the design to print in the centre of the paper and experimented with different paper colours and weights. Shortly after printing a few copies, I amended the colour pink using a hand-held roller instead of wasting ink on the big press when I wasn’t sure.

Printing and aligning the layers

Next, I moved on to the brown ink for the girl’s skin. I began aligning the 2 colours; in the image above, the 2 prints on the right have some white space where the colours meet, but the print on the left is seamless. I then made sure I was happy with the colour brown, and like the pink, I did a lot of mixing and tests. The different paper stock also made a difference to the appearance of the colours – the cream paper gave the colours a reddish tint, and the white paper presented the colours in their true light.

The final print

After getting into the rhythm of printing, I added the red layer for the lips, then moved on to the layer for the shadows. It was challenging to find one shadow colour that would compliment the white, pink, brown and red, but after settling on a good shade of transparent grey, I printed the black outline next and it brought the whole thing to life! It took some time to align it with the other layers, but I think the outcome turned out great and I love the craftsmanship that went into each print. Each one holds value.