Moveable Type: Kyle Durrie's mobile print shop visits SF

Yesterday I went down to the San Francisco Main Public Library to visit the Moveable Type truck, womanned by Kyle Durrie, founder and owner of Power and Light Press. In November of 2010, Kyle launched a Kickstarter campaign to outfit a Chevy step van with two letterpresses: an 1873 Golding Official No. 3 tabletop platen, and mid-twentieth century Showcard sign press (which was really cool).

Kyle spent a year traveling across North America in her mobile print shop before returning home to Oregon. Luckily for me, she recently took the van out for another spin and I was able to visit her shop and make a print. Given my love for books, our library-themed print will definitely be finding a home on our wall.

vintage bookplate

A little more from the vintage paper fair:

This bookplate is from 1925. It's a lovely block print mounted on a thick matte paper. It struck me as being both dark and beautiful.

an unruly love for ampersands.

If I'd been waiting all my life to meet the right cutting board, this would be The One:

Things like this, from House Industries, seriously challenge my inner minimalist. The large cutting board is a little over my budget, and the small one is currently out of stock, but I think I'd enjoy chopping up things more if they were on an ampersand.

According to Wikipedia, an ampersand is a logogram, representing the word "and." Wikipedia goes on to say that the etymology of the word "is a corruption" of the phrase "and per se and." I like that: a corruption. I know I'm not the only person who loves this beautiful logogram, which reminds me, sometimes, of treble clefs in sheet music. There's also an ampersandland group on Flickr:

~takomabibelot

 

~takomabibelot

~thewifeofanartist

~Nick Sherman

I even have an ampersand tee:

If there were a logogram for 'or' I might be in trouble. I guess that's what I like about the ampersand - there are no decisions; it's so inclusive.

Happy Friday.

um, the best thing(s) ever.

Sometimes I am a little slow on the uptake. I only recently came across the design blog poppytalk which has Font Fridays!

Free fonts are just about as exciting as the new Man Shops Globe series on the Sundance Channel (which I don't get, but found on iTunes), which features Keith Johnson, a buyer for Anthropologie, on his shopping travels. I am pretty sure this show will incite terrible rumblings of wanderlust and quite possibly a few online purchases.

But back to the fonts. The fonts featured on poppytalk all originate from dafont.com, which is another great discovery. You see, for me, since I am not going to be using lead type, I can print with any of these fonts, and while I seem to be addicted to sweet Caslon, it might be good to branch out.

Check it:


Cameras!


Revolution!


Cursive!


and, apt for the season, Fall foliage!

Too much fun. I think I just overwhelmed my laptop with free type and images, but what are Fridays for if not for discovery, distraction and.... um, drinks! Happy Friday.