Getting Back to Printing’s Roots

Printing has become a lost art form that I truly believe artists should try once in their career. As I read about the industrialization of the printing press many thoughts run through my head. I think about how so many people lost their jobs because machinery could accomplish what many people could do at a faster pace. I think about all the techniques that are beginning to get lost. The ability to use a technique such as Lithography is amazing. In todays society we are use to being able to do everything on a computer, this especially applies to graphic designers. I believe that every graphic designer should take a print class to show them how printing was made and how it developed to the stage it is at today. Getting back to the hands on techniques where you, yourself have to make the image on the plate and have to manually work the printing press gives you a new appreciation on everything from the texture of the paper to the way the ink lays on the paper. Imagine being the artist that created the “Swedish Song Quartet,” or the artist that created the campaign for the Cleveland and Hendricks presidential campaign, or being Louis Prang and developing the lovely Valentine Card. You would do everything from mixing the ink to rolling it on the plate to manually setting and printing it. Yes, I know it sounds like a lot of work but in the end you get to see every layer build into this magnificent image and you can completely say I made that. I printed that wonderful image. The level of satisfaction is immense; it’s a completely different feeling than sitting at a computer clicking a few buttons and out pops an image. Yes, I know you do a lot more than that but printing gives you a different appreciation to the saying “let’s just print it.”